Fades to blue with Brandeis logo in white on top, and white text reads:
“Brandeis University American Studies and Environmental Studies”
Title: “Celebrating the Class of 2021”
Transition to Brian Donahue.
Donahue speaks:
Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to the American Studies and Environmental Studies graduation for 2021. I'm Brian Donahue. I'm a longtime member of both American Studies and Environmental Studies, which I suppose is why they've asked me to be the MC for this event, which may or may not have been a wise choice. [humorously] I guess, we'll find out pretty soon about that. Let me see if I can tell you a little about these programs here. First, American Studies. American Studies looks at American history and culture and America's place in the world through a wide variety of sources, literature, of course, also art, film, music, and the landscape. The program at Brandeis was begun in the 1970s by a great scholar of ethnicity and immigration, Larry Fuchs, who was among my mentors as a Brandeis undergrad and again when I joined the American Studies faculty. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, American Studies has been the birthplace of many other flourishing Brandeis programs. Legal Studies, Journalism Studies, Film Studies, Womens, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Environmental Studies. Environmental Studies began at Brandeis in the 1990s and has grown to become a major. Environmental Studies is also very interdisciplinary, combining natural sciences with social sciences and humanities to look at our relationship to the environment. Environmental Studies at Brandeis puts a large emphasis on field studies and on community engagement. I'm going to introduce the Environmental Studies faculty and I should probably remind faculty members, they should have their cameras on so they can be spot lit.
As each faculty member is named, their Zoom window appears on screen. Donahue continues:
First, we have our chair Colleen Hitchcock, who teaches courses in ecology and citizen science. We have Charlie Chester, who teaches international environmental policy. We have Rich Schroeder, who teaches geography and anthropology, international conservation, especially in Africa. We have our former long-term Chair Dan Perlman, who teaches the ecology and our fundamentals course. We have Sabine von Mering, who teaches on climate change and the humanities. Sally Warner, who teaches oceanography and climate science. We'd also like to say a special thanks to our wonderful administrator, Jazz Dottin. I'm going to send it over to Maura Farrelly, to introduce the American Studies faculty.
Transition to Maura Farrelly.
Farrelly speaks:
Good morning everyone. I'm also in the process of trying to locate all of the students in faculty that we need to have highlighted because I think some of you are going under different names and poor Dan Jennings, [humorously] good luck finding out! I'm continuing to email you, Dan. In any event, let me introduce the faculty that we have in American Studies.
As each faculty member is named, their Zoom window appears on screen. Farrelly continues:
I want to start with the person who was just speaking to you, Brian Donahue, because he told you that he teaches in both programs, but he didn't really say too much about himself. He is the Associate Professor of American Environmental Studies, parentheses on the Jack Meyerhoff Fund; [humorously] and Brian, I've known you for 15 years now and I'm still not quite sure what that parentheses means so maybe we should talk about that sometime. He teaches courses on environmental history, sustainable farming, and forestry, land conservation and his research focuses on the prospects for continued human engagement with the land, particularly here in New England. Brian has actually formulated what he's calling a food vision, a plan for our region that considers how New England could possibly be producing 50 percent of the food that the residents here consume by the year 2060. That is Brian.
My next colleague then, going alphabetically, is Tom Doherty, who is a professor of American Studies, and he is a leading expert on the cultural history of American film, radio, and television. Tom rightly recognizes the extent to which film and television illustrate the values and aspirations of Americans in the 20th century and beyond. He has written, I believe, eight books, but I could be wrong about that because it's hard to keep track of them, especially when he comes out with them in back-to-back years, on topics ranging from the films that were able to be produced in Hollywood before the infamous Production Code was implemented in 1934; then most recently to the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son in 1932 and the media frenzy that that kidnapping touched off.
