Good evening, everyone. Heller faculty, staff, families, friends, and my brilliant, stubborn, anxiety-ridden fellow graduates.
My name is Chloe, and I am honored beyond words to be speaking on behalf of our MPP cohort tonight – a group of people who, over the past two years, have taught me more about policy, persistence, and community than I ever thought possible.
I want to tell you a quick story. In middle school, my school had a dress code that was, let's just say, selectively enforced. Girls got pulled out of class for wearing shorts or tank tops. And if you had a more developed body, or darker skin, you got pulled a lot more often than your classmates. You'd sit in the principal's office, missing math, missing lunch, missing your friends, until somebody's parent showed up with a change of clothes. And that’s if your parent could even get out of work. It was sexist. It was racist. And it was disruptive for everyone.
So I did what any reasonable twelve-year-old with too many opinions would do. I started a petition. I wrote up demands for a standardized, equitable dress code. And I went classroom to classroom asking people to sign. Most of them wouldn't. They were scared of getting in trouble. And I remember thinking—very clearly, even at twelve—I do not care if I get in trouble. This is too important.
I've been thinking about that kid a lot lately. How proud she would be of me. Because here we are, about to walk into a world where doing the right thing is, once again, something a lot of people are too scared to sign their name to. Where the policies we’ve envisioned—disability justice, protecting immigrant rights, abolishing prisons, and combatting green gentrification—are being framed as controversial. As disruptive. As too much.
Good. Let us be too much.
So to my cohort: keep being the person who signs the petition. Keep advocating for yourself and others in the classrooms and workspaces you occupy. Keep being the one who says something to the stranger mistreating the Market Basket cashier. Keep being too much.
The world is counting on it.
Congratulations again, Heller Class of 2026!