Add your message of congratulations to the Class of 2020 below!
4 Replies to “Leave a Message for the Graduates”
Dear Graduates,
I’m so sorry not to be able to say this in person, to each of you, and to your families: Congratulations on all you have achieved in your years at Penn, as well as on the good cheer and resilience you have shown in facing up to the challenges of the past two months. You are graduating into an uncertain world, but I know you will apply all the strengths you have developed to meeting those challenges, and to making the world a better place for all of us.
I wish I could have celebrated you all in our sunny department library , but, in lieu of that, let me say congratulations on a job very well done. You’ve enriched the department and the intellectual lives of the faculty and of your fellow students. Good luck in the future, and make sure to stop by Cohen to catch up.
Congratulations on crossing the (virtual) finish line (in at least this phase) of your academic studies! Conditions during the last lap were less than ideal (perhaps, for some of you, they were adverse), but that only underscores your tenacity, and the significance of your achievement.
I had the pleasure of working with many of you: some when you were sophomores and were still getting your philosophical bearings; many just this past semester, when together we learned how to have a rewarding philosophical debate on Zoom. I thank you for allowing me to see old writings and old debates with new eyes, and for all the lessons learned as a result, big and small.
I sincerely hope conditions in the Spring of 2021 will be propitious to celebrate you once again, this time on campus. In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck with your next endeavors.
Dear Graduates,
I’m so sorry not to be able to say this in person, to each of you, and to your families: Congratulations on all you have achieved in your years at Penn, as well as on the good cheer and resilience you have shown in facing up to the challenges of the past two months. You are graduating into an uncertain world, but I know you will apply all the strengths you have developed to meeting those challenges, and to making the world a better place for all of us.
Congratulations to all of you but specially to my nephew Logan Lender for graduating with honors!
Dear 2020 Penn Philosophy Graduates,
I wish I could have celebrated you all in our sunny department library , but, in lieu of that, let me say congratulations on a job very well done. You’ve enriched the department and the intellectual lives of the faculty and of your fellow students. Good luck in the future, and make sure to stop by Cohen to catch up.
Dear Graduates,
Congratulations on crossing the (virtual) finish line (in at least this phase) of your academic studies! Conditions during the last lap were less than ideal (perhaps, for some of you, they were adverse), but that only underscores your tenacity, and the significance of your achievement.
I had the pleasure of working with many of you: some when you were sophomores and were still getting your philosophical bearings; many just this past semester, when together we learned how to have a rewarding philosophical debate on Zoom. I thank you for allowing me to see old writings and old debates with new eyes, and for all the lessons learned as a result, big and small.
I sincerely hope conditions in the Spring of 2021 will be propitious to celebrate you once again, this time on campus. In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck with your next endeavors.