[A dark blue slide bearing the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University, Celebrating the Class of 2020.
Another dark blue slide bearing the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Departments and Programs of Biology, Biotechnology, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Neuroscience. Celebrating the Class of 2020.
The following slide shows the Brandeis seal in the corner and reads: Brandeis University. The Molecular and Cell Biology and Neuroscience Doctoral and Master of Science Candidates.
A slideshow of individual and group pictures of students is shown.
The following slide shows the Brandeis seal in the corner and reads: Brandeis University. The Biotechnology Master of Science and Master of Science/Master of Business Administration Graduates.
A slideshow of individual and group pictures of students is shown.
The following slide shows the Brandeis seal in the corner and reads: Brandeis University. The Biology and Neuroscience Bachelor Degree Candidates.
A slideshow of individual and group pictures of students is shown.
A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Stephen Van Hooser, Associate Professor of Biology. Stephen Van Hooser is shown before a gray wall.
For the duration of the video, students' names, degrees, theses, and departmental honors scroll across the bottom of the screen in white text, names separated by asterisks. The text can be found at the end of this transcript.]
Stephen Van Hooser: Hello family, friends, and the Class of 2020, we are delighted to welcome you to the mini celebration for the following fields, Biology, Biotechnology, Molecular and Cell Biology and Neuroscience. While we could not be together on campus to celebrate this important day, we realize how hard you have worked over the past few years. And we want to acknowledge all of your amazing accomplishments. We must also acknowledge that your successes have not come without help from others. I would now like to acknowledge the support of the family, friends, and especially parents and spouses who have provided support and in some cases made significant sacrifices on behalf of your academic pursuits. For some of the parents and spouses today maybe as important a milestone as it is for the graduates. So needless to say a thank you is well deserved all of those who have supported the class of 2020 in reaching this milestone. Please note that due to this year's unique circumstances, the reading list that is scrolling at the bottom of the screen does not include all University prizes and Latin honors, as well as all double or triple majors. We also want to highlight that some of our faculty will be hosting zoom breakout meetings at the end of this presentation, please feel free to visit as many faculty as you wish, you're more than welcome to leave one meeting and join another if you wish to see more than one faculty member. You'll need your Brandeis credentials to log in. Please make sure to stick around for more details at the end of the celebration. To kick things off, several of our faculty have recorded messages that they would like to share with the Class of 2020.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: James R. Morris, Professor of Biology. James R. Morris is shown before a green wall.]
James Morris: Hi, everyone, my name is Jim Morris. I'm a professor of Biology here at Brandeis. I'm also chair of the program in Health Science, Society and Policy, let me begin by extending real heartfelt congratulations to all of you, what a phenomenal accomplishment, you've all done a really, really great job. But you know, this class is special. The Class of 2020 is graduating with what I would call a real Badge of Courage. You know, you're of course graduating in the midst of this Coronavirus pandemic, which has brought on all kinds of challenges that we're familiar with, whether it's, you know, the closure of our school and businesses economic upheaval, the social distancing and isolation that we're all experiencing, and for some of us illness and loss of loved ones. But on the other hand, there have been real moments of hope, unity and bravery as we work together to slow the spread of the virus as we share resources and communicate online, and this online celebration is really part of that effort to keep ourselves safe and healthy to help support the healthcare system and our health care workers and to protect those who are most vulnerable. So I applaud you, I applaud you not just for your hard work and great achievements, but I also applaud you for participating in this online celebration, it really sends an important message, it tells us that we can other we're apart, we can come together, we can work together as a community to confront a global crisis, which to me is a really hopeful view of the world so again, congratulations.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: James R. Morris, Professor of Biology. James R. Morris is shown before a green wall.]
