“Out of Many, One”
Read President Hiram Chodosh’s complete commencement address and final charge to the Class of 2025.
Tori Williams ’25 was understandably wistful about the past—and perhaps even slightly nervous about the future—as she spoke to her classmates from the podium at Claremont McKenna College’s 77th Annual Commencement on Saturday afternoon.
“Why am I now wishing to return to the harrowing late nights of Poppa computer lab? Sure, I’m empowered to take the next step, but why does it feel as though I’ve forgotten how to walk?” asked Williams, the senior class president.
Williams was speaking to the enormity of the moment—the bold step into the “real world” facing her Class of 2025 peers as they celebrated the long-awaited completion of their four-year journey at CMC. Except change is constant, something Williams already knew as she quickly followed with a lesson that her dad shared while growing up: Heraclitus’ theory of flux, or how “a man cannot step in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.”
It was just one example of how Saturday’s commencement ceremony served as a reminder that change, while inevitable, also brings opportunity. Specifically for the 355 graduates who received their diplomas at Pritzlaff Field, change is an opportunity to grow, to innovate, and to create greater unity with one another as they rely on what CMC has prepared them for in their roles as the next generation of responsible leaders.
The lessons began with the opening invocation from Shaila Andrabi, a Claremont resident who served as coordinator for Muslim life at The Claremont Colleges. Andrabi advised graduates to navigate the “polarized world, a world of tremendous differences, beset with conflict” by relying on the Arabic phrase, Le taarifu—translated as “To introduce yourself to each other.”
“What are going to be your words of introduction? How will you deepen your understanding of others?” Andrabi asked the graduates.
President Hiram Chodosh followed with his annual address, noting how the Class of 2025 had already distinguished itself by “standing out (in the crowd), standing up (for principle), and standing in (to serve others).” He called the class the closest group he had ever seen during his three-plus decades in higher education, and reminded the audience what they had battled back from upon joining the College during the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic.
“I worried: Would our social memory be lost forever? Could we ever get the CMC magic back? Would we even remember how to speak with one another?” President Chodosh said of their awkward 2021 arrival following CMC’s prolonged campus closure.
“And now look at you, look at us. Look around at the new magic you’ve created. Look at the community you all have rebuilt. Intellectually, socially, athletically, you create a greater one, by standing out, standing up, and standing in.”
Building on a theme projected from the national motto E pluribus unum—“out of many, one”—President Chodosh also shared a maxim from Chinese author Lu Xun: Hope is like a road on the earth. At first there are no roads, but when many people travel in a single direction, a road is made.
He tallied the Class of 2025’s myriad accomplishments, from athletic and Model UN success, to AI innovations, to empowerment initiatives for women, to the simple but unifying act of extending “open ears and warm shoulders” as the thoughtful, empathetic leaders our world needs. President Chodosh noted that while conflict is endemic to society, the Class of 2025 is already defying the odds by answering a critical question: How do we get the best from conflict and avoid the worst?
“You give us the promise, the hope we all desperately need,” he said of their lived example.
“You are the many people. You travel in a single direction. Your traverse of the stage today is the road the world needs to follow. You prove the possible. The 64% of Americans who have lost confidence in higher education have not met you.”
Class-elected speaker Henry Long ’25 reinforced the day’s lessons with a reminder to his classmates that “your education has led you out” and “graduation is just a step” on a path towards truth. Long drew back to President Chodosh’s Orientation address and the fundamental question he asks of new CMC students in Roberts Pavilion each year: “Why are we here?” He broadened President Chodosh’s query to include all that is unknown in the world, and why even as they approach persistent change and conflict, humility will serve them well.
“Some will argue that the best response to the vastness of the unknown is to be larger than life, to be greedy, to grab what you can. But this is mistaken,” said Long, a former Athenaeum fellow. “If you’re larger than life, you’ll always be squinting to see. Being small allows you to appreciate life in full detail. Life is best accepted as a gift, not seized as a trophy.”
Perhaps no one better could speak to a humble approach to life than keynote speaker, Dr. Richard Heinzl. As the founder of Doctors Without Borders: Canada (Médecins Sans Frontières), which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, Dr. Heinzl has spent much of his life helping the world’s poorest countries devastated by war, famine, and natural disasters.
He has seen what change—and the worst of conflict—can do to others. But through lessons learned by helping those who need it most, he encouraged CMC graduates to live unafraid and lead with conviction. “Go to the cusp. Go to the cutting edge,” Dr. Heinzl said, further noting how a wise South Sudanese man named Deng once shared with him an enduring survival mantra amid constant upheaval: Always keep moving.
“We made so many mistakes (while starting Doctors Without Borders) … but guess what? That’s where we learned the most,” Dr. Heinzl said. “If you don’t allow yourself to make mistakes, you’re not going to risk enough. If what you always do is successful and perfect, you won’t go as far as you can.”
President Chodosh closed the ceremony with his final charge, “Build Again, Out of Many, One,” a powerful call to challenge assumptions, break bread with open hands, and embrace and understand conflict in order to “love your neighbor in yourselves.” He left graduates with a parting keepsake: images of CMC to carry with them in their hearts, wherever they are in life.
Bring others along on Lu Xun’s new road.
Bring us, too.
Carry CMC with you.
Make every new space your Athenaeum
every acquaintance, your classmate
every boss, your professor
each boardroom, your classroom
each coffee shop, your Hub
each apartment building, your dorm
each park, your Green Beach.
Be for others the DT in your lives.
…
Answer the call.
We will follow your lead.
Create (as you have here)
out of many, one.
Relive the 2025 commencement ceremony through our full celebration on YouTube.
Look for more photos and commencement coverage on CMC.edu and CMC’s social media accounts in the days and weeks ahead.