We then have Eileen McNamara, who is a Professor of the Practice of Journalism, and she's also a Pulitzer Prize winner, which we are very proud to say. She won that coveted award for the columns she wrote for The Boston Globe. One of her columns, those of you who have seen the movie Spotlight may already know, provoked the Globe’s then new editor Marty Baron, to sue the archdiocese of Boston so that the newspaper could get access to the diocese records on clerical sex abuse. Most recently, Eileen is the author of a book on Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who is of course the founder of Special Olympics.
Then finally among the faculty that we have present here today, we have Jerome Tharaud, who is an Assistant Professor of English. He teaches courses on American literature ranging from the colonial period to the present. His first book focuses on the 19th century and specifically on how Americans at that time used the landscape to inform and understand their spiritual lives. The project that Jerome is working on now looks specifically at the landscape of the American West and how material and cultural scarcity in that region have influenced life out there, and I do want to say that I myself, I'm working on a project now that's about the American West. I lived there as a child, but I never studied the region formally, and Jerome has been incredibly helpful to me as I've been trying to learn more about that region. Those are our faculty in American Studies.
Transition to Tom Doherty.
Doherty speaks:
I'm pleased to introduce Seth Isaac Wulf, who has been selected to speak on behalf of his fellow American Studies graduates. I've known Seth since he first wandered into 100A, the first part of two foundational seminars American Studies students are required to take. He immediately stood out for his alert intelligence, boundless curiosity, and ready good humor. I soon learned that in addition to his interest in American culture, he is an aspiring screenwriter and playwright and a connoisseur of all the performative arts. I was delighted when last summer he expressed interest in doing an honors thesis during his senior year. Seth being Seth, he had something a little unusual in mind. He wanted to supplement the scholarly research project with a creative work of his own composition.
After some back and forth, he settled on a challenging resuscitation of a lost art, the radio play, which thrived in the 1930s and '40s during the golden age of radio. The topic he selected has become uncomfortably timely, even in the last couple of weeks: the sights, the sounds, and the shock of the Night of Broken Glass, the American media's response to an anti-Semitic crisis abroad. He would conduct a scholarly inquiry into the stateside media coverage of the anti-Semitic violence that erupted throughout Nazi Germany on the nights of November 9th and 10th, 1938, the pogrom, known to history as Kristallnacht. He would trace the nature of the coverage in the three dominant media of the day: the print press, the radio, and the newsreels. His research would take him deep into the primary documents from 1938, especially the entertainment industries trade press. He would also listen to or view the extensive radio and newsreel coverage. Had this been a non-COVID time, he would have gone personally to the Paley Center for Media in New York and the New York Public Library.
Seth's research into the scholarship would give credibility to the aligned creative part of his thesis; the writing and performing of a radio play composed in the style of Orson Welles' fabled Mercury Theater on the Air, a show that dramatizes a German-Jewish family's experience during Kristallnacht. Norman Corwin, the most eminent writer for radio during the medium’s golden age, coined the term ‘radio write’ to describe the unique garde practice by his generation of radio writers. Wulf revived this art for his project, and recruited actors to perform the piece. Of course, the Mercury Theater did not broadcast such an episode. But if they had, I dare say, it would have been very much like what Seth created.
It does not take too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that had Seth come of age in the 1930s, he might have secured a position with the Mercury players as an all-around utility player, radio writer, performer, and showrunner. I think I should say something else about Seth, and indeed something that applies to all his fellow graduates this past year, namely to acknowledge the stoicism of the class of 2021. You were dealt a bad hand, but you played it well. You all responded to the present emergency with rare grace, good humor, and maturity. That stoicism speaks very well of you, and it’s something you and your parents should take special pride in. As for Seth, since the Mercury players are no longer a career option, he plans to go to New York and seek employment in some facet of the entertainment industry. We wish him well, we know we'll be hearing from him, and we look forward to his comments this morning. Seth.
Transition to Seth Isaac Wulf.
