Spirits were high in early June as the RISD community celebrated Commencement Weekend 2023, the 140th such celebration in the institution’s history. From the opening remarks by alumna and Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf Visionary Award Winner Julia Rothman 02 IL to a series of community breakfasts bringing together international and first-gen college graduates to Friday’s graduate hooding ceremony and Commencement itself, a clear message came through: community is everything. As senior class speaker Sofia Di Lodovico 23 ID put it, “RISD has given us the power to create, but it is our responsibility to use that power to connect with the people around us.”

President Crystal Williams, who also spoke at the graduate hooding ceremony, reminded RISD’s graduate class of 2023 to mark the occasion with care. “Each of you is at a moment of great transformation with the freedom to say, think and make who you are manifest,.” she noted. “I cannot wait to see how you make this world a better place.” President Williams and Provost Anais Missakian 84 TX went on to award honorary degrees to visionary designer and educator Walter Hood and internationally acclaimed artist and RISD alum Do Ho Suh 94 PT before NPR reporter Ari Shapiro stepped up to present the keynote address.

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