SIPA Celebrates the Class of 2025
SIPA celebrated its Class of 2025 on May 20, conferring degrees on nearly 700 students in an afternoon ceremony at Columbia University’s Baker Field Athletic Complex. More than 5,000 family and friends came from around the globe to applaud the graduates.
In her remarks, Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo touted the importance of universities and schools like Yarhi-Milo encouraged graduates to carry with them into their careers SIPA’s mission and commitment to civil discourse. “This is a space where students from around SIPA are engines of research and innovation, reaffirming her “stubborn belief that higher education can still be a force for good in a messy world.”
The ceremony’s featured speaker, Dr. Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, has been the architect of some of the largest development projects in the last decade. He serves as president of The Rockefeller Foundation and was formerly administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Obama administration, where he spearheaded the American response to the Ebola crisis, among many other initiatives. Shah warned that some of the most extraordinary achievements of the last century — which saw “the greatest increase in human prosperity, the largest reduction in extreme poverty, and the longest era without large-scale global conflict” — are now under threat.
And yet, he observed, “it’s precisely in these moments that we can seek to solve some of our toughest problems. Rather than lament the very real setbacks, there’s actually an opportunity to do something big.” Shah cautioned graduates not to succumb to cynicism or restrict their ambitions in the face of setbacks. “Today, if inspired by ambitious, bold ideas for the future, coalitions of the willing — including public, private, and philanthropic partners — can solve problems like never before,” he said.
Yarhi-Milo encouraged graduates to carry with them into their careers SIPA’s mission and commitment to civil discourse. “This is a space where students from around the world test theories and ideas in real time, with real stakes,” she said. “Where disagreement isn’t just tolerated — it’s necessary. Where you're not just allowed to ask hard questions — you’re expected to. We have to fight to preserve this.”
The graduates’ memories of their SIPA experiences will change over time and take on different meanings at different stages in life, she added. “With time, the moments that felt most uncomfortable — the ones that stretched you, challenged you, maybe even shook you — may turn out to be the ones that pushed you to grow the most. That taught you about leadership. About listening. About yourself.”
Several professors were recognized for their outstanding teaching, including Yumiko Shimabukuro, who is the founding director of the Urban and Social Policy concentration for Executive MPA students. She received Columbia University’s prestigious Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, one of only four SIPA professors to ever receive this award, honoring excellence in teaching across every discipline in the entire university.
In a rousing speech, former student body president Felix Wang MIA ’25 encouraged his classmates to “move forward not with cynicism, but with conviction.” Noting how their campus experiences and career fields had been radically reshaped and destabilized by events beyond their control, Wang appealed to his fellow graduates to “keep caring.”
“After we graduate, we will be compelled to negotiate between the ideals we learned coming in right here, and the realities out there. Communities can work shoulder to shoulder, trade is not terror, and dialogue comes with discomfort,” he said. “Keep caring — when it’s hard, when it’s thankless, when the world constantly tells you not to.”
“What begins as caution can calcify into apathy, and over time, curdle into a resignation that the system will never change,” he said to loud cheers. The celebration continued later that evening at a reception on Ancell Plaza, and as twilight descended, SIPA’s Class of 2025 celebrated becoming members of the 25,000-strong alumni community that spans over 160 countries.
