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Commencement speaker Sebastian Thrun<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cClass of 2019, you are not done learning,\u201d Thrun said. \u201cThere are lessons you cannot learn in college. First and foremost, stay curious. Keep an open mind. Most of us are wired to think inside the box. If self-driving cars didn\u2019t exist yesterday, how can they possibly exist tomorrow? With that simple logic we would not have electricity, telephones or space travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, try to think from first principles whenever you can,\u201d Thrun continued. \u201cAll great innovators from Thomas Edison to Larry Page never took no for an answer. All great innovators did not submit to the popular belief at the time. Believe in yourself, believe in your team, believe in your boss if you have one. And finally, don\u2019t waiver. Stand firm. Way too often people give up when the going gets tough. The world needs people who don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graduating senior Jatin Abacousnac gave the student keynote address.<\/p>\n
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Jatin Abacousnac ’19 gave the student keynote address<\/p><\/div>\n
“It is essential that today we celebrate our failures and successes in equal measure,\u201d Abacousnac said. \u201cFortunately for us, Mudd puts us to test, and I think it\u2019s fair to say that most of us, probably all of us, know what it means to fail in different ways. So, getting back on our feet is no biggie, because we do not fear failure. And that\u2019s a proper education. These failures, these challenges, we faced them together\u2026we made it through Mudd, we can make it through anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Sonner \u201980 P18 welcomed the graduates into the HMC Alumni Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike earlier alumni, during your time at Mudd you worked together on many difficult problems and in the process, \u00a0you learned many things that you will need in your future careers,\u201d Sonner said. \u201cBut looking back on your lives, probably what you\u2019ll value the most are the close friendships forged during your shared Mudd experiences together.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Maria Klawe concluded the ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are incredibly proud of all of you,\u201d Klawe said. \u201cWe know how much you\u2019ve grown during your time at Mudd and are excited to see what you\u2019ll do in the next phase of your life. We know that wherever you go, you will take your commitment to excellence, integrity, equity and inclusion, and helping others succeed. You will pay attention to the impact of your work on society and use your outstanding skills in communication and critical thinking to help others pay attention, too. Given the increasing impact of technology in every aspect of society, the world needs graduates like those from Harvey Mudd more than it has ever needed them before.\u201d<\/p>\n
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According to preliminary data, 66% of the Class of 2019 is headed into the workforce; the most frequently mentioned employers are Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Epic Systems. Graduates have accepted a wide variety of positions including software engineer, software developer, spacecraft systems test engineer, math teacher, mechanical engineer, native app developer, quantitative analyst and systems engineer.<\/p>\n
This fall, 22% percent of graduates expect to start graduate school, pursuing a variety of fields including aeronautics engineering, chemistry, computer science, education, electrical engineering, math, microbiology, operations research, physics and robotics. Graduates will be attending MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, CalTech and Cornell, among others.<\/p>\n
The remaining members of the Class of 2019 have various plans including entrepreneurship and teaching abroad.<\/p>\n