Different crowd, same excitement: Fenway buzzes with NU graduation
Thousands of Northeastern University students, their friends, and family filled Fenway Park Sunday for the school’s 121st commencement, and its third straight ceremony held at the iconic ballpark.
And with the Red Sox out of town, crowds flooded the sidewalks and streets surrounding Fenway hours before the roughly 4,600 undergraduates filed into the ballpark from right field for the 4 p.m. ceremony.
Brendan Ryan, 23, stood outside the park just before 1 p.m., wearing his robe, honor cords, and a red necktie adorned with the black paw prints of the Huskies mascot.
A Sox fan, the mechanical engineering major from Franklin said it was “kind of incredible” to receive his degree on the storied field. “I still remember my dad waking me up in the final inning of the ’04 World Series,” Ryan said with a laugh.
Down the street, a man pulled a wagon filled with roses, crying out “flowers, flowers, flowers,” on the sun-splashed afternoon.
Some grads decorated their black mortarboards to reflect their personality: One was wrapped in a gilded picture frame, another painted with the cover of Dr. Suess’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” One student tied a stuffed rainbow trout to the top of his cap — the fish wearing its own miniature, cardboard mortar.
Taylor Extavour’s cap featured shimmering pearls, fluorescent flowers, and a picture of a human heart — referencing her dual marine biology and pre-medical degree, she said.
She finished classes in December and moved back to her mother’s home in Philadelphia. It felt “kind of surreal” to be back in Boston for graduation day.
“It’s nice, nice to see old pals,” Extavour, 23, said.
Joseph Gallotti of Connecticut gave his daughter, Gillian, a hug and a kiss on the cheek, brushing the gold tassel out of her face, before she stepped into the ballpark.
Gallotti said his wife died a week before their daughter left for college “and she had the guts to go anyway.”
“So I’m overwhelmingly proud,” he said. “That’s how I feel today.”
Inside the park, festivities began just before 2:30 p.m. with a choreographed dance by the university’s Revolve Dance Crew. Behind them, the Green Monster read “#LIKE A HUSKY.”
As the graduates filled their seats, they waved their hands and flags and blew kisses to their admirers in the stands. Wally the Green Monster, the Sox’s mascot, joined Northeastern’s Paws the Husky to give out congratulatory high-fives.
Student orator Clara Wu urged her fellow graduates to “appreciate everything you did” during their time at college and noted the outsized impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck just as she and her classmates were heading to their first coop jobs, the hallmark of a Northeastern education.
“While my friends at other colleges languished in Zoom classes all year, we set off to work,” Wu said, before drawing on the advice of her grandfather. “Do something you can still be proud of tomorrow.”
Trustees presented honorary degrees to Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen, Alondra Nelson, a scholar at the Center for American Progress, and entrepreneur Mariam Naficy, who delivered the commencement address.
Naficy, founder of online design marketplace Minted, told graduates that they learned adaptability through the pandemic, a skill “that takes many people years of their post-college lives to learn.”
She recounted her journey from a childhood spent under martial law in Iran to founding Eve.com, one of the first online cosmetics retailers.
“You’ll find discouragement masquerading as good dogma, but success is not defined by what other people think,” Naficy said.
“I feel so optimistic about the future, because the future is in your hands.”