Suzanne Paradis: Hey, Class of 2020 Bio minor or majors, Professor Sue Paradis here. Congratulations, you did it. I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished. I had the opportunity to meet a few of you when you were first years way back in 2016, and I remember saying to some of you, being a science major is really hard. You will look around at your classmates and your new friends and people living in your dorm and say, Why am I always working on a problem set, why am I in lab every afternoon, why am I up all night studying or taking exams that last three hours where I actually have to spend all three hours? Am I doing something wrong? You're wondering to yourself, and now you know the answer. You didn't do anything wrong, you did everything right. Being a scientist is hard work, and look at all that you have achieved and accomplished in your time here at Brandeis. I know it was hard and sometimes it seemed impossible, but you did it and now more than ever in this world, we need citizens who are science literate. So no matter what you do with the rest of your life and your career, you will always have this foundational knowledge in biology, neuroscience, and all the countless other majors that you have partaken of here at Brandeis. We need people to think and use their critical analysis skills and their knowledge of statistics now more than ever. And so, I will miss you Class of 2020. It was my great pleasure to get to know many of you. It was an honor to teach you and to be part of your journey and I wish you the best of luck.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Lizbeth Hedstrom, Professor of Biology and Chemistry. Lizbeth Hedstrom is shown in a small video square in the upper right of the screen. Two slow-motion videos show Lizbeth in full academic regalia throwing a ball to two dogs, and the dogs going to get it. Another image shows two dogs sitting beside each other, with graduation caps drawn onto their heads, and the word ‘Congratulations’ written in green.]
Lizbeth Hedstrom: Hi, my name is Liz Hedstrom. I know some of you from class CBIO106, and I've met others of you as I've walked my dogs Ripkin and Portia around campus. It's been a great pleasure working with you these last couple years, I congratulate you on your many accomplishments you and your families have much to be proud of, I also wanna wish you the best of luck as you launch your new careers and I look forward to seeing you in the fall when we can celebrate properly, take care.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Gina Turrigiano, Chair Neuroscience Program Joseph Levitan Professor of Vision Science. Gina Turrigiano is shown before an image of a river, banked by foliage and large rocks.]
Gina Turrigiano: Dear graduates, friends and family. I'm really incredibly happy to give all of you my warmest congratulations on this joyous day, a day that marks the culmination of so many hours, months, and yes years of hard and dedicated work. I've been really privileged to be able to help many of you along this journey, both as a professor of Neuroscience and as a researcher and for many of you, I know personally how much you put into your education and how much you've grown in your time here. This day is an occasion for great joy, but I think we have to acknowledge this graduation comes in the middle of one of the most trying times for our country in living memory. If there's one clear lesson we can take from the public health crisis that is COVID-19 it's the critical importance of being a scientifically literate citizen of this world. I hope and believe that our efforts and your hard work and passion have prepared you especially well to make sense of such a world to operate in it and to help repair it. I know there will be many, many challenges ahead for all of you and your families in the next few months and years, but I trust that the same fortitude and resilience the got you this far will continue to carry you on to great things and so to all of you, I send my most heartfelt congratulations on this amazing day.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: James Haber, Abraham and Etta Goodman Professor of Biology. James Haber is shown before a white wall and bookshelves.]
James Haber: Hi I'm James Haber, in case you don't know me, I'm professor of Biology and Director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, I wanna celebrate you seniors for your many accomplishments and for reaching this important milestone. I should say I am also a senior and this is in fact my 47th Brandeis commencement. It's a real gift to still be able to teach and do research at Brandeis and I especially appreciate the enthusiasm that students like you have brought to the courses that I teach. And also to the research that we do in the lab. You spend a lot of time thinking about how your cells fix their broken chromosomes, and undergraduates, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, have made huge contributions to what we understand about this important process. Finally, I wanna congratulate the master's students and our intrepid new PhDs for their hard work and for their many accomplishments, I've had the pleasure of mentoring and teaching many of you. It's an honor to welcome all of you into the community of researchers and scholars at Brandeis, congratulations.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Rachel Woodruff, Associate Professor of Biology. Rachel Woodruff is shown before an image of the Shaprio Science Center.]
