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The Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on May 15 conferred 2,274 master’s degrees and 20 education specialist degrees in a 9 a.m. Commencement ceremony at the William D. Mullins Memorial Center. 

The ceremony was one of many special events marking UMass Amherst’s 156th Commencement this weekend, which also included Undergraduate Commencement, the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony, the Stockbridge School of Agriculture associate’s degree ceremony, and school and college Senior Recognition ceremonies.

Presiding over the celebration, Interim Dean of the Graduate School Elizabeth Jakob reflected on the diversity of the Class of 2026, noting that degree recipients include 650 international students from more than 60 countries. 

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Class members are “people who carried out public health internships in the community and in prisons… computer scientists building the systems, tools and technologies that shape how we solve problems for the common good… students who translate engineering theory into practice at the cutting edge of technology through projects, research and industry internships…and scientists working in labs and in partnerships with industries and government agencies to map the world, understand genetics, and address climate change,” Jakob said.

Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, extended congratulations to the Class of 2026, celebrating not only their academic accomplishments but their sense of purpose, drive, determination and perseverance.

Speaking on behalf of her class was Mansi Maheshwari of Gwalior, India, who graduated with a master’s degree in computer science. The first in her extended family to study abroad, she earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington and worked for two years as a software engineer in Seattle before beginning her graduate studies.

Maheshwari, will pursue a doctorate at Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, home to the world’s largest academic concentration of deep learning researchers, encouraged her classmates to recognize and celebrate “the sheer audacity” of taking the step to pursue their graduate degrees. 

“You began not because you were sure, not because you were ready, but in spite of it,” she said. “You applied with questions in your chest and hope in your hands. And us sitting here today is proof that we kept choosing that same courage again and again.”

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She also encouraged them to have courage in the face of uncertainty.

“This degree is not only proof of intelligence, it is proof of endurance. It is evidence