Wulf speaks:
Hello, everybody. Dear faculty, family, friends, and fellow graduates, I'm Seth Wulf and I'm honored to be speaking for you today. I often find that when I tell others that I'm majoring in American Studies, the very first response is, “fascinating, what is that?” Or the ever astute, “so you study America?” Although it is fascinating and we do study America, we know that this department and these classes are so much more than that. It's the department where you can analyze Bob Dylan and dissect the true crime genre. Where we can learn about the journalists who paved the way for the modern press, and then try our hand at writing our own columns. Where we can study the laws of this country in one class and take another class to learn about how those exact laws were broken for social change. It's also the major where you can write a six page argument about how Edgar Allan Poe was a transcendentalist even if you're totally wrong, and still get credit for trying. We are students of people, of history, and of sociocultural change. As we learned about how American culture shifted decade by decade, I'm sure we all picked our favorites. Decades that we just wish we were born in. For some, it's the '50s where soda was called pop, vintage automobiles were just called cars and the threat of war was looming. Some preferred the bombastic 1770s where every letter, pamphlet, and short story was brimming with the spirit of the Revolution. Some may want to go back to the 1830s for some reason, [humorously] but I haven't met any of them yet. Sorry, Professor Farrelly.
Personally, I prefer the ‘20s, not the roaring ‘20s. I mean the 2020s. I know I can't see your faces right now, but I'm pretty sure I got some confused looks there so let me explain. These last couple of years were unfathomably brutal. Some of the most difficult in our young lifetimes. But we're only two years in. We still have eight and a half years left to make the 2020s incredible. The future is unwritten and we're about to seize the pen and paper. As American Studies majors, we know better than anybody that it is in and after our darkest times that progress thrives. In the 1930s, the country was mired in the Great Depression, so artists created magical places on air and on screen to help people escape. There truly is no place like home. In the 1960s, the country was boiling over with political turmoil, but the hippies and yippies of the counterculture rose up to meet it with the music festival of the century. Let's not forget that at the end of the last pandemic in recent American memory, there was an explosion of new music, fashion, and slang. Despite the dire circumstances, young people of this country were able to carve a new path for themselves and for the culture of this country. We've studied it extensively. Now, it's time to become those trendsetters.
If history isn't enough, just look at all we were able to accomplish this year. It wasn't the senior year we wanted or imagined, but it was our senior year. We made the most of it. We ventured outside and explored the world of Waltham, appreciating what we had instead of what we were missing. Did you know that there's a hiking trail that goes all the way from Waltham to Cambridge? I didn't. Now I do! We filled our Zoom squares with intellectual debates on the fraught state of our nation, not allowing the boxes to confine our capacity for open thought. We took our clubs online and virtualized every aspect. We couldn't be together in the same space, but we could collaborate in cyberspace. It wasn't what we expected, but I'm so proud of what we made of it.
We're still getting through this pandemic day by day. While we're at it, we have to continue to be bold like those we've spent the last four years reading and viewing. Whether you're jumping into politics or painting, journalism or the judiciary, writing or website management, or like many Brandeis undergraduates you're completely undecided. You have the ingenuity to absolutely transform your field, whatever that may be, wherever that may be. We're loaded for bear, so let's get out there and decide how the 2020s are going to be remembered, or better yet, the 2030s and ‘40s. I can't wait to see what we make of our future. Congratulations.
Transition to Colleen Hitchcock.
Hitchcock speaks:
Thank you, Seth. It is my pleasure now to introduce to you the 2021 speaker for Environmental Studies, Lissa Sangree-Calabrese. A few things about Lissa before we let her take the spotlight. I've had the pleasure of having Lissa twice during her time at Brandeis, and she also was a TA for both myself and several other faculty within the program. Always doing a stellar job, always bringing a positive contribution to the learning community in whatever form she was participating. Lissa has a double-major in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing, and in 2019, Lissa brought those two passions together and published a book titled “All the Little Things.” “All the Little Things” is a collection of short fiction stories that ruminate on the relationship between people and the environment and the nature of connection. Knowing that Lissa has so much to say on how we connect the environment to our every day, I'm sure that you will all be inspired by what comes next. I'm now going to hand it over to Lissa. Thank you, Lissa. Congratulations.
