‘A moment of consequence.’ President Joseph E. Aoun tells graduates the world they will enter will not offer ‘a clear map’
Wednesday’s ceremony was not only a celebration of all that the graduates achieved during their time at Northeastern, but their “readiness” to enter a world “that doesn’t stay still,” President Joseph E. Aoun said.
Northeastern University graduates step into the world ready to lead, think creatively and adapt in real time to “constantly shifting terrain,” President Joseph E. Aoun told graduates Wednesday during commencement ceremonies in iconic Fenway Park.
This world, he said, “will not offer you a clear map.” But he added, “you are not map-followers. You are pathfinders.”
Fittingly, the graduation celebration was not only a moment to honor all that the graduates have achieved during their time at Northeastern, but also their “readiness” to enter a world “that doesn’t stay still,” Aoun said, especially given the sheer scale and speed at which artificial intelligence is being adopted and is radically transforming society, he said.
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The ceremony featured Hilary Duff, a singer and movie star, as the undergraduate speaker, and Alan McKim, founder of the environmental cleanup company Clean Harbors, as the graduate speaker. Roughly 5,000 students attended the undergraduate commencement, with 3,400 students present for the graduate ceremony.
Students, parents and faculty gathered under cloudy skies and light, intermittent rain in the morning. The rain clouds dissipated as the day wore on, making way even for some sunshine as the undergraduates gathered for their ceremony.
Aoun began his address by asking graduates to thank the people who supported them — family, friends, faculty and classmates. He also recognized the university’s Golden Graduates, alumni who graduated 50 or more years ago, acknowledging their role in carrying Northeastern’s values forward.
He then asked the graduates to close their eyes and recall their first day at Northeastern, when they were about to embark on — or continue — their educational journeys.
Undergraduates were asked to remember Convocation. “I said something that may have sounded strange at the time: ‘Welcome to Northeastern. Now it’s time to get out,’” Aoun recalled, invoking the university’s ethos of “making the world your classroom.”
He asked all graduates to recall their co-op experiences, the labor of deciding on an intellectual track and the bonds they’ve forged.
“You shaped public policy, built systems to transform companies and presented your ideas to audiences around the world,” Aoun said. “You published research that unveils lost history, designed tools to treat disease, and explored the frontiers of quantum physics. And you found your calling in entrepreneurship, leaving here with a startup and network of supporters.”
Aoun offered three lessons for graduates to take with them into their lives.
One: Luck is a skill.
Aoun described the notion of luck not merely as something that “happens to us,” but something the graduates should work to cultivate, even if indirectly. Luck, he said, occurs to people who are “the least passive,” he said. Those “who are always in motion — curious, available, open, willing to walk into a room without already knowing the answer.”
Aoun also noted during the undergraduate ceremony that “luck” is featured in the title of Hilary Duff’s latest album: “Luck… or Something,” which was released on Feb. 20. “You need both,” he said.
It’s a lesson he also imparted during the graduate ceremony, when he noted that McKim also never let luck pass him by. He started with “one truck and built a multi-billion-dollar company,” Aoun said, adding, “Through his engagement and philanthropy, [McKim] has provided luck and opportunity to many of you.”
Two: Imagination beats computation.
In addition to the political turmoil and international strife we read about in the headlines, graduates are also entering a world in which AI can “write code, analyze data, draft contracts and summarize research,” Aoun said. As he has on numerous other occasions, he emphasized that artificial intelligence cannot replace human ingenuity and creativity.
Here, Aoun was succinct: “never lose sight of what AI cannot do.”
He elaborated by saying that AI lacks the imagination to come up with things that don’t already exist. “It cannot invent a business model that upends an industry. It cannot devise a theory that changes our perception of the universe.”
“What we have that AI doesn’t: passion to create a better world,” he said. “And the people who thrive won’t be competing with machines.”
He explained that they will be the ones who learned to “bring creativity to engineering and empathy to business,” he said.
“Remember that the future doesn’t belong to the most optimized, it belongs to the most original,” Aoun added.
Three: Humanity is our superpower.
If imagination trumps computation, then humanity remains our advantage, Aoun emphasized.
Trust, empathy, intuition and the ability to read people — what Aoun referred to as a “vibe check” — these are qualities it would be hard to find in robots, he said.
“Technology scales information, it does not scale trust, it does not scale wisdom,” Aoun added. “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.”
Aoun concluded his message to graduates with a reminder that whatever they go on to do, they will always be part of a global community.
“Wherever you go, Northeastern goes with you,” he said. “And whenever the world is uncertain, you won’t be.
“Go forward with confidence, go forward with purpose,” he added. “And go forward — ready not just to face the unknown, but to shape it.”