Rachel Woodruff: Hello, new graduates of the class of 2020, you have done a wonderful job, you have tried so hard, and it has been my pleasure to get to know many of you over the last four years, I hope that you will keep your enthusiasm and your curiosity. I hope you'll keep learning and keep having the gumption to try new things and I also hope you'll stay in touch with your Brandeis community, because we still want to be here for you; your peers, of course, but also your teachers, your mentors, the faculty, staff, grad students and postdocs you've gotten to know we will always be part of your community now, if you want us to, so stay in touch, and congratulations on this momentous occasion.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Maria Miara, Assistant Professor of Biology. Maria Miara is shown in academic regalia before a babbling brook.]
Maria Miara: Hello, Brandeis Biology and Neuroscience graduates. I always say that commencement is my favorite day of the year and it isn't just because I get to wear this fantastic hat. No, it's my favorite day of the year because we really get to celebrate you, everything you've accomplished over the last four years, all that you've learned, all the relationships that you've built, and it's a great way for me to get to meet your families, and just see one last time before you go off into the world. This year has been different than previous years. We haven't seen each other these last few months. But what I've realized is Brandeis is so much more than just a place, it is all of you people, it's all of us together. And we've been able to connect in new ways, and it's been such a wonderful experience for me to get to see thrive and be successful and to, you know, take these challenging situations and make the best of it because now we can see exactly what makes you a Brandeisian and what will make you going out into the world so wonderful, you go out and you will succeed, and you will fight against the most difficult challenges that you will face out in the world. So congratulations to you, congratulations to your family. And I wish you all the very best and I hope to see you again sometime soon.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Neil Simister, Associate Professor of Biology, Director, Professional Science Masters in Biotechnology. Neil Simister is shown before a white wall and a gold framed painting.]
Neil Simister: Three years ago, last month, 70,000 people marched with science in Boston, maybe you were there moment about a million people around the world who marched. People came for different reasons. It was Earth Day, and many came to focus attention on climate change. For others, it was a protest against the exclusion of scientific expertise and scientific methods from public policy, most of the Class of 2020 were sophomores, then already working towards science degrees. Most of you had already decided that science education mattered for the work you wanted and the work our world needed. You were right, and the last few months have shown how right you were. They have shown the harm that may be done by rejecting scientific expertise, scientific methods. You have worked hard to learn science content and more importantly, you have learned how to learn, because you always be learners. When the semester began, COVID-19 not been named. Soon there will be enough information to fill a course. Maybe some of you will take it, maybe some people teach it. After COVID-19 there will be something else that you need to learn and that you know how to learn. Beyond science content, you've mastered science methods. You understand what we can learn from observations and what we can learn from designed experiments and how to use statistics to interpret both. You know how to ask questions, and you understand that answers may just be placeholders until the next experiment, or the next observation tells us more. You have learned here with your lab partners and study groups that science was done by teams. The last few months have shown unprecedented collaboration and cooperation by scientists around the world. The New York Times has a story about a lab in Pittsburgh working on COVID-19 models with a lab in Paris and biotech company in Austria, all funded by a Norwegian group supported by the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation. That is the new world that you graduates of 2020 will work and study in. I thank families, partners, and friends who have supported you, I congratulate you on the sacrifices, the efforts and the decisions that you have made to be so ready for the world we live in. We are proud of you and we need you.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Paul Miller, Associate Professor of Biology. Paul Miller is shown outside.
Paul Miller: Hello Class of 2020 congratulations on making it through one of the craziest semesters in memory, hopefully you're all going on to great things see, even if there's a bumpy start, and some of you might have great grades here, some might not be so happy with them but what you'll find years from now is that grades don't matter, what will matter is that perhaps some of the skills you've learned, or even more important, what you've learned about yourself, what you've learned about how to gain new skills, 'cause the world in 20, 30 years from now, when we'll all be in the workforce still could be very different from now. So I hope that you've all challenged yourselves and in particular, if you struggled, learn how to get through struggles and learned great things to see through life, and congratulations and all the best for the future.
[Stephen is shown.]
