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Onstage, Duckworth traded phones with President Garry W. Jenkins. Free from their digital companions, Commencement attendees turned their attention forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this striking exercise, perhaps unique to the 2025 graduation season, Duckworth began to drive home a compelling, useful, and relevant message: Through \u201csituation modification, we have the power to shape and alter our surroundings in ways that help us thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is what mindfulness looks like in the digital age,” said Duckwork, who is a psychologist, leading voice in the study of human behavior, and author of the New York Times<\/em> bestseller Grit<\/em>. “Not willpower, but the wisdom to shape the situations that shape you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n View the 159th Bates College Commencement. Speaker Angela Duckworth’s address begins at the one-hour mark.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n This emphasis on self-determination and its relationship to our surroundings \u2014 whether the latter be the location of a cellular device, the campus that the Class of 2025 has grown to call home, or Bates\u2019 spot in an uncertain world \u2014 echoed throughout the Commencement speeches, including Jenkins\u2019 welcoming remarks and the 2025 Senior Address given by Aanika Patel \u201925 of Needham, Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the heels of last week\u2019s atypical May northeaster that covered campus in rain, the 159th Commencement was one of the chilliest in recent memory, with the temperature at 56 degrees but feeling cooler thanks to clouds overhead and a northwest breeze, which prompted a number of audience members to arrive with fleece throws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the Class of 2025 are from 38 states, the District of Columbia, and 31 countries. Among those students were 126 with double majors and four with triple majors, including five students who received Fulbright grants for the 2025\u201326 academic year. Sixty percent of the Class of 2025 studied abroad, and more than 40 percent played on varsity sports teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Duckworth received a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree, and three other honorands were also recognized: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his opening remarks, Jenkins acknowledged the unique and challenging moment that the Class of 2025 faces as they enter the world beyond Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have probably heard more than once that these are uncertain times,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cPerhaps so much so that you may be a bit tired of hearing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, Jenkins said, there is good and bad news on this front. On one hand, \u201cthere will always be uncertainty,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cLife is defined by change, by the unexpected, by the yet-unknown and the always-unknowable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Class of 2025 is well-equipped to handle uncertainty, Jenkins said, having ended high school and begun college during a pandemic and gained an education preparing them to handle a changing future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As they venture onward, the Class of 2025 has much to offer, Jenkins said, and he hopes that they will bring forth the skills they\u2019ve acquired at Bates to continue to do good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe world needs Bates graduates \u2014 the world needs you<\/em> \u2014 to bring all the tools and talents you have acquired during your time on this campus to bear for lives of leadership and purpose, ameliorating uncertainty, fueling prosperity and innovation, standing up for what is right, caring for those around you,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Class of 2025 has much to offer, Jenkins said. They embody grit, creativity, and a commitment to seeking justice and asking the hard questions, values instilled by a liberal arts education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is at places like Bates that we prepare students to think critically, to problem solve, to engage across difference, to connect, both the dots and with each other,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cAnd then those students become graduates who contribute to their communities around the world in all their vibrancy, diversity, and complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenkins charged the Class of 2025 and Commencement attendees with carrying forward a message about the importance of higher education in changing our world for the better, and \u201cthe reason it matters to a healthy democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHigher education has long fueled American progress \u2014 driving innovation, preparing leadership, and enhancing civic life. Of all this, I am certain,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cAnd, I can tell you \u2014 our amazing graduates, as well as friends and visitors \u2014 I call on you all to be ambassadors for Bates and for higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior Speaker Aanika Patel \u201925, an environmental studies major from Needham, Mass., began her speech by recounting a very-Bates tale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture this: It was winter in Lewiston, and Patel was preparing for the first outdoor lab in the course \u201cScientific Approaches to Environmental Issues.\u201d Ahead of the lab, her professor, Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies Holly Ewing, encouraged her students to dress appropriately for the trek up Mount David in the snow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That was really no big deal, thought Patel. She showed up wearing a jacket and Blundstones, not a glove in sight, and declined to sport the college-provided snowshoes, despite a foot and a half of snow on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAbout 30 minutes into it, I felt the snow slowly seeping into my socks, and my hands turned a terrible pale shade of white,\u201d Patel said. \u201cThis class had suddenly become one of those David Attenborough Planet Earth<\/em> documentaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patel learned her lesson: proper preparation frees the mind to revel in the surrounding natural wonders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter learning to dress properly, I began noticing the Maine beauty around me that I continue to be grateful for,\u201d Patel said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Mount David, Patel saw a maple tree, which, even in its stateliness, grew while leaving room for a nearby birch tree to also extend its roots. Each species, she noticed, played a role in the delicate dance of nature. She imagined the birch tree falling over, and its fellow trees stepping up to take over its ecological responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach species finds a new place in space,\u201d Patel said. \u201cIn this way, communities form, diverse but intertwined and interdependent through relationships forged over many years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bates\u2019 community is not indifferent from these intertwining natural relationships, Patel said. Since the first week of freshman year, the Class of 2025 has constructed its own \u201cecosystem,\u201d rooted firmly in place and defined by the lessons students have learned from one another and the memories they\u2019ve shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlace is a network of relationships carrying histories, contexts, stories, and identities,\u201d Patel said. \u201cIn order for a place to remain, there needs to be this acknowledgement of what has created it and how our identities are framed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Jenkins, Patel acknowledged that the Class of 2025 has dealt with tremendous change, from enrolling in college during a pandemic, to grieving in the aftermath of the October 2023 Lewiston shootings, to processing the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t go it alone. The Class of 2025 persisted and thrived thanks to support from many entities