Good afternoon!

Thank you, Chairman D’Amore.

Graduates, let us take a moment to thank everyone who has supported you on your academic journey: Your families, partners, and friends. Please stand, remain standing, and give them a round of applause.

Let us also acknowledge the Northeastern faculty and staff who helped you reach this moment. They, too, deserve a round of applause. And your classmates, let’s recognize their accomplishments.

Finally, if you look above home plate, you will see a very special group of alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago. Golden Graduates, you are the stewards of this university. You embody the values on our Northeastern seal: Light, Truth, Courage. We are honored to have you with us.

Everyone, please be seated.

Class of 2026, today we honor your achievements. But even more, we celebrate your readiness. You need to be ready because you are graduating into a world that refuses to stay still. A world shaped by political turbulence. A world unsettled by global conflict. A world being reimagined—daily—by artificial intelligence.

This is not a moment of calm. It is a moment of consequence.

And yet, I stand before you with absolute confidence. Not despite this uncertainty, but because of it. You are prepared for the unknown. You are ready for whatever comes next.

Let’s do an experiment together. Close your eyes and imagine you’re back at the new student convocation. I see that some of you have not closed your eyes. If you don’t do it, I won’t give you your diploma.

Convocation was the last time we all got together. Do you remember that day? Do you remember what you were thinking? What you were wearing?

I was wearing the same outfit I’m wearing today. I think I need to work on my drip.

I said something that may have sounded strange at the time: Welcome to Northeastern. Now it’s time to get out.

And you did.

Your co-ops took you from Roxbury to Rwanda. From Seattle to São Paulo. From Miami to Milan. You worked in global financial institutions, small tech startups, NGOs, and lifesaving trauma centers. You shaped public policy, tested ideas in real time, and learned how to work in teams. These experiences are not an add-on to your education. They are its foundation.

Northeastern is not a traditional university. It is a melting pot of experiences. Maybe your first co-op didn’t work out, but your second revealed an entirely new path. Some of you stumbled into entrepreneurship, and are leaving here with a startup and network of supporters. You changed your major, not once, but three times. Yes, your parents had a meltdown, but you found your calling and clarified your purpose.

Walking on campus, I learned a lot from you. I learned about your journeys, your passions, and your aspirations. Here are three lessons you taught me that I would like to recap today.

First lesson, luck is a skill.

We tend to think of luck as something that happens to us. But I’ve noticed something in every conversation I have had with you. Those who experience the most luck are the least passive.

Luck doesn’t happen to people who wait. It happens to people who are always in motion — curious, available, open, willing to walk into a room without already knowing the answer. It happens to people aware of themselves. Aware of others.

You can’t predict when luck will come your way. But you can choose not to let it pass by.

Hilary Duff’s new album is titled “Luck . . . or something.” You need both. That something is in your hands. It is your engagement and action.

Second lesson, imagination beats computation.

You are graduating into a world where artificial intelligence can write code, analyze data, draft contracts, and summarize research. It does it at a scale and speed no human can match.

Never lose sight of what AI cannot do. It cannot imagine what does not already exist. It cannot invent a business model that upends an industry. It cannot devise a theory that changes our perception of the universe. It lacks the vision to dream of a different future. And has no passion to create a better world.

Remember that the future doesn’t belong to the most optimized, it belongs to the most original.

Third lesson, humanity is your superpower.

Technology scales information. It doesn’t scale trust. It doesn’t scale wisdom. It cannot comprehend the moment when you look a friend in the eye and they know—without you saying a word—that you have their back.

Those qualities are yours. They cannot be uploaded or improved by a software update. AI cannot walk into a room and read what isn’t being said. I think you call it a “vibe check,” right? No generation does a vibe check better than yours. In a world that will increasingly ask you to move fast, optimize, and reduce everything to a metric — your humanity is what sets you fully apart. The people who thrive won’t be the ones who compete with machines. They will be the ones who define a purpose and engender trust.

Here at Northeastern you learned to see across disciplines. Bring creativity to engineering and empathy to business. You earned experience in professional settings. You created communities of mentors and friends that helped unleash your best self. And you exercised your humanity—for yourselves, for each other, and the world. That is the essence of your Northeastern education.

Class of 2026, the world you enter will not offer you a clear map. It will offer constantly shifting terrain. But you are not map-followers. You are pathfinders. You know how to learn in motion. You know how to adapt in real time. You know how to build while others are still debating what is possible.

There will be moments when the world feels unstable. When institutions falter. When communities splinter. When technology outruns ethics. In those moments, remember this: At Northeastern you learned to navigate uncertainty. You have done it in unfamiliar settings. On your first day of a new co-op. You were not yet the expert, but you chose to contribute anyway.

The future does not belong to those who predict it. It belongs to those who build it. And you—Class of 2026—are builders.

Indulge me once again. Close your eyes for a moment and picture yourself in the future. Whatever you envision, remember the three lessons you taught me: Luck is a skill. Imagination beats computation. Humanity is your superpower.

In this journey, you are not alone. You are part of a global community. The Northeastern community. A constellation that remains steady even as the skies shift.

Wherever you go, Northeastern goes with you. And whenever the world is uncertain, you won’t be.

Go forward with confidence. Go forward with purpose. And go forward—ready not just to face the unknown, but to shape it.

Congratulations, Class of 2026!