Stephen: Thanks so much to the faculty for sharing your words of wisdom with our graduates, I would now like to introduce our students speakers, we will begin with our Ph.D. speakers Laura Laranjo from Molecular and Cell Biology, and Linnea Herzog from Neuroscience, followed by our masters representative Billy Chau, and we will wrap up with our undergraduate speakers. Dustine Reich and Xiomara Mendoza.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Laura Laranjo, Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular and Cell Biology. Laura Laranjo is shown before an image of the Lights of Reason.]
Laura Laranjo: Hello, everyone, it has been a difficult year. No one could imagine that this was how you'll be celebrating your graduation. You probably already had envisioned the pictures you would take on this day, what you would wear and who you would take the mandatory picture with writing front of the Brandeis rock by the Science Center. Your parents, relatives and friends already plan their trip to see you receive this diploma. And you never imagined that you will not be able to shake hands or hug those who have supported you along your journey. I want to acknowledge that this is not what you hope for and you are allowed to grieve during this moment. Grieve the plans you had in a world that no longer exists, not all of us experienced life the same. And maybe for some of you, this was the first time in your family that someone is graduating. You might be the first doctor in your family or even the first to attend college. This is a big deal and it is okay to mourn not having the celebration you deserve, but I wanted to encourage you to focus on what we are able to do now. Think about everyone who is virtually watching this graduation and how proud they are of you. They might not be able to celebrate you as they wish but they are here for you, you are here. You accomplished everything you worked for and this is a big reason to celebrate, I want to invite you now to think about your first day at Brandeis, how much you have grown, how many people you have met and how many successes you had. Do you remember the day you found out you were accepted into your program? Your first day in lab, your qualifying exams? When I think back of my journey at Brandeis, I cannot help with smile, I changed so much going through the rigorous process of getting my PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology. The truth is, I don't like change. I lost count how many times when experiments failed, and I had to change the protocols, many times I wrote grant applications and I had to change my focus and of course, paper revisions change, change, change. Little did I know that all I can change does not protect me from it, it just makes it harder for me to do it. With the help of my wonderful PI Dr. Levin, my lab peers, many mentors, friends, scholars and students, I learned how to embrace change. Today in my job as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Salem State University, I take as my mission to guide my students through change. As a mother I want to teach my son how to grow in the middle of changing times. This is skills we learned here, and they make all the difference in everything else we do. We are living in a world that changed so quick, and we have a unique opportunity to strive during this change. You have learned how to adapt all these years and now is your time to teach others. Take time to connect with your professors, friends, family members online and share stories about your journey at Brandeis. Motivate them to keep pursuing their goals during difficult times, lend a hand to those who need to take a break due to physical and mental health problems. Do not underestimate how much change affects others and do not judge how someone is able to adapt, but instead be the change yourself allow yourself to have bad days and use the good ones to promote positivity. You are part of history, we were trained to change, and we are strong, congratulations, Class of 2020, take care and may God bless us all.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Linnea Herzog, Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience. Linnea Herzog is shown before an image of Brandeis’ campus.]