Transition to Lissa Sangree-Calabrese, dressed in regalia.
Calabrese speaks:
Hi, all. Congratulations to the class of 2021. We've spent the past four years together learning, and growing, and becoming who we are today. We stepped into ourselves, shed our baby fat, pushed through all the trials and tribulations that come with growing up, and we even figured out how to learn about the natural world from behind a computer. We've definitely faced our fair share of obstacles and will continue to do so. But we won't be alone. We will bring with us all that we have learned from our time here together, both in and out of the classroom. We'll bring the oddity of our first tree walks in Fundamentals of peering at different oak leaves and having the rest of campus give us weird looks when we took turns feeling the bark. We will bring the countless hours spent pouring over scientific papers, looking at rain shifts, changes in yearly temperature, fossil fuel policies and all the nonsensical business that comes with learning about the environment. We'll bring in frustration over climate legislation or lack thereof, anger at environmental racism and injustices, and disappointment over global responses in times of need. We will bring time spent roaming Sachar Woods, sitting with friends on a great lawn, studying until 4:00 AM in the library, writing to get that last paper in on time. We will bring it all.
The path we have chosen, one of environmental care and consciousness, is not an easy one. It is slow and frustrating and hard and often depressing. But perhaps some of the wisest words ever said to me about being an environmentalist were spoken by my high-school AP Environmental Studies teacher. At the end of a long lesson about pollution, one where we learned about just how dire the situation is, my teacher took a look at all of us in the room, at the way we were slouched in our seats and almost silent despite it being time for group work. He said, "I know this is hard to hear and to learn about every day. But don't get sad, get angry, because that will give you the fire to push through.” Now anger can be just as exhausting as sadness, but its advantage is the way that it burns in us and the way it ignites a fire of passion that cannot be put out by anyone, court ruling or company or world power.
When we think about our futures, when we take the first steps into adulthood, we can be sure that if we hold on to all that we've learned when we were here together, all those classroom debates, all those papers, all those times we explored the natural world, if we can hold onto all we know and all we loved about the natural world, that anger and that passion will never dwindle. Although we may be unsure what the future holds of where exactly will end up or how we'll get there, we can be sure that when we will arrive, we will do so with strength, power, and a boundless care and passion that we've spent so long cultivating. Congratulations to my fellow classmates. I know you all will go out there and create change because I've already seen you do it here. I can't wait to see what comes next. Congratulations.
Transition to Maura Farrelly.
Farrelly speaks:
I am now going to talk a little bit about a couple of awards that we give out in the American Studies program. First, I just wanted to tell you something about the two faculty that the awards are named after. As Brian, or Professor Donahue, mentioned at the beginning, American Studies is a major that has always emphasized the synergy that can happen when you combine a deep intellectual understanding of our country's cultural history, be that the political culture, religious culture, artistic culture, legal culture, etc, with an active interest in the contemporary political, religious, artistic, and legal landscape that is governing your life.
Two members of our department really did embody this combination whereby knowledge of the past informs the goals and actions and strategies of the present. We have named two of our awards after those two faculty. The first faculty member is Lawrence Fuchs, who Brian mentioned, was actually the founder of the American Studies Department back in 1970. Professor Fuchs, very early on, had an interest in the history of race, ethnicity, and immigration in the United States, long before the topic enjoyed the kind of popularity and even dominance that it has in higher education today. Professor Fuchs took a leave of absence from Brandeis in 1979 to serve as the Executive Director of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy under Jimmy Carter. He was also actively involved in the Massachusetts Chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality and the Mexican American Legal and Education Defense Fund, just to give you a sense of the kind of public scholarship that this man whom I did have the pleasure of meeting briefly engaged in.
