Tim the Beaver on top of Dome that looks like a UFO taking off

Online Commencement 2021

Order of the Programme

Download a PDF of the MIT Commencement 2021 program, including graduates' names


Order of the Program

Opening

DIARY OF A PANDEMIC YEAR

Equanimous past Jamshied Sharifi '83
Conducted past Frederick East. Harris, Jr.

Lyrics based on poetry past Sophia D-G '22; Patricia Gao '21; Cynthia Hua, Affiliated Research Assistant, Media Arts and Sciences; Moana Minton Meadow '02; Maisha K. Prome '21; and Kareena Villalobos '22

Poetry compiled and edited by Erica Funkhouser, Lecturer, MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Performed by MIT Wind Ensemble & MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, Frederick E. Harris, Jr., Music Director; MIT Symphony Orchestra, Adam Chiliad. Boyles, Music Director; MIT Concert Choir, William Cutter, Music Director; MIT Song Jazz Ensemble, Laura Grill Jaye, Music Director; and Rambax MIT, Lamine Touré, Music Manager

With students from The Chorallaries of MIT, The MIT Logarhythms, MIT Syncopasian, The MIT Asymptones, and MIT Resonance

Director/Editor: Jean Dunoyer '87 | Audio Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Jamshied Sharifi | Recording Engineer: Cuco Daglio | Videographers: Miles Lowery, Jean Dunoyer, and Alex Loer | Director of MIT Video Productions: Clayton Hainsworth


Welcome

Diane B. Greene SM '78
Chair, MIT Corporation

Invocation

Reverend Thea Keith-Lucas
Interim Chaplain to the Plant

Kickoff Address

Bryan Stevenson
Founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative

Video: The Class of 2021 Looks Back

Produced by MIT Video Productions

Salute

Madeleine Sutherland
President, MIT Graduate Student Quango, 2020-2021

Salute and Turning of the Class Ring

Kofi Blake
President, MIT Form of 2021

Greetings from Palmer Station, Antarctica

Daniel Lowenstein
PhD student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Chemical Oceanography
Research Assistant, Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution

Charge to the Graduates and Conferring of Degrees

L. Rafael Reif
President, MIT

Salute from the Faculty

Sangeeta N. Bhatia SM '93 PhD '97
John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Engineering, MIT

Welcome into the MIT Alumni Association

Charlene C. Kabcenell '79
President, MIT Alumni Clan

Endmost Remarks

Diane B. Greene SM '78
Chair, MIT Corporation

Schoolhouse Song
and Take Me Back to Tech

Led by the Chorallaries of MIT

Invitee speaker: Bryan Stevenson

MIT welcomed Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, equally the invitee speaker for the Start 2021 online celebration program. Stevenson, Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Justice at the New York University Schoolhouse of Police force, is a public involvement lawyer and social justice activist who is also the author of the best-selling memoir, Just Mercy and the visionary creator of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which commemorates the Blackness victims of lynching in the United states. Read more in The Tech and in MIT News.

Diary Of A Pandemic Year: Lyrics and composer'southward notes

For the full listing of performers, please run into our page of thanks and acknowledgments

Lyrics and composer's notes

Notes

Diary Of A Pandemic Year grew from a seed planted past Fred Harris and Gayle Gallagher; to compose and nowadays a slice of music at MIT's 2021 Commencement that reflected the unique challenges of the past year. Fred and Gayle had specific ideas nigh the architecture and tone of the slice: it should begin with a pensive fanfare, information technology should progress from dark to calorie-free, and it should incorporate text in some fashion. I observe such guidance helpful in narrowing the telescopic of a limerick and making it possible to begin writing. But it was non until Erica Funkhouser sent a compilation of student poems on the pandemic that the vision for the piece became clear. The emotional openness, simplicity, and at times aching sadness of their writing was my guiding calorie-free, and informed all compositional decisions.

Reading their selected lines, and the longer poems from which they were fatigued, I began to go a sense of the bear upon of the pandemic on young people – its larger significance given their fewer years on the planet, its limiting force on a time that should for them be exploratory and expansive, and its uncomfortable place in a matrix of unfolding calamities brought on primarily past man inattention and hubris.

The current moment feels hopeful; the birds sing of new life. But I sense in the pandemic a warning, and an unsubtle suggestion that nosotros should not "return to normal", but seek an evolved, equitable, and holistic way of structuring our world. Our immature people know this in their bones. We should listen.

Jamshied Sharifi


Lyrics

Lyrics based on poetry by Sophia D-G '22; Patricia Gao '21; Cynthia Hua, Affiliated Enquiry Assistant, Media Arts and Sciences; Moana Minton Meadow '02; Maisha M. Prome '21; and Kareena Villalobos '22

Poetry compiled and edited by Erica Funkhouser, Lecturer, MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing

To the listing of things that make me distressing,
I add together each day each day

The color goes.
This is the world:
Just gray and gray and grayness.

Longing is the aforementioned in both directions.
Look at the sky and call back

Everything cute lies both forrard and backwards.
Look at the sky and remember
That information technology's good to be alive.

Overwriting the written constellations
I create my ain new map
I trace my finger along the lines.

I am the little blade of light
Blade of calorie-free
from the crack in the door.

I am the orangish wedge
Of sun
Of sun
Through your window.

This is the beginning
of the story we tell
again and again
It is the beginning
of the story we tell
Who will listen?

We are frail
we are precious
nosotros are fragile

We are fragile
nosotros are precious
we are frail

Nosotros are fragile
we are precious
Who will listen?

Schoolhouse Song

Arise All Ye of MIT

Lyrics revised (1985) past Alvin Kahn
Download PDF

Ascend, all ye of MIT
in loyal fellowship
the future beckons unto thee
and life is full and rich.
Ascend and heighten your drinking glass on high
this night shall ever be
a mem'ry that will never dice
for ye of MIT.