Linnea Herzog: Hi, I'm Dr. Linnea Herzog, when I was interviewing for the Neuroscience PhD program at Brandeis, Professor Gina Turrigiano asked me a simple question but scared the hell out of me at the time. Just straight up, why do you want to be a scientist? A few years before I would have responded with an answer like, to help people or to make the world a better place, but after a few years of working in a research lab, I had already come to terms with the extreme unlikelihood of me a novice researcher single handedly curing Alzheimer's disease, the original reason why I gotten into neuroscience. So I told her this, I want to discover something that no one else has. All of us graduates have made our own scientific discoveries. We spent hours in dark rooms under microscopes manipulating tiny pieces have equipment while our friends bought houses in our parents asked us when we were going to get a real job and honestly, it was worth it to make that one unique discovery, whatever it ended up being. As scientists, we strive for truth, of course, most experts would know better than to take every scientific journal article as gospel truth, but it's an idea we work towards as researchers in the era of fake news and even worse, pseudoscience. Under diploma Brandeis reminds us to keep searching for truth, even on to its innermost parts. You know, the parts were the data weren't pretty, or the hypothesis wasn't what you predicted. Brandeis helped me find my truth that I will keep doing my best to conduct research that is honest and accurate, discovering things that no one else has and yes, I still want to help people and make the world a better place, especially now. At Brandeis, I learned that rigorous science doesn't have to be cutthroat, if you must be competitive, be competitive with yourself. Grad school is about raising your own personal bar, to be the scientist you are striving to be, so keep letting your interest guide you and lean into your nerdiness. It took passion, commitment, bravery, persistence, flexibility, and a really good sense of humor to overcome the challenges you face to reach this day. These are skills you could take with you forever. At Brandeis, I learned how to tell a story with my science. Now more than ever, it's important to consider what story are we going to tell. As trained scientists, we are perhaps best equipped to handle a crisis, although our scientific questions are unique, and our specific struggles are our own, we are in this together, virtually all stories, scientific or otherwise are told collaboratively, the resolution will ultimately come from scientific research. To save the world, we need to discover something that no one else has ever discovered before. The irony is not lost on me as someone who spent five years studying play cells, but struggles to find a roadmap for our current situation, what I do know is that if you're watching this either you or a loved one is graduating with a STEM degree from Brandeis University. This is an achievement that no one can take away from you ever. Take this pride and certainty with you as strength and the challenges we face now and for the rest of our lives. Congratulations, Brandeis Neuroscience and Biology graduates of 2020, we did.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Billy Chau, Master of Science in Biotechnology. Billy Chau is shown before a white wall.]
Billy Chau: Good afternoon, everybody, I want to congratulate the MCB Neuroscience and the Biotechnology Bachelor's Class of 2020 for the many accomplishments, and welcome everybody to today's mini ceremony. Despite this unprecedented circumstance, I also want to thank everybody who can make it and hear my speech. I want to thank my parents who instilled in me the value of education, and the Student Support Services program for providing me with the mentoring, tutoring and advising to reach Graduate School. My name is Billy Chau from the Bronx, and I want to empower everybody do our many recognitions, and present and future impact to the world. I started my graduate journey as a combined master's student in Biotechnology, taking first year graduate classes as a senior undergraduate. As master students we took many courses together, such as masters pro seminar, to project labs, data analytics, and many more. My most memorable experience was our failures in project lab when we were deciding how to take turns using the multiplayer reader, using up the reagents in the yeast plasma extraction kit, and failing to clone the Lux operon gene via gateway cloning. The lessons taught us to be patient, reliable and accountable for our results and partners. Many students are conducting research at Brandeis and at many fine institutions, interning at biopharmaceutical industries, and finishing up our thesis. I am amazed by our journey to get to Brandeis and our commitment to make an impact to this world. I met students who traveled halfway across the world from their home country to study for a master's degree in order to obtain a competitive edge for a PhD program, I met students who graduated from less well known research schools, and overcame great barriers to attend Brandeis. I met students who want to use their degree to enter the business of biotechnology, research institutions, industries, and many more. Some of us are still looking for jobs, and I want to recognize them for their patience and determination. For every cover letter and resume submitted hundreds of positions, as well as countless in person and virtual interviews, there are Brandeis students who are conducting research that will one day lead to a therapy that can fill an unmet medical need. And their students are encouraging first generation minority and LGBTQ students to pursue a STEM career to mentorships and business to undergraduate colleges to recruit students from diverse backgrounds. Throughout our journey, we should be proud of our upbringings, achievements, and transformations. A family supporters and Brandeis staff members are proud of us will continue to root for our continued excellence. Thank you again and congratulations to the Class of 2020 and stay safe. Let's all be empowered and to dream big to change the world and proudly represent our community.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Dustine Reich, Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology and Neuroscience. Dustine Reich is shown before a white wall.]