The other award that we have is named after Pauli Murray, who was one of the original members of the American Studies Department, again, when it was founded in 1970. She designed and taught the very first legal studies, African-American studies, and Womens studies courses that were ever taught at Brandeis University. She was a lawyer by training and also an ordained Episcopal priest. She was also, if you don't know who she is, she was African-American, and she was arrested for violating the racial segregation laws on a bus in Virginia 15 years before Rosa Parks was arrested for the exact same violation in Alabama. Professor Murray was on the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women under John F. Kennedy. Her 1950 book about the various state laws on race was considered by Justice Thurgood Marshall to be the "Bible of the civil rights movement.”
These are some powerful shoes that we are expecting our two award winners to fill. Before I tell you a little bit about the two award winners, I just want to say not that GPA is the be-all and end-all of the college experience by any stretch of the imagination. But both of these two young women have wicked high GPAs, which means that they really did have to work quite hard during their time at Brandeis.
As each student is named, their Zoom window appears next to Maura Farrelly’s. Farrelly continues:
So the winner of our Fuchs award is Adina Scheinberg, who was an Undergraduate Departmental Representative or what we call at Brandeis UDR for the American Studies program this past year. I was fortunate to have Adina in class three different times during her career at Brandeis. I was also a reader for her senior honors thesis, which is an incredibly well-researched examination of the evolution of legal thinking on the so-called separation of church and state in the particular context of America's public schools. I did not advise Adina on that project. That was my colleague, Dan Green, who was not able to be here today, but I was very happy to have had the opportunity to read that. I knew this already about Adina, but it was very much on display in her thesis. She is a highly rational thinker who knows how to construct and then maybe even more importantly, dismantle incredibly sophisticated arguments. I imagine that it's going to serve her well if she goes into law, which I do believe she's considering doing with her time after Brandeis. Congratulations Adina, you are the winner of the Lawrence Fuchs award.
Then the winner of the Pauli Murray award is Anna Badalament whom I also had the pleasure of having in-class three different times and who also served as a UDR for the American Studies program. She is a devastatingly quiet thinker, by which I mean this; in-class, her voice, which she does raise frequently, so that's not what I mean by quiet, she speaks in class, her voice is always soft and even toned. In written form, her voice is always elegant and sensitive, and I would dare say even beautiful at times. The content of what Anna delivers, however, be it with her soft voice or with her elegant writing style, is always sharp and on-point. She will frequently critique some of the players or developments that we encounter in the classroom in America's past. But even when she critiques those players and developments, she always does so with a real sense of the truth that the flaws that were animating those players are some of the same flaws that animate us today. There's a humility to her writing as well. Congratulations Anna, you are the winner of the Pauli Murray prize.
Transition to Brian Donahue.
Donahue speaks:
Thanks and congratulations. We also have three awards that we bestowed in environmental studies. I'm going to describe them and then we will bestow them. The first one is the Attila Klein Environmental Conservation Award. Attila Klein Award goes to a senior student who has demonstrated outstanding conservation work. Attila Klein was a biology professor who worked for years to establish the Environmental Studies program and finally succeeded. He was a great mentor to me and to Dan Perlman when Dan joined the faculty here as well.
Secondly, we have the Rachel Carson Award for environmental citizenship. This Award is named for Rachel Carson. It's provided to a senior student who demonstrates environmental citizenship in the local community. Third, we have the Jacob B. Goldstein Family Award for Environmental Excellence and activism. This award is provided to a senior or junior who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the preservation and enhancement of the natural environment. I think first we're going to Charlie Chester to give the Attila Klein Award. Charlie.
Transition to Charlie Chester.
Chester speaks:
Good day everyone. Congratulations to all the students, all of our graduates. This year, the Attila Klein Award goes to Braylen Ammen.
Braylen Ammen appears on screen next to Charlie Chester. Chester continues:
I was fortunate enough to have had Braylen in three courses at Brandeis where he earned the highest grades that Brandeis allows. To all of his environmental studies faculty at Brandeis, Braylen consistently displayed leadership, character, and potential. Whether negotiating as Papua New Guinea over climate change and sustainable development or working in the summer field research program in Western and Walden Woods or as a teaching assistant ensuring that his professor was staying on the ball, not an easy task. Braylen's calm demeanor and high-capacity never failed to shine. Notably as a member of Brandeis varsity track and field team, he's a pole vaulter. Braylen's athletic career was cut short by COVID and we were all impressed by his tirelessly positive attitude and grappling with the cosmic unfairness of it all. Braylen's high-capacity, steadfast resilience, and exceptional leadership potential, all made him a natural choice for this year's Attila Klein Award. Congratulations, Braylen.