on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is on this campus we found a community to fight against isolation, to mourn loss and find hope in change, and to fight for the things worth fighting for just by being there and adjusting and relying on each other,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wherever the members of the Class of 2025 end up next, despite the fear and uncertainty of a path untrodden, they will always have Bates, Patel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike the trees standing their ground on Mount David, we will always have these histories we created in our back pockets, and their memory will be a reassurance to stand tall, stay grounded in who you are, and be courageous in this next chapter of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In her Commencement address, Angela Duckworth also discussed the importance of staying grounded, specifically by improving our relationship with the devices that now live ubiquitously beside us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf being on your phone were a paid job, we would be getting overtime,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cell phone use and placement have a profound effect on personal performance and well-being, Duckworth explained. Research shows that having one\u2019s phone within eyesight while taking an IQ test lowers scores, and high school students who study with their phones farther away from them perform better academically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, she pointed out, the popularity of social media over the last two decades coincides with decreasing rates of in-person social interaction, and studies show that halting Facebook and Instagram use for just one month corresponds with increased levels of happiness and decreased levels of depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, the choice to pick up our phones is not a conscious act but rather a habit that we turn to when we\u2019re feeling awkward or anxious; cell phones are \u201ceffectively adult pacifiers,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key to dealing with digital distractions, she said, is not about willpower but taking action to remove the distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSituation modification means using physical distance to create psychological distance,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Successful people change their environment to eliminate temptations or distractions instead of expending energy to resist them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to her phenomenally successful book, Duckworth is famously linked to the concept of grit, which \u201cmight make it sound as if world-class performers just force themselves to do things. But that\u2019s not accurate. They love<\/em> what they do. And because they love<\/em> what they do, they create sanctuaries where they cannot be distracted from their craft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where we keep our phones is among the most important choices we make, Duckworth said. Luckily enough, it is not a choice that we make only once, but rather one that we can recommit to \u2014 or change \u2014 over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI urge you to make a humble yet powerful vow: Commit to situation modification,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, Duckworth offered six suggestions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSituation modification isn’t about abstinence. It’s about intentionality,\u201d Duckworth said. \u201cIt’s about creating space between stimulus and response, between notification and reaction. And it\u2019s about reclaiming your attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, offered the honorary degree citations for Duckworth, Bonauto, Nelson, and Patrick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bonauto, a leader in legal efforts to advance marriage equality, has been senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD Law) since 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, she successfully argued in front of the Supreme Court in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges<\/em>, which made same-sex marriage legal throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs she said at the beginning of this year, accepting the Presidential Citizen Medal from President Biden, \u2018We each have a role to play in fulfilling our country\u2019s promises of equality, dignity, and freedom,\u2019\u201d Hill said, quoting Bonauto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn her career, and her contributions to a more equitable society, we see the realization of her own hopes,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stanley Nelson\u2019s expansive documentary filmmaking has broached subjects including Harriet Tubman, Emmett Till, and historically Black colleges and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe is a prolific \u2014 and prolifically talented, and prolifically honored \u2014 documentary filmmaker, focused on telling the stories of Black Americans \u2014 lifting up those narratives that haven\u2019t been told, and sharing other narratives, ones that we presume we know, in new and revelatory ways,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deval Patrick focused on \u201cstudent achievement, healthcare coverage, entrepreneurial activity, and veterans services\u201d and defended Massachusetts\u2019 law legalizing same-sex marriage, the first of its kind in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018Community\u2019 provides not only the through-line of his life and career \u2014 it is a value deeply held, frequently cited, and powerfully enacted,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hill then read the Class of 2025\u2019s names during the conferral of the degrees, the students\u2019 short steps across the Coram stage marking a leap into the next phase of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the conferral, Jenkins paused to recognize Hill for his contribution as dean of the faculty; after a sabbatical; he will returns to the classroom as a professor of biology and earth and climate sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, Leah Elsmore \u201912, president of the Bates Alumni Association, offered parting words about the importance of building connections with fellow alumni and being prepared to support future Batesies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThroughout the twists and turns of your professional and personal journey, you can always connect with a Bobcat in the wild,\u201d Elsmore said. \u201cAnd I urge you to pay it forward. Someday when you\u2019ve established yourselves in your chosen fields, be ready to be there for the next generation of Bates graduates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a benediction coinciding nicely with the images of nature twisting through Patel\u2019s address, and after Jenkins\u2019 charge to go out and do good, the words of the Rev. Raymond Clothier, interim multifaith chaplain, closed the Commencement ceremony:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMay what you have learned at Bates take root and flower in minute and majestic ways to nourish others, nurse the wounded earth and nurture human community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMay it be so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bates Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth, author of “Grit,” told the seniors to embrace \u201csituation modification\u201d \u2014 change your physical environment, especially your phone’s proximity, to protect your focus, relationships, and well-being. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commencement-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6801,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790\/revisions\/6801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n![\"Moment](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/05\/250525_Commencement_0459.webp\")
(Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n
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\u201cSituation modification means using physical distance to create psychological distance,\u201d Duckworth said. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/05\/250525_Commencement_7968-copy.webp\")
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