Yale SOM Celebrates the Class of 2025
Surrounded by classmates, faculty, and loved ones, graduating students received their degrees during a day of ceremony and celebration.
Yale SOM hosted its 48th Commencement on May 19, gathering students, family, friends, and faculty at Evans Hall to celebrate the 585 members of the Class of 2025.
Graduating SOM students joined a jubilant procession to Yale’s historic Old Campus, where they joined peers from across the university and officially received their degrees from Yale President Maurie McInnis. They later returned to Evans Hall to receive their diplomas in the sunny Shen Courtyard.
After students took their seats, Yale SOM Dean Kerwin K. Charles commended both the class and the loved ones who supported them before and during their time in graduate school.
Praising the Class of 2025 as an “immensely talented lot,” Charles noted that while graduating students possess a wide array of backgrounds, experiences, and skills, they share a commitment to SOM’s mission of educating leaders for business and society.
“You are animated by a distinctive and impressive set of values consistent with the school’s mission,” Charles said. “You each aspire not only to do well, but to transform your society for the good. To leave the world richer and more efficient, but also more just, more decent, and better than you found it.”
Those values, Charles said, will anchor members of the Class of 2025 as they enter a world characterized by “deep and rancorous polarization.” He encouraged graduating students to prioritize kindness and respect for others, and to remember the lessons they learned at SOM when faced with obstacles in the future.
“Navigating this challenge will not be easy, but you’re up to the task,” he said.
SOM’s graduating class included 333 students in the full-time MBA program, 39 in the Master of Advanced Management (MAM) program, 66 in the MBA for Executives (EMBA) program, 12 in the Master’s Degree in Systemic Risk program, 73 in the Master’s Degree in Global Business and Society (GBS) program, 60 in the Master’s Degree in Asset Management program, and 2 in the Master’s in Technology Management program.
Four graduating students selected by their peers spoke before the awarding of diplomas.
Tristan Briot Onffroy de Verez ’25, a student in the GBS program, reflected on the intellectual development he and his peers experienced at SOM. “Through our time here, we were pushed to choose our own paths,” he said.
“We were challenged to know our weaknesses and be bold enough to improve. Perhaps most powerfully, we were reminded that doubt is part of the journey, especially in uncertain times like these, but that courage, clarity and community will guide us forward.”
Quoting civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, MBA student Megan Grossman ’25 urged her peers to keep compassion at the center of their post-graduate lives. “The hallmark of our community is a culture of giving back,” she said. “It’s cyclical, it’s organic, and it bleeds into everything we do.”
Krystle-Jayne Hawkesbury ’25, a student in the MBA for Executives program, said that SOM’s mission-focused education has prepared her class to lead with integrity during a tumultuous moment.
“Yale didn’t admit us to blend in, but to break molds and be leaders in business and society,” she said. “In today’s climate, society needs courage, empathy, and leaders who don’t confuse power with purpose.”
Arjun Kumar ’25, a student in the MBA program, reminded his classmates to savor their accomplishments.
“Never let the value of what you’ve done until now be lost on you,” he said. “At every juncture, you made the decisions that brought you to this incredible accomplishment that has created immeasurable possibilities ahead.”
After students crossed the stage—some accompanied by their children—student government president Nico Pedreira ’25 and Dean of Students Anita Sharif-Hyder concluded the ceremony with final remarks.
“Without the gift of their labor, we would not be the individuals we are today, and we are grateful for it,” Pedreira said. “Now, it is our turn to recognize that wherever our paths take us, we must always remember that our labor is a sacred gift.”
Marking her first Commencement in the role, Sharif-Hyder offered “a sincere thank you to our family, friends, and guests from near and far for joining us. I want to express my deep gratitude to our spectacular community for the pomp and circumstance of this special day.”
