Harvard University
Forever ’21
Highlighting the accomplishments and celebrating the bright futures of Harvard’s Class of 2021
Join us here
We will be celebrating the Class of 2021 with a live broadcast here on Thursday, May 27 beginning at 10:30 a.m.
Don’t miss the celebration
Principal address
Ruth J. Simmons will deliver the principal address at Harvard’s celebration for the Class of 2021.
Chief marshal
The Harvard Alumni Association has announced that Anurima Bhargava ’96 will serve as this year’s chief marshal.
School speakers
Find the Class Day and graduation speakers for each Harvard School.
Harvard College graduate
Yoseph Boku
Yoseph Boku volunteered at a youth homeless shelter in Harvard Square and helped organize the student-run Black Health Matters Conference. He will attend Harvard Medical School this fall.
Harvard College graduate
Gayatri Balasubramanian
Gayatri Balasubramanian not only learned to sail and earned a spot on the varsity sailing team, she also served as a counselor for the Summer Urban Program and joined Army ROTC.
Harvard Chan School graduate
Ajay Kolli
Ajay Kolli looked at the association between diet and vision impairment as well as food insecurity and vision impairment. Preliminary results from his research suggest links in both cases.
In good company
The Class of 2021 isn’t alone in having an out-of-the-ordinary graduation; it joins a collection of other classes that faced the unusual and the unexpected.
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1639
Harvard shut down for a year after Nathaniel Eaton, the School’s first head, was fired over allegations that he’d severely beaten students and that his wife had served them spoiled fish and hasty pudding that had somehow been laced with goat dung.
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1740
Commencement was postponed to later in summer due to a diphtheria contagion.
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1752
A smallpox epidemic shut down Harvard for five months and canceled Commencement for that year.
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1775
George Washington’s Continental Army occupied the campus, and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety ordered Harvard to vacate its grounds.
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2020
A novel coronavirus pandemic moved the ceremony and degree conferring online.
School of Education graduate
Samantha Fletcher
Samantha Fletcher combined her passions for equity, education, and media when she enrolled in Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Technology, Innovation, and Education Program.
Harvard Chan School graduate
Gabriela Borin Castillo
As a physical therapist specializing in chronic pain, Gabriela Borin Castillo has done volunteer work with Paralympic athletes and helped build a rehabilitation clinic in Guatemala.
Back to the start
From acceptance to move-in day to housing day, look back at the Class of 2021’s early years at Harvard.
- Nearly 40,000 apply to College Class of ’21
Prior to the start of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, fewer than 20,000 students applied for admission.
- The Class of ’21 arrives, with boxes
A busy move-in day as the first-years settles into Yard dorms.
- Housing day for the class of ’21
A nor’easter didn't stop first-year students from playing in the Yard after learning which House they'll live in.
Kennedy School graduate
Raven Graf
After graduating, Raven Graf hopes to head to Washington to move climate legislation forward.
Harvard Medical School graduate
Troy Amen
Troy Amen has set his sights on becoming a surgical administrator, a position he hopes can effect change both small and large: improving how operating rooms function, and addressing socioeconomic inequalities.
Grand finale
Take a look at some of the the final projects, theses, dissertations, and awards from members of the Class of 2021.
Larisa Owusu
Larisa Owusu’s thesis, “Iconic Market Women: The Unsung Heroines of Post-Colonial Ghana (1960s-1990s)” was an attempt, she says, to highlight the role that market women played and continue to play in redefining Ghana’s post-colonial development.
Jonas LaPier
For his capstone project, LaPier developed prediction maps that indicate where heavy metal contamination of well water is more likely.
Jenna Lang
Jenna Lang studied the psychology of communication for her thesis. She says, “This project allowed me to explore how emotion impacts how we perceive news and how much we want to share it.”
Marwah Aman
For her capstone project, SEAS student Marwah Aman developed an accessibility device that reconstructs a physical 3D model of the user’s surroundings.
Mojib Ghaznawi
Harvard Kennedy School student Mojib Ghaznawi coauthored a Policy Analysis Exercise final thesis, exploring State Department staff retention trends.
Onisha Etkins
The dissertation by Harvard Chan School student Onisha Etkins considers intersectional approaches for understanding the impacts of racism on mental health, including migration history and contact with the criminal legal system.