Graduation Celebration 2020

Messages from the DC Team

Dear Class of 2020,
Our hearts are with you. You entered into our hearts four years ago in the midst of difficult times and you graduate during a time unprecedented. You are the Class of 2020 and we will forever envision your place in our hearts.
 
It is hard to imagine a more challenging moment for graduation. From being scattered and closed in by the pandemic to police murders and streets filled with anger and protest in response to the ongoing history of anti-Black racial violence. Still, it is a moment to pause, to reflect, to acknowledge all that you have accomplished. After all, it is amazing and inspiring and you did it! Your graduation is an accomplishment that cannot be taken from you, and it is one that is shared with your loved ones, your communities, and all of our futures.
 
We look forward to when we can be together and celebrate together, alongside college-wide preparations for a commencement deferred. We celebrate you, we lift up your accomplishments, and we are grateful to be able to honor you today and eager to connect with you on a joyful occasion.  Congratulations!
With our heartfelt congratulations to you,
Aseel Abulhab, Bilal Ansari, Drea Finley, Natalie Montoya-Barnes, and Carmen Whalen
The Davis Center Team
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A Message From Aseel Abulhab, Class of 2015 to the Class of 2020
To the Class of 2020 — my utmost and heartfelt congratulations to you! It has been an absolute pleasure to meet you, serve you, and most importantly, grow with you in these past few months. As staff, I can promise you that the Williams community will remain a support to you in this next chapter of your life and beyond. But as an alum (& your forever reunion buddy), I share this with you: your Williams experience – and it truly is an aggregate package of difficult moments and struggles, new experiences, lifelong friendships, and a rigorous education – has prepared you for the world in ways you may not know at this particular moment.
If there is anything we have been reminded of this spring, it is that we can never be sure what life has in store for us all individually & collectively, and that the fight for a just world will require each of us to engage wholeheartedly. I urge you to hold fast to your principles, but to allow flexibility on your path to achieving your goals, always reflecting on how your time at Williams has given you tools that can help you along the way. I wish you all the best as you move on to your next steps, and I will always be here for you as a current staff member at the DC, an alum who relied on it, and a friend. You made it. Congratulations again!
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This year your MinCo groups sponsored informal activities and formal events, honored heritage months, built bridges with communities throughout and beyond Williams College, attended conferences, supported each other and all students, and so much more. Krudas Cubensi Latinx Heritage Month Performance, recipient of the DC’s Outstanding Student Program of the Year Award, is an example of programming that built connections across campus communities to bring visibility to those too often marginalized—in this instance Afro-Latinx and queer artists. As MinCo groups continued preparing heritage month celebrations and other programming, the pandemic struck, campus closed for most, and we went to remote learning. Students organized the Ad-hoc COVID-19 Support Group to support students, especially international students, who needed help figuring out living arrangements for the remainder of the semester. This example of spontaneous organizing to meet immediate human needs with compassion was awarded the DC’s Outstanding Initiative of the Year Award. While some students strove to continue programming efforts remotely, others turned to supporting the students who continued residing on campus, and all continued to support each other as first pandemic and then racial violence created ever more challenges.
To the leadership and membership of each MinCo group, your resilience during this time has been an inspiration to us. We are honored to serve you, work with you, and learn from you. Thank you for supporting one another, and for building programming that kept the Williams community connected in unprecedented times. We appreciate you. We congratulate all graduating student activists, we thank you, and we will miss you tremendously!
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GROUP MESSAGES

Muslim Students Union

This year your MinCo groups sponsored informal activities and formal events, honored heritage months, built bridges with communities throughout and beyond Williams College, attended conferences, supported each other and all students, and so much more. Krudas Cubensi Latinx Heritage Month Performance, recipient of the DC’s Outstanding Student Program of the Year Award, is an example of programming that built connections across campus communities to bring visibility to those too often marginalized—in this instance Afro-Latinx and queer artists. As MinCo groups continued preparing heritage month celebrations and other programming, the pandemic struck, campus closed for most, and we went to remote learning. Students organized the Ad-hoc COVID-19 Support Group to support students, especially international students, who needed help figuring out living arrangements for the remainder of the semester. This example of spontaneous organizing to meet immediate human needs with compassion was awarded the DC’s Outstanding Initiative of the Year Award. While some students strove to continue programming efforts remotely, others turned to supporting the students who continued residing on campus, and all continued to support each other as first pandemic and then racial violence created ever more challenges.
To the leadership and membership of each MinCo group, your resilience during this time has been an inspiration to us. We are honored to serve you, work with you, and learn from you. Thank you for supporting one another, and for building programming that kept the Williams community connected in unprecedented times. We appreciate you. We congratulate all graduating student activists, we thank you, and we will miss you tremendously!

 

Koreans of Williams

It’s so unfortunate that the year was cut short and that many things we had looked forward to, including the rest of KoW’s events and your graduation, have been set aside. We can only imagine how hard it was for you to see your spotlight at graduation stolen by the pandemic 🙁 As your board members, we want to say that your hard work and amazing leadership has not been for nothing; you’ve shown us exactly what it means to be a great chair: empathetic, compassionate, and competent! We’ve had an amazingly productive year, from monthly dinners to karaoke to Ramen Night. We put on successful parties and built a community. We’re left with great memories, and your efforts and ambitions made all this possible.

Sisterhood

Congratulations on Graduating, Yaznairy!
Thank you so much for your hard work with Sisterhood and for all that you’ve done to uplift and advance this organization. Thank you for your leadership, kindness, direction, and vision. You are a rockstar and a shining beacon for black women in our community and in the world. I cannot wait to see what you will do in this world, but I know that it will be amazing! Love you and we have been honored to know you!