Thy sons and daughters, MIT
return from far and broad
and assemble hither one time more to be
re-nourished past thy side.
And as we heighten our glasses high
to pledge our love for thee
we join all those of days gone by
in praise of MIT.

Social media

Tag your social media posts with #MIT2021! Connect on Twitter (@MIT, @MITCommencement, @MITStudents, @MIT_Alumni), Instagram (MITpics, MITStudents, MITalumni), and Facebook (Facebook.com/MITnews, Facebook.com/MITAA). Go to socialmediahub.mit.edu to feel the mean solar day through MIT social media accounts.

Starting time viewing party download

The Commencement political party kit includes downloadable party decorations, Zoom backgrounds, music, a discount code to the COOP to purchase MIT swag, and more, courtesy of the MIT Alumni Association. Contact

Department Commencement events

School of Architecture and Planning

Architecture
Thursday, June 3 | 12 – 1:15 pm
Asking a Zoom invitation

Program in Media Arts and Sciences
Thursday, June 3 | 2 – iii pm EST
Celebration information

School of Engineering science

The Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology
Wednesday, May 26 | 5–7 pm
Request an invitation

Supply Chain Management Plan
Saturday, May 22 | 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Fri, June 4 | 3:30 pm – 5 pm
Request an invitation

Sloan School of Management

One Sloan Convocation
Friday, May 28
Upshot information and webcast link

School of Science

Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Thursday, June 3 | four:xxx pm
More information

MIT–WHOI Joint Program
Wednesday, June 2 | 3:thirty – 4:30 pm
Zoom registration details to follow

2021 FAQ

How can I view the online Commencement program?

The online Get-go 2021 celebration programme was webcast with captions and ASL interpretation. No special equipment is required to enjoy the show.

Are there dissever ceremonies for unlike degrees?

No: there was i online MIT Commencement ceremony program for all degrees and all areas of study.

What is the digital diploma and when will I receive it?

All graduating students are eligible to receive a digital version of their diploma at no toll. Digital diplomas enable yous to own your MIT credential and are the most firsthand fashion for you to share your achievement with potential employers, institutions of higher learning, and family and friends.

In club to receive your digital diploma, you must opt-in and complete the post-obit steps:

1.    Open one of the reminder emails from the Registrar'southward Office.
2.    Download the Blockcerts Wallet app to your mobile device.
iii.    Add MIT every bit an issuer.

After Commencement, subsequent issuances will occur on the first of the month. Learn more about MIT'south digital diplomas and email records@mit.edu with questions.

Will I receive my concrete MIT diploma?

Yes. All graduates will receive their MIT diplomas. Digital diplomas are not a replacement for MIT's traditional, newspaper diploma. Be sure to keep your contact information current in WebSIS and then the Registrar knows how and where to attain you. If you graduated in September or February and no longer have access to WEBSIS, write to records@mit.edu to provide your new contact information. This is critical to MIT being able to reach you with official electronic or physical mailings.

Physical diplomas were mailed to all Class of 2021 graduates by the Registrar's Role in the summer of 2021.

Do I demand to order a cap and gown?

No, you do not demand to worry about placing an guild for academic regalia for the online celebration.

All the same, if you wish to take a cap and gown for photos and to go on every bit a souvenir, you lot may either

  • Purchase at the MIT Coop in Kendall Square or
  • Gild keepsake regalia through Oak Hall, MIT'southward provider. Purchases made online volition be shipped directly to y'all. For keepsake orders, please let two weeks for processing, plus shipping time.

A annotation for PhD/ScD candidates: your Doctoral hood is provided to y'all past MIT...you lot do not demand to order information technology. Diplomas + hoods were shipped over the summer.

Tin I even so purchase my Contumely Rat?

Yes! Y'all may nonetheless order a course ring:

  • 2021 undergraduates: contact MIT's Herff Jones representative, Jeff Quirk
  • 2021 advanced degrees: visit the Grad Rat website for details

I didn't record the pronunciation of my name - am I included in graduate recognition?

Yes. If you chose non to submit a recording of your proper noun via Proper name Passenger vehicle—or if yous missed the deadline—and you lot were on the caste list, you were included in graduate recognition. ⇒ Become to the graduate recognition site

Because the celebration was online this year, all graduates (September 2020, February 2021, and June 2021) were recognized.

I am non sure I'm receiving email nearly Commencement. What should I practice?

Delight remain alert to your email, update your contact information in the Alumni Online Directory to ensure you receive the well-nigh up-to-date information nearly the on-campus commemoration—and follow #mit2021 (often, announcements are reinforced via social media.)

Grad App: First in your pocket!

A special bulletin from Volaroid

A group of students banded together combining creativity and tech to make a one-of-a-kind gift, MIT-mode! UNBOX YOUR GRADUATION!

Check out 📢THE GRAD APP!!📢, an augmented reality mobile app where you tin can create an avatar (using computer vision), receive your diploma on Killian Court (build in game engine), and share your moment with the world (using screen record).

Simply download THE GRAD APP from the Android and iOS stores (information technology's free) and enter your name to unlock the experience!

  •    VIDEO: run across what some of you said!

Good luck and keep shining bright!

Cheers to y'all!

—Victoria, Eswar, Luis, & Austin

  • Tag us on social media #mitgradapp #onemit #mit2021
  • If you have any problems or want to say hullo, email us at  vbousis@mit.edu

Where can I learn about the May 2022 on-campus commemoration?

MIT will welcome the Classes of 2021 and 2020 to campus for a special commemoration on Sabbatum, May 28, 2022! More data

Registration (via the MIT Alumni Association) volition open in March 2022. Contact