As prepared for delivery at the 2026 Commencement of Franklin & Marshall College

Graduates - Congratulations! 

This day is about you. There are 411 of you – and you look great. You come from 30 different states and 26 different countries. Remarkably, you are evenly split – men and women. 69 of you are the first in your family to graduate from college. Nine of you grew up in the City of Lancaster. 

One-quarter of you completed double majors. And another 13% did joint majors. 169 of you completed at least one minor. And almost the same number completed independent research for credit. 

38% of you participated in varsity athletics. And at least as many have participated in theater, music, dance, and the arts. 

You are an extraordinary group. And on behalf of the Board of Trustees, the faculty, staff, and alumni of Franklin & Marshall College – everyone here and watching online – huge congratulations! 

It is a time-honored tradition that, as we begin —and before we celebrate all of you, one-by-one, we think about – and we thank – all of those who helped you get to this point. Your family and friends, faculty and mentors. 

To the parents, grandparents, siblings, partners, professors, and friends who are here today — some of you who flew across an ocean, drove through the night, or quietly rearranged your life to be in these seats — welcome. This day belongs to you too. 

Class of 2026 — I'd like to ask you to please stand up and turn around. Find the people in this room who made this possible and give them the applause they deserve.

And I want to take a quick point of personal privilege while you’re all standing – and I want to invite everyone to stand – to congratulate and thank someone very special to F&M – Eric Noll, our Board Chair. He finishes his term as board chair next month, and all of us owe him a debt of gratitude for his extraordinary service to F&M over many decades. Eric, thank you.

Graduates, your last year at F&M has been my first year. And I have learned a lot from you over these last nine months – from listening to you, spending time with you, watching you make this campus come alive. Thank you for welcoming me. And thank you for inspiring me. 

Seeing you today, I feel even more hopeful and confident about the future. 

Today gives me – and all of us – a clarity that what we do here matters: We develop new leaders (that’s all of you) ready to take on the biggest challenges and opportunities of our day. 

The world is moving faster than ever before. Artificial intelligence is reshaping entire industries, and it is reshaping jobs and careers. Climate change is reordering economies. Democratic institutions face historic pressures.  

In this changing world, it seems clear that the demand is not for people who can follow established maps — but for people who can draw new ones. And that means you.

Most of the Class of 2026 was born in 2004. And just twenty-two years ago, there was no iPhone. No Instagram, no TikTok, no ChatGPT. Facebook had just launched in a Harvard dorm room and was available only to college students. 

Most music still came on CDs. (and I hear those are coming back in style.) 

If you wanted directions for how to get somewhere, you looked at a printed map or you wrote them down. 

The economy looked different too. Remote work was a rare perk. The jobs that now define entire industries — data scientist, climate risk analyst, AI ethicist — had no name yet.

The pace of change in the two decades you’ve been alive has been staggering. And the pace is only accelerating.

Here is what that means: the decisions that will shape the next chapter of this country — and this world — are going to be made in the next two decades. And they are going to be made by you – the people in your generation. In medicine and public health. In technology and artificial intelligence. In climate and energy. In government, law, education, journalism, business, and the arts. 

In every sector, there are problems that demand creative leaders — people who can think across disciplines, hold complexity without flinching, and move others toward solutions.

That is right now. And that is you.

So a few quick pieces of advice: 

1. As you leave college, know that you’re ready, and don’t be discouraged by short-term challenges. By a difficult job market. When someone says no. When your path zigs instead of zags. Instead, push twice as hard for what you want. Your time at F&M has prepared you for this complicated world.
   
   
2. Give yourself grace as you get started. I know that for some of you – maybe most of you – this day—this moment—might bring as much anxiety as it brings excitement. You’re saying to yourself, hey—Give me a little more time. I’m still figuring out what’s next. It’s okay. Be easy on yourselves and be good to one another. If you haven’t quite figured out what’s next, I can tell you, you’re not alone. It can take time. Give yourself grace.
   
   
3. Lean on us to help. Whenever you need it — a mentor, a network, a reminder of who you are and what you are capable of — We will be here. F&M is invested in your success not just today, but throughout your career and your life. Your fellow Diplomats — nearly 30,000 of them, in all fifty states and more than seventy countries — are on your side and ready to help.
   
   
4. Be bold and ambitious. Be audacious and creative. What I have learned over the past nine months is that F&M equips you to be just that – big thinkers, bold leaders. You are people who look over the horizon. Be part of the project that builds a better future that others can’t yet recognize. And lead lives of meaning and genuine impact. You’re ready for that. 

Franklin & Marshall College – and you, our new graduates – are made for this moment. 

For more than two centuries, this college has understood and practiced something that the world is rediscovering with urgency: that the most consequential leaders are not narrow specialists. They are broad and deep thinkers. People who can bring a scientist's rigor to a policy problem, a humanist's empathy to a business decision, an artist's creativity to a civic challenge.  That is the leadership our world needs now more than ever. 

I think about the Diplomats who have gone before you — into hospitals and courtrooms, into classrooms and city halls, into laboratories and legislative chambers, into newsrooms and nonprofits. They all carried the same capacities honed on this campus: intellectual curiosity, a commitment to evidence, a willingness to engage with people and ideas different from their own, and the confidence to think creatively and lead boldly whenever leadership was called for.

Each of you carries that same capacity. That is what your Franklin & Marshall education has given you. And this moment is yours. Grab it, and go forth. 

Congratulations, Class of 2026. 

Go Dips!