A Special Message to the CBE Class of 2020

In reflecting upon the Class of 2020, parallels can be drawn with running the 400 meter hurdles, the longest and most demanding of the hurdling races.

You all started your own four-year version of the race in Fall 2016. The race has 10 hurdles evenly sized and spaced along the track, and each of you has had unique hurdles to overcome. For some that might be intense Num Stats, Organic Chemistry voodoo, the profound Math of Transport, or the lengthy lab reports.

Others may have had hurdles with the ebbs and flows of student organizations, relationships drifting apart, or even that devastating loss to the Tigers.

One thing uniting this class is that the last hurdle was replaced with a climbing wall. We’ve witnessed a perseverance from this class that we had not seen before. Not in learning distantly through digital means, you are digital natives after all, but rather in uprooting your community. When you visited Notre Dame five years ago, you got a look at the community that would help you through the next four years and beyond. Each of you are still a part of this new virtual community and have been more dedicated than ever before.

In March, this stopped being a race, and instead you each assisted one another over the last climbing wall to cross the finish line, hands held strong with no one left behind. Your professors couldn’t be prouder of your accomplishments over the last four years, but even more so over the last two months.

Over the next year each of you will take a separate path but maintain the deep connection via the vast alumni network of Notre Dame. We know that some of you will start climbing the corporate ladder or seek an advanced degree, and others will work with an NGO. Still others may work on temporary increases in toilet paper production. Whatever you do, one thing is certain: you will be a force for good in this world, and we want to know all about it. Congratulations Class of 2020, you’ve more than earned it.

— Faculty and staff of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Congratulations to the CBE Class of 2020!