The Yale University class of 2016 was on full display all over New Haven on Monday morning as students and their families and friends celebrated commencement.
The main graduation event was held on the Old Campus where undergraduates and graduate students alike were all very excited to collect their degrees.
“Yale has been awesome, obviously challenging, but it’s been the best four years of my life and I’m really sad to leave,” said Grace Brittan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and plans to move to Boston.
“It was a long process, but it felt good at the end,” said Apiwat Wang Wee Rawong, who earned a PhD in chemistry.
The Pollard family of Middletown was excited to see Angela receive a degree in sociology.
“We’ve been up since 5 this morning, getting breakfast for everyone and getting the family together,” her father, said Bryan Pollard, said.
“It is such a wonderful thing that she can graduate today and go off and just be part of contributing to so many great things in the word. I am so excited,” Alice Pollard said.
School of forestry and environmental studies graduate James Ball just got married last week and, fittingly, used flowers from his wife’s bouquet to top his cap.
He said he’s excited about the doors a Yale degree will open for him.
“I was very blessed and fortunate to get in here and I feel like the opportunities here are something beyond what I might have gotten elsewhere and again, I think you take that with a certain humility and responsibility of then going out and taking full advantage of that degree,” he said.
