Commencement is a natural time for reflection, to look back on your years at Tufts and anticipate what’s next. Your time on our campuses has been marked by profound change and upheaval, locally, nationally and around the world. Those challenges — and the corresponding opportunities — will continue, new ones will emerge and you are ready.
Civic engagement is embedded in all we do at Tufts, a commitment articulated by University President Sunil Kumar as doing more than our fair share in the world. Whatever your path, we hope that your education here has prepared you with the civic skills, knowledge and values to work together, to think critically, to listen generously, to appreciate complexity and to make change in a world that badly needs it.
As you consider what’s ahead, you may look to some of your fellow alumni for civic inspiration. Consider the winners of this year’s Lyon & Bendheim Citizenship Award: Adam Gardner (LA’95) and Lauren Sullivan (LA’96). Both Tufts alumni, now married, Gardner pursued a music career with the band Guster, while Sullivan embarked on a career of environmental research and stewardship. After seeing firsthand the costly environmental footprint of concert tours and festivals, they combined their expertise and their shared desire for social change and founded REVERB in 2004 to create a more sustainable, action-oriented music industry. Over 20 years later, REVERB’s impact, working with artists from The Roots to Billie Eilish to Tyler Childers, has been extraordinary. The organization has raised over $21 million for environmental causes, eliminated 4.5 million plastic bottles, neutralized 420,000 metric tons of CO2e, “greened” over 350 tours and inspired millions of fans to take action.
You might look to Audrey Carver (LA’22), who this semester taught a Medford-based course on community murals and joined us for a Civic Life Lunch talk. Carver is a Minneapolis-based muralist who approaches art as a way to connect people to their environment and create meaningful community spaces. This winter, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity surged in Minnesota, turning deadly and triggering widespread fear and disruption, Audrey was part of a grassroots, neighborhood-based movement that focused on creating art and supporting mutual aid: helping with carpools, picking up medical supplies and delivering groceries to families who were too frightened to leave their homes. Taking care of each other and making art together became forms of resistance and resilience.
The point of sharing these stories, and the many others like them, among the Tufts alumni community is two-fold: First, as your families can all attest, you never know where life will take you, so be ready and keep an open mind; and second, each of us has our own path to civic impact. For many of you, your civic pathway was developed here at Tufts. For some, it is well-worn, with twists and turns, challenges considered, choices made and views changed. For others, your pathway is more recently forged, by a senior thesis that raised questions you had not previously considered, or through an internship with a community organization that altered your career aspirations.
Wherever you are on your civic journey, whatever degree is conferred today and whatever next steps are before you, this much is clear: Your civic life continues, we are here to support you and we can’t wait to see the change you will make in this world.
Dayna Cunningham is the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean of Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life.