Transition to Richard Schroeder.
Schroeder speaks:
Hi, everyone. I'm Professor Richard Schroeder, and it's my honor to present the Goldstein Award. As Professor Donahue has already explained, the Goldstein Award recognizes the top student each year who successfully demonstrated a sustained commitment to the preservation and enhancement of the natural environment. Tamar Moss is this year's recipient of the Goldstein Award, and she perfectly fits this profile.
Tamar Moss appears on screen next to Richard Schroeder. Schroeder continues:
Tamar has been engaged in environmental activism since she was a high school student in Indiana, when she was a member of a group known as the Interfaith Community of Environmentalist Youth. Along with her peers, her efforts to promote solar energy panel usage in the state were recognized by the city of Bloomington with its Youth Volunteer Award. While at Brandeis, Tamar has remained active helping organize climate action training for students in Massachusetts, and promoting the green design of school buildings through a particular funding mechanism. I had the pleasure of working with Tamar on her honors thesis project, and from the outset, Tamar was insistent that she wanted to do a project that would matter in the real-world. Her thesis, "Reducing Heat Exposure in Phoenix," a proposal for school-based cooling centers addressed the increasing vulnerability to climate change experienced by poor communities and communities of color in Arizona's Maricopa County.
Recognizing that the existing network of cooling centers didn't adequately meet those residents' needs, she mapped the county's hot spots and identified primary schools that could potentially serve as cooling centers in those locations during the peak heat of summer months. At the end of her project, Tamar shared her findings directly with the Arizona Cooling Center Working Group, which is now exploring possibilities for expanding Maricopa County's heat relief network to include those schools. On the basis of this outstanding piece of engaged scholarship, Tamar will graduate with highest honors in environmental studies, and we're extremely pleased to acknowledge her as this year's recipient of the Jacob B. Goldstein Family Award. Congratulations Tamar.
Transition to Dan Perlman in front of a virtual background of a foggy, green forest.
Perlman speaks:
I'm Dan Perlman. I'd like to congratulate everybody who's come before. Before this last award, I would like to say something about all of our environmental studies students. Whenever people ask, "What do you like about teaching at Brandeis?” I reply, "The faculty are great, smart, dedicated, and really caring about their students. But my favorite part of teaching here is the students.” Brandeis students in general want to make a difference in the world. But the environmental studies students really want to change the world and they do. It is wonderful to work with a group of really bright students who are also really nice people who give their all to making the world a better place. Although we give out only three awards each year, many of our students are deserving of these awards. Our three awardees are all standouts among a graduating class full of standouts. With that, I would like to announce Lily Weaver as this year's recipient of the Rachel Carson Award for environmental citizenship in the local community.
Lily Weaver appears on screen next to Dan Perlman. Perlman continues:
Lily is an outstanding environmental citizen and environmental educator. Wherever she goes, Lily creates a community of environmentally interested people. This can be through her many years of working with children in her hometown at a summer camp, including a science specialist the last couple of years, or at Brandeis with her two years as Undergraduate Departmental Representative for Environmental Studies, organizing numerous activities to bring younger students into the program, and her two years working as a teaching assistant with me in our introductory environmental studies class. As we considered several candidates for this award, Lily's deep commitment to service and her pattern of spending years with whatever work she takes on, helped her rise to the top of a very strong field. Congratulations, Lily.
Transition to a blue slide with Brandeis logo in white at the right of the screen. White text in the top left corner reads: “Brandeis University Class of 2021. American Studies Program.” The Zoom window of Brian Donahue resides in the top right corner of the screen. This Zoom window is subsequently replaced by that of the student whose name is called. The slide changes with each student honored; displaying their name, portrait, and accomplishments.