Dustine Reich: First, a big congratulations to the Class of 2020. While this wasn't the end to our senior year we were all expecting or the graduation we had hope for, this historical period still holds a silver lining. For one, it reaffirms the importance of our education in the sciences. The pandemic has highlighted the incredible role science plays in protecting us, educating us and ultimately helping us to overcome this virus. From the public health researchers finding ways to curb the spread of COVID to doctors and nurses on the front lines navigating treatment options to researchers producing antibody tests and looking for vaccines, this pandemic has shown us that science is what ultimately will save us. It demonstrates how valuable our education in the sciences truly is, and gives our graduating class a profound call to action, unlike the majors before us. Science is vital to our survival now more than ever, and we hold the tools and knowledge to play a proactive role in this collective process, while we aren't walking out of Brandeis into the job market we expected, we're instead walking into something much more important, a world that vitally needs us. I challenge you to hold this responsibility close as you move forward in your next steps. However, I realized that for many of us, those next steps may have changed. Our previous plans may no longer be realistic or you may find it harder to get that job we have been hoping for. As writer Gerard Baker wisely wrote to 2020 graduates, don't think what happens over the last 90 years your life will be determined by what you do in in the first time. Those next steps may or may not be what you had anticipated, and might look different from peers in the past but most importantly, what they don't do is define the trajectory of your life. You are the only one to define this and likewise, it is up to you whether to accept the responsibility you now hold as Brandeis science alum. Thinking back to my time at Brandeis, the greatest things my majors in Neuroscience and Biology providing me with is confidence in my ability to achieve and the capability to think with a cross disciplinary approach. The competence came with each new science class conquer, where I was continuously challenged to push my limits to find that success. You too have achieved the same, having completed the difficult coursework and came out ever more capable and stronger. So as you move forward in your career, no longer doubt whether you can instead, be confident that you will. The other thing we're leaving with is the ability to think with a cross disciplinary mindset. This comes from the diversity of classes we took to fulfill our majors, each of us graduating with a unique coursework identity. From studying the inner workings of evolution with Professor Morris, to the detailed neurobiology mechanisms of disease with Professor Baron, examining the philosophical questions raised by human intelligence with Professor Klein, the diversity of classes welcomed us to form connections between material and taught us to become more high level and innovative thinkers. Use this to your advantage because thinking cross disciplinarily is what raises the standard of achievement and yields the innovative solutions of tomorrow. All in all, our majors in the sciences have instilled us with a profound sense of achievement, confidence moving forward in the ability to think with an innovative cross disciplinary approach. We've been inspired many times over, challenged to continually improve at every step and had our minds open to the diverse wonders of the sciences. As late author, A. Kalser wrote, in creating the human brain evolution has wildly overshot its mark. As Brandeis graduates, we all hold an incredible potential to do good in this world, welcome to the beginning of your journey, thank you.
[A blue-tinted slide shows an image of the Louis D. Brandeis statue. Next to the Brandeis seal reads: Brandeis University. Below reads: Xiomara Mendoza, Bachelor of Science in Biology and Neuroscience. Xiomara Menzoda is shown before a white wall.]
Xiomara Mendoza: Good afternoon, I want to first start off by congratulating every single one of you who made it here today despite the pandemic and despite four years of college filled with obstacles both big and small, For some of us being a first generation college student or a person of color tested our resiliency, being the first in our family with no guidance tested our independence and our judgment. For others, success determined whether or not they could stay in the country. Growing up college seemed like something far beyond me, it was something I heard about on school or television because in my immediate family members only completed high school at most, some never even finished middle school, they couldn't pursue a higher education due to financial reasons or because they needed to work to come to the US in search of a better life than Ecuador could give them. My mom had me at 20 years old and always encouraged me to follow my dreams because she couldn't. A year into her undergrad career she had to drop out of college to raise me. Now I can proudly say that I'm a low income first generation student of a single