Simmons University

🌈 Happy Pride Month from Simmons University!

This month and throughout the year, we celebrate our LGBTQ+ community and the diverse voices that help shape our vibrant learning community. Together, we reaffirm our shared commitment to inclusion, leadership, and belonging for all. 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

A toast to the incredible achievements of our Master's degree graduates of the Class of 2026! 🥂✨

We had a wonderful time celebrating these graduates at the All Programs Master’s Reception.

📸 Photos by Natalya Lavrenov

We loved celebrating our incredible master’s, PhD, and doctoral graduates at the Graduate Affinity Brunch & Celebration on May 14!

This event honors the rich tapestry of cultures, identities, beliefs, values, traditions, and life experiences that combine to form our vibrant Simmons community. 🌟🎓

📸 Photos by Natalya Lavrenov

🎓✨ Celebrating the extraordinary achievements of the Class of 2026!

On May 12, Simmons University hosted the Senior Academic and Leadership Awards Ceremony and Senior/Faculty Lunch to recognize individual members of the Class of 2026 for their outstanding leadership and academic achievements.

Congratulations to all of our award recipients! We cannot wait to see how these leaders shape the future! 🌟

📸 Photos by Natalya Lavrenov.

Moments from a milestone day. 🎓

We loved celebrating our doctoral graduates at this year’s Doctoral Hooding Ceremonies! Each graduate was individually recognized for their accomplishments and draped with a hood by their respective program director.

Congratulations, Doctors! 💙

📸 Photos by Natalya Lavrenov, Ivana Lucero, Grad Images, and Ashley Purvis.

Triple Shark Angelica Barron Maulucci ’17, ’18MSW, ’26DSW served as the graduate student speaker at the afternoon Commencement ceremony! 🦈🦈🦈

Maulucci’s remarks reminded graduates of their interconnected selves. “This is history arriving … today, I do not just see accomplishment. I see devotion. I see a celebration — for our ancestors, for our younger selves, for those in this room, and those in our hearts … And this is what Simmons has taught me: that we do not become alone.”

Maulucci left attendees with a meditation on love: “May we live as the love that brought us here today, and carry it forward into the future waiting for us.”

🔗 Read more about highlights from the 121st Commencement ceremonies at the link in the comments!

📸 Photo by Ivana Lucero, Grad Images.

Daniella Oyindamola Adeshina ’26, our undergraduate student Commencement speaker, encouraged the Class of 2026 to reflect on who they were when they began their studies at Simmons.

“There were moments when things felt uncertain. Moments when the pressure felt quiet, but heavy. But we still showed up. We smiled. We said we were fine. Because strength does not always look loud. Sometimes strength looks like staying. Sometimes strength looks like trying again.”

As graduates “step back into the unknown,” Adeshina urged them to do so with gratitude and faith, and to remember that “even in uncertainty, there is purpose.”

🔗 Read more about highlights from the 121st Commencement ceremonies at the link in the comments

📸 Photo by Ivana Lucero, Grad Images.

Rachel “Rae” Ilyce Otero ’26MS, our morning Commencement ceremony graduate student speaker, found unexpected joys at Simmons, including “a diverse set of brilliant professors in my field," and “a community with such creative-minded people."

Otero shared the “early-life crisis” she experienced after completing her undergraduate degree and not knowing what to do next. After quitting her plan to teach middle school English, Otero pivoted to library and information science and found where she was meant to be.

Her reminder to the Class of 2026? “There is always time to grow, to learn, to dream, to quit, to fail, and to start over... know that you are ready, and the world is waiting.” 🌍 💙

🔗 Read more about highlights from the 121st Commencement ceremonies at the link in the comments!

📸 Photo by Ivana Lucero, Grad Images.