Wendy Kopp '89 to joyful Princeton seniors on Class Day: 'What you do shapes who you become'
Princeton’s Class of 2026 celebrated Class Day with warmth, humor, honors and awards, and inspiring words from Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp '89.
At Princeton’s Class Day ceremony Monday, May 25, Wendy Kopp ’89, founder of Teach For America and Teach For All, urged members of the graduating class to apply their talents to the world’s greatest challenges. Doing so, she said, will shape who they ultimately become.
“As you commence life outside these gates, you have from Princeton an education that enables you to chart your own course,” she said. Whatever path the members of the Class of 2026 choose to follow, she encouraged them to “make choices that expand your worldview rather than limit it.”
“We need the most committed, creative, capable leaders in the arena, tackling these problems,” she said. “So your choices do matter.”
“You have from Princeton an education that enables you to chart your own course,” Class Day speaker Wendy Kopp said, encouraging the seniors to “make choices that expand your worldview rather than limit it.”
Kopp has returned to campus many times over the years — including as the 2022 Baccalaureate speaker. She was the youngest person and the first woman to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award, the University’s highest honor for undergraduate alumni. She has been named by TIME magazine as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.
In her Class Day remarks, Kopp encouraged the seniors to resist feeling locked in by their first job or by the expectations they or others have put on them. “The next two years are not the rest of your life, and neither are the two years after that," she said. Instead, she hoped their choices would reflect their own “internal compass.”
“Who do you really want to be?” she asked them. “What do you really want to do? As you consider these questions, I hope you’ll keep two things in mind," Kopp said.
“First, what you do shapes who you become.”
Speaking to that point, Kopp shared her own, on-the-ground experience working with educators nationally and then across the globe to develop Teach For America and Teach For All.
During her senior year, in her studies at the School of Public and International Affairs, she had become “possessed” with an idea focused on educational equity, she said. Her senior thesis was a blueprint for a national teaching corps of recent college graduates from across academic disciplines to commit to two years teaching in urban and rural public schools in the U.S.
“I thought it would change our country’s priorities if our most promising leaders spent their first two years out of college teaching in low-income communities — facing the realities of our country — rather than working in skyscrapers far removed from them,” she said.
As it turned out, pursuing her vision also changed her.
“I think about my own journey from these gates,” she told the students. “I’d like to think that, if I had taken a different path that didn’t bring me into such close proximity with the challenges facing marginalized communities, I might have nonetheless found ways to contribute as meaningfully. But it doesn’t seem very likely.”
The second thing Kopp asked students to keep in mind is that “Your choices about how you spend your time and energy matter to society.” Changemakers are needed in every field, she said, be it science, media, academia, the private sector, the public sector or the social sector.
Class Day is a warm and lighthearted pre-Commencement event run by graduating seniors to reflect on their years together and recognize each other’s achievements.
“What I’ve learned through the decades of our work — and from the world’s most respected changemakers across different sectors — is that we really can solve the most entrenched challenges,” she said. “The question is simply whether there is enough leadership to do so.”
For change to happen, she said, “We need people close to the issues, learning about them, figuring out the path to solving them, and doing the heavy lifting to make it happen. There is no shortcut to this.”
With a warm smile that captured the excitement of the day, she congratulated the graduating class, with an invitation from one Tiger to another: “Today, you are free to decide where to put your time and energy. I cannot wait to see who you choose to become, and what you do for our collective welfare. Good luck to you all!”
Class Day traditions and recognitions
Before the program began, seniors took their seats on Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall, laughing with friends, taking selfies, even doing a little impromptu dancing while waving to family members whose phones were raised high above their heads to capture their soon-to-be graduates.
The annual Class Day event is a traditionally lighthearted ceremony organized by seniors to recognize the achievements of their class.
Preceding Kopp’s remarks, Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber addressed the graduating students and their families and guests by noting that the tradition of Class Day dates from before the Civil War — and has always been organized by the seniors themselves.
President Christopher L. Eisgruber lauded the graduating seniors for their accomplishments and handed over the “metaphorical” keys to the University to Class of 2026 officers. “I will leave it to you to imagine what paths and possibilities this key might unlock, and I wish you well in whatever choices you make,” he told the graduating seniors.
He then announced the handing over of the “metaphorical” keys to the University to the leaders of the senior class, another Class Day tradition. With a nod to the humor-filled ceremony, he said “we treat this metaphor very literally” as he handed the class officers a giant key.
Eisgruber closed on a more serious note, with a personal message to the graduating seniors. “I will leave it to you to imagine what paths and possibilities this key might unlock, and I wish you well in whatever choices you make.”
Class president Minna Abdella, who spoke after Eisgruber, reminisced about their four years on campus. “We learned things that genuinely changed how we see the world,” she said. She encouraged her classmates to use their Princeton education “not just to do well and to excel, but to do good in the world.”
Class president Minna Abdella reminisced about the seniors' four years on campus. “We learned things that genuinely changed how we see the world,” she said. She encouraged her classmates to use their Princeton education “not just to do well and to excel, but to do good in the world.”
Class Day chairs Cole Crosby, Luke Miller and Jaden Stewart also shared fond memories, and class heralds Allen Shen and Tyler Wilson kept the laughter coming with plenty of inside jokes and fun memories.
Abdella, a politics major, was one of six class members recognized at the ceremony with this year’s Class Day awards for leadership and service, along with George Tidmore, Brian Mhando, Nadia Makuc, Enzo Kho and Aaliska Sapkota.
In another Class Day tradition, class officers granted honorary membership to Kopp, along with seven faculty and staff, a photographer who has documented many of their campus events, and the popular Department of Public Safety therapy dog, Coach. These are the honorary members:
- Ruha Benjamin, the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies
- Alvan Flanders, detective sergeant in the Department of Public Safety, and Coach
- Christeen Griffiths, sous chef for Campus Dining at Butler College
- Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America and Teach For All
- Stephanie Lewandowski, program manager in the Program in Humanistic Studies
- Tori Repp, a Fotobuddy photographer
- Mariyah Salem, assistant director for international programs at the Davis International Center
- Henry Shim, a lecturer in economics
- Chris Twiname, administrative coordinator at the Center for Hellenic Studies
A captioned video of the ceremony is available online. Graduation activities continue with the University’s 279th Commencement scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 26.
In another Class Day tradition, Princeton faculty, staff and others were named honorary members of the Class of 2026, including Coach, the Department of Public Safety's popular therapy dog, who patiently waits to be called onstage.