Donahue speaks:
Now we come to the reading of the names from the graduating with the diplomas. Before we do that, I want to remind students that if you have your cameras on, then you can be spotlighted when your name is read. Now with the names as they're read, you're sometimes going to hear some mention of honors, and I'm going to briefly explain those. Latin honors are awarded by the university based on the student's GPA. Cum laude requires a GPA of 3.5, magna cum laude requires 3.7, and summa cum laude a 3.8 but is also reserved for students who also received departmental honors. Departmental honors in both American Studies and Environmental Studies, require the completion of a senior honors thesis, an arduous task. The department may award honors, high honors or highest honors. But remember, all honors are highly honorable. Here's Maura Farrelly for the American Studies graduates.
Farrelly speaks:
Anna Birtwell Badalament, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, majors in American Studies, History, minor in Legal Studies. Winner of the Pauli Murray Award and the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Internship Research Prize.
Jessica Ashley Cocomazzi, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, major in American Studies, minors in Legal Studies, Art History, and winner of the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Essay Prize.
Samuel James Forman, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, majors in American Studies and History, minors in Hispanic Studies and Religious Studies.
Cahler Fruchtman, Bachelor of Arts, majors in American Studies and Politics.
Isabel Rosen Hochman, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, majors in American Studies, Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. Minors in Social Justice and Social Policy, Politics and Journalism.
Michael Patrick Khoury, Bachelor of Arts, major in American Studies, minor in Business.
Marcello Ohno-Machado, Bachelor of Arts, majors in American Studies and Business.
Adina Sarah Kalish Scheinberg, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, major in American Studies, minors in Legal Studies, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and History, high honors and winner of the Lawrence Fuchs Award.
Emily Honglin Shen, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, major in American Studies, Politics, minors in Economics and Philosophy.
Jared Sugarman, Bachelor of Arts, major in American Studies, minor in Business.
Rachel Wang, Bachelor of Arts, major in American Studies, minor in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies.
Seth Isaac Wulf, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, major in American Studies, Film, Television, and Interactive Media, and a minor in Theater Arts, high honors.
Jesse Zucker, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, major in American Studies, minors in Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Transition to a blue slide with Brandeis logo in white at the right of the screen. White text in the top left corner reads: “Brandeis University Class of 2021. Environmental Studies Program.” The Zoom window of Colleen Hitchcock resides in the top right corner of the screen. This Zoom window is subsequently replaced by that of the student whose name is called. The slide changes with each student honored; displaying their name, portrait, and accomplishments.
Hitchcock speaks:
Congratulations to American Studies, and here we go for Environmental Studies.
Breylen David Ammen, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, major in Environmental Studies, Politics, minor in Economics, and the winner of the Attila Klein Environmental Conservation Award.
Elliot Baratz, Bachelor of Arts, major in Environmental Studies, minor in Film, Television, and Interactive media.
Joseph Phillip Beletti-Naccarato, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, major in Environmental Studies, minor and Legal Studies and East Asian Studies.
Julian Bryan Berlin, Bachelor of Science, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Computer Science, Minor in Economics.
Tessa D. Carreiro, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Economics and Italian Studies.
Ricardo Martinez Chino, Bachelor of Arts, Major in Environmental Studies, and Minor in Hispanic Studies.
Sienna Marie Debenedittis, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and English. High Honors in English, English Department Award for Outstanding English Essay.
Zoe Gale, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Majors and Environmental Studies, Studio Art, and Minor in Art History. Honors in Studio Art, Poses Institute Prize for Dedication to the Arts.
Anna Beatriz Wai-Han Ginsburg, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Studio Art. High Honors in Studio Art, and winner of the Mitchell Siporin Memorial Prize.
Sarah Raquel Grado, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in East Asian Studies.
Isabel Catherine Graj, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Social Justice and Social Policy. Honors in Environmental Studies.
