Graduates, their guests, and anyone attending this year’s graduation ceremony will be privy to speeches from some of the biggest cultural change-makers of the moment.
At the commencement for the entire graduating class of 2019, the New School will award honorary degrees to Me Too Movement founder Tarana Burke, Parsons alum and Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan, and university trustee Robert Mundheim, who was a refugee from Nazi Germany and has led a prominent career as a lawyer and investor. Ta Kasitipradit, who is graduating from Parsons with a BFA in Communication Design, was selected by the graduating student body as the ceremony’s student speaker.
“Each year, The New School awards honorary degrees to individuals who exemplify the interests and ambitions of the graduating class. The award recipients embody the university’s driving principles of academic freedom, tolerance, and creative experimentation,” according to the university’s commencement webpage. “Honorees are invited to briefly address the graduates, sharing insights and advice from their unique vantage point. They are joined by a student speaker, who embodies and projects the best qualities and core values of The New School.”
Each honorary degree recipient will speak for approximately five minutes at the event, according to Senior Vice President for Student Success Michelle Reylea. “You get a lot of different perspectives, rather than just one message,” she said. “We’ve always tried to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening and also have messages that speak to our students.”
“To open for them is crazy. I am honestly just humbled to be there. I want the speech to be really celebratory, humorous and lighthearted,” Kasitipradit said. He said he plans to open his eight-minute speech with a meditation, then talk about community and being a trailblazer.
The 2019 University Commencement will occur on May 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens. Students from the university’s different schools — the College of Performing Arts, Eugene Lang, Parsons, Schools of Public Engagement, and the New School for Social Research — will be seated by their divisions. According to the commencement page, tickets are not needed for this event. The ceremony will be followed by an after-party festival with games, food trucks, photo booths, and the school’s mascot, Gnarls the Narwhal.
Tarana Burke, the senior director of the Brooklyn-based nonprofit Girls for Gender Equity, is a Bronx native about civil rights activist who founded the #MeToo movement in 2006 to raise awareness about sexual abuse and assault.
Kevin Kwan is a Singaporean-American novelist and New School alum, best known for his novel turned blockbuster rom-com Crazy Rich Asians. Even though Kwan graduated in 1998 from Parsons with a BFA in Photography, he is receiving an honorary degree this year. “Honorary degrees are not equivalent to the academic degrees conferred after a course of study; they are honors to recognize a figure’s contributions and career that we believe will inspire our graduating students. Granting such an honor to an alumnus like Kwan actually highlights the important work our students go on to do in the world,” university spokesperson Merrie Snead wrote in an email to the Free Press.
Robert Mundheim is a lawyer, investor, former University of Pennsylvania dean, and refugee who fled Nazi Germany. He is currently a member of the New School’s Board of Trustees and is counsel to the multinational law firm Shearman and Sterling. He served as Special Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1962 to 1963 and General Counsel of the U.S Treasury Department from 1977 to 1980.
Ta Kasitipradit, soon-to-be Parsons graduate and graphic design enthusiast, has worked within the university community as a Kerrey Hall Resident Advisor, Leadership Retreat leader, student advocate, and meditation guide. Originally from Thailand, he has lived in China, Canada, and America.
The committee that selected these honorary degree recipients was comprised of Student Senate members, staff administrators, executive leadership, and faculty from across the school. The student speaker was voted by the senior student body after several candidates submitted a cover letter and video submission explaining why they wanted to represent the Class of 2019 at the commencement ceremony.
The annual commencement tradition will celebrate the university’s centennial while attempting to encompass individuality, inclusivity, and New School values, Reylea said. She said that the event will encourage a future of academic freedom, conversation, and diversity.
“My New School career has given me the vocabulary to express who I am, talk about myself, and kind of rediscover who I am so much more,” Kasitipradit said. “The speech, if anything at all, will be a big ‘Thank you’ to everyone out there who made my experience so great, and celebrating that we did it. There’s so many people in my year who didn’t get to graduate, or weren’t able to fund their education, so I’m definitely really happy about that—that we made it.”