Wooster Class of 2025 welcomes future challenges with confidence at Commencement Ceremony
At The College of Wooster’s 155th Commencement Ceremony, the Class of 2025 exalted in their achievements together with confidence instilled in them by the community gathered inside the Scot Center on Saturday, May 17, 2025. More than 450 graduates celebrated commencement and the value of their Wooster education. In her commencement address, international development leader and alumna Mesky Brhane ’89 credited the “liberal arts foundation” from her Wooster education with providing “confidence to venture beyond comfortable boundaries” in today’s world, a theme that resonated throughout the words shared in celebration on Saturday morning.
In her opening remarks, President Anne McCall raised up the Class of 2025 for all they have achieved since joining The College of Wooster, emphasizing strengths found at the College by encouraging them to “ask questions, imagine possibilities, undertake challenging projects, and generate knowledge!”
President Anne McCall
“I also hope that your time at The College of Wooster included experiences of growing mutual respect and friendship in the face of principled disagreements, and that you learned here to listen more attentively, with more open hearts and minds, to others’ voices, just as you learned to make your own voices heard. We need both to fulfill our College’s mission and society’s promise,” McCall said.
McCall encouraged the graduates to follow in the footsteps of Brhane, now regional director of the Planet Middle East and North Africa region at World Bank, who she awarded with an honorary Doctor of Laws. In her address, Brhane spoke of her work, answering the question of how her Wooster degree in French and English prepared her to address economic challenges through practical approaches, including addressing soil fertility, water infrastructure, and sustainable fisheries.
Mesky Brhane ’89
“The answer lies in what Wooster truly taught me,” Brhane said, “not just subject matter, but adaptability, critical thinking, and the confidence to venture beyond comfortable boundaries. My liberal arts foundation didn’t prepare me for a specific job; it prepared me for any job in a rapidly changing world.”
Brhane recognized the challenges today’s graduates face in a world called “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous,” and urged them to take confidence in that same Wooster education. “Your Wooster education has prepared you not for a single path, but for these intersections where innovation happens and where your unique contributions will matter most,” Brhane said. “The journey ahead may be uncomfortable, so work on getting comfortable with discomfort, knowing that Wooster has given you the tools you need to navigate that world.”
The theme of becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable, moving forward with purpose, and drawing from what they learned together emanated throughout the sentiments shared by speakers from this year’s senior class as well. Sam Peppers ’25, a political science major and religious studies minor, had the opportunity to share the invocation for his class this year and emboldened them to consider the tools that now arm them. “May we remember all the valuable lessons which Wooster has taught us, subtle and profound,” he said. “…that discourse and compromise do not undermine our values, and that critical thinking and knowledge themselves are virtues and the cure to the sickness of prejudice.”
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- Sam Peppers ’25
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- Karmellah Buttler ’25
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- Rayan Dos Passos ’25
Physics major and senior speaker Karmellah Buttler ’25 added, “As lifelong learners and independent minds, working together, I hope that you will use your talents and brilliance to intentionally improve the lives of others around you.” Rayan Dos Passos ’25, majoring in global & international studies and Spanish, emphasized the others around him who helped him to grow. “Let yourself wonder about these stories, the friendships you built here, and remember how we held each other up, together,” Dos Passos said. “That as we walk away, we can always count on what we learned from each other because when life tests us, we will show up again, smiling, standing tall, and more important, sharing hope.”
After the class was welcomed to the community of Scots alumni by Chuck Nusbaum ’02, president elect of the Alumni Board, the ceremony also featured a benediction from Wooster parent and pastor at Mendocino Presbyterian Church, Rev. Matthew Davis P’24, P’25, and a musical performance by Brianna Swinford ’25. A psychology major and music minor, Swinford performed “Defying Gravity” from the musical and motion picture Wicked accompanied by keyboardist Toni Arnold Shreve. And finally, the College’s Pipe Band led the traditional recession of graduates before they met their families and College community members to continue the celebration.
As graduates marched from Kauke Arch, faculty welcomed them outside Scot Center for their Commencement Ceremony.
Visit wooster.edu/commencement to view a full archived video of the Commencement ceremony and watch for more from the weekend’s events.
Posted in Homepage Featured, News on May 17, 2025.