Lydia Alstroemeria Harris, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Biology.
Tessa Christine Holleran, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minors in Italian Studies, Business and Classical Studies.
Annie H. Huang, Bachelor of Science, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Biology.
Lyle Wilkie James IV, Bachelor of Science, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Biology.
Maya Esther Kattler-Gold, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor Mathematics.
Eliana Dvora Koehler, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Business, Hebrew Language, Literature, and Culture.
Renata Jane Leighton, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies, Theater Arts, Minor in Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation. Highest Honor in Theater Arts, and winner of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Prize for Best Original Play.
Thomas Everett Macartney, Bachelor of Science, Majors in Environmental Studies and Applied Mathematics.
Filippo Luca Mavrothalassitis, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Economics. High honors in Economics.
Tamar Eliza Moss, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Social Justice and Social Policy. Highest Honors in Environmental Studies, and winner of the Jacob B. Goldston Family Award for Environmental Excellence and Activism.
Aaron Mathew Pins, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minors in Anthropology and Politics.
Melissa Rose Rothenberg, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies, Economics, and Business.
Lauren Dorothy Rubinstein, Bachelor of Arts, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Education Studies.
Lissa E. Sangree-Calabrese, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing. High Honors in Creative Writing, and the recipient of the Andrew Grossbardt '72 Memorial Poetry Prize.
Samantha Ava Schulman, Bachelor of Arts, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Film, Television, and Interactive Media.
Yage Sun, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Economics, Minor in East Asian Studies.
Xujin Wang, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Economics.
Lily Makayla Weaver, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, Major in Environmental Studies, Minor in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies. The recipient of the Rachel Carson Award for Environmental Citizenship.
Qirui Zhang, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Majors in Environmental Studies and Economics, Minor in International and Global Studies.
Congratulations to the Class of 2021. With that, I believe we conclude our ceremony for this morning. We thank everybody for attending, and congratulations to our graduates, and to their families and friends who helped make this possible. We wish you all the best in the future, and we will look forward to learning all of the great things that you will do.
Transition to video.
Video begins:
Opens on nine video panels organized three by three and surrounded by a white border. The three video panels on the left show pictures of trees. The three video panels on the right also show pictures of trees. The middle three video panels show the Louis D. Brandeis statue in the top and bottom panels, while the middle panel shows another tree.
The top right video panel expands to fill the majority of the screen. In it we see someone dressed in a polar bear suit emerge from behind a tree. They are holding a small stuffed polar bear in one arm while they wave with the other and shout, “Congratulations Class of 2021!”
The video panel minimizes back to its initial position in the top right, then the video panel in the top left expands to fill the screen. In it we see Sally Warner emerge from behind a tree. Warner waves and says “Congratulations Class of 2021!”
The video panel minimizes back to its initial position in the top left, then the video panel in the bottom right expands to fill the screen. In it we see Colleen Hitchock emerge from behind a tree. Hitchcock waves and says “Congratulations Class of 2021!”
The video panel minimizes back to its initial position in the bottom right, then the video panel in the middle left expands to fill the screen. In it we see a large tree and from behind it emerges Charlie Chester, saying “Congratulations, Class of 2021!”
The video panel minimizes back to its initial position in the middle left, then the video panel in the middle right expands to fill the screen. In it we see Brian Donahue emerge from behind a tree and say “Congratulations Class of ’21!”
The video panel minimizes back to its initial position in the middle right, then the video panel in the middle expands to fill the screen. In it we see Tom Doherty emerge from behind a tree and say “Congratulations Class of 2021!”
The video panel minimizes back to its initial position in the middle, then the video panel in the bottom left expands to fill the screen. In it we see Dan Perlman, wearing a mortarboard, casually walk up to a large tree. He calmly says, “Congratulations Class of 2021,” then smiles and gives thumbs up. He pauses for a moment then says, “As you can tell, this is an Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides.” The video minimizes back to its initial position in the bottom left.
Fade to black.