2025 Commencement

Hall from stage during commencement

The 165th Commencement of The Cooper Union was held on Thursday, May 29, 2025, in the Great Hall. Interim President Malcolm King EE’97 presided over the ceremony, welcoming attendees and commending the Class of 2025 on their achievements. A rendition of the National Anthem was performed by Camille Rotemberg, a graduating senior in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. Ross Wisnewski, a longtime supporter of Cooper along with her husband George Reeves ME’64, delivered the invocation. Watch the full ceremony here. 

Zareena Al-Shehab, a chemical engineering major, was selected to deliver the class’s student commencement address. Remarking on the “unprecedented times” in which her generation found themselves, Al-Shehab said, “Unprecedented isn’t just a word that describes the world we inherited. It is a word that describes us. The Class of 2025 is unprecedented as hell.” She expressed gratitude to her parents and the Cooper community and offered encouraging words to her classmates in the face of pressing global challenges: “What we build, whether with our hands, our minds, or our hearts, has the power to strengthen communities and leave a lasting legacy. It is not just about what we create, but about the impact we leave behind. It is now our turn to be the giants whose shoulders’ future generations will stand on.”

This year’s commencement speaker was Shankar Vedantam, host and executive editor of the popular Hidden Brain podcast and radio show. Vedantam, who is known for exploring neuroscience and social psychology to uncover how self-deception influences human success, offered the graduating class a thought experiment: “If you take a moment, once a week or once a month, and ask yourself what you would do if this was the last year of your life, you would be less afraid to say and do the right thing. You will see how much wonder there is in ordinary things.”

Presidential Citations were awarded to Jemuel Joseph AR’16, Alexis Rivas AR’16, Felipe Baeza A’09, and Martin Sprinzen EE’70. Drawing the ceremony to a close was Ron Vogel ChE’01, president of The Cooper Union Alumni Association, who welcomed the Class of 2025 as the CUAA’s newest members.

Photos by Argenis Apolinario A'03 / The Cooper Union except header which is by Brian Cusack
 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.