mother who is receiving her BS in Neuroscience and Biology. On the first day of college, I cried in my first trip because I felt so different from everyone. Everyone had all these amazing life experiences to share. Meanwhile, mine only consisted of surviving and never venturing out to discover what I truly wanted beyond school. Throughout college always had the same intrusive thoughts, being here was a mistake that I somehow tricked the admissions committee to offer me a spot, was I only here to fulfill a quota? I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt every time I did something that was not related to my education because I knew that back home my family was struggling to survive. In college and in life in general asking for help was a struggle because growing up, I was always taught to be my own help, and the four years at Brandeis, I had to get out of that mindset and assimilate to one where I didn't have to worry about where my food was coming from or whether I'd have a home the next day. I was finally able to focus on things the students should worry about towards the end of my undergraduate career. From Brandeis, I learned that I am good enough and that it's more than okay to ask for help. I learned how to believe in myself and not depend on others for that validation because I only knew about my experiences. With most of the country being locked down I've had a lot of time to self reflect and learn more about myself and those around me, I learned that when I thought I was failing or pretending to know what I was doing, I was just the job adapting, I learned to stop being a perfectionist and find the beauty in making mistakes because of the lessons that they teach me. I think that during these times we should all try to self reflect, think about what we want out of life and find values and things that we didn't before. We should rethink our idea of normalcy because evidently our idea of normal isn't viable. We live in a world where we spend billions of dollars to find life on other planets but we spent trillions of dollars destroying the life on this one. We should think about how we treat others and ourselves how we treat animals given the link between animal agriculture and climate change we should think about divesting in fossil fuels, we should think about what will make the world a better place for future generations to come and stop exploiting the world of its people and its resources. Thank you for everyone who's listening to this. I know that this isn't how we envisioned our graduation but I believe that we'll be more resilient as a society here if we take this as a learning experience, to do better and be better, thank you.
[Stephen is shown.]
Stephen: Thank you so much to our graduating students for their thoughtful messages. We would now like to honor Ph.D. and master's students who wrote theses as well as our undergraduate senior honors students and award winners.
[Dark blue slides show the Brandeis seal in the corner, next to which reads: Brandeis University. A collection of slides show the theses of many students. The following slides read:
Doctor of Philosophy Degrees in Neuroscience
Lila Fakharzadeh
Johanna Flyer-Adams
David Hampton
Linnea Herzog
Narendra Mekherjee
Daniel Powell
Shen Wang
Doctor of Philosophy Degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology
Nicholas Clark
Danielle DiTirro
Mikael Garabedian
Chloe Greppi
Anna Kazatskaya
Julie Karic
Laura Laranjo
Andrew Sawyer
Rylie Walsh
Brenda Waterman
Weijin Xu
Master’s Theses in Molecular and Cell Biology
Yifan Fei
Wenqi Fu
Yuhan Huang
Xinyu Nie
Master’s Theses in Neuroscience
Samantha Malmberg
Troy Richter
Dual Master of Science/Masters of Business Administration in Biotechnology Thesis
Arianna Reuven
2020 Neuroscience Senior Research Students
Shai Amkraut
David Bressler
Eliana Ellenberger
Kristen Galatsis
Daniel Garcia Murillo
Lauren Hayashi
Laura Kronheim
Oran Rahamim
Faiyaz Rahman
Seneca Scott
Benjamin Segal
Bobby Tromm
Samantha Wacks
Tracy Yang
Xinyu Zhang
2020 Biology Senior Research Students
Johnson Agyapong
Paul Berkson
Jada George
Olivia Hoy
Pheobe Le
So Min Lee
William Lenh
Jeffrey Liu
Ellie Mendelson
Eli Perr
Samia Tamazi
Ruilin (Irene) Wang
Theresa Weis
Biology Department Awards
Stephen is shown.]
Stephen: We understand and acknowledge that no one wanted the year to end this way, and we wanted nothing more than to be able to celebrate with you all in person however, the obstacles that you all have faced in the past few months make this class truly special. We will never forget the Class of 2020 congratulations to all of you. With that being said we cannot wait to see the Class 2020 in person and next year's on campus to commencement. At this time, we would like to encourage those of you who would like to participate in the Zoom breakouts with faculty to direct your attention to the links below this video, you'll notice that each participating faculty member has a link that you may now visit if you're interested, thank you again for joining us today and congratulations to the Class of 2020.
[The slideshows showing Ph. D., graduate, and undergraduate students are shown again.
fText from the scrolling bar reads:
Master of Science in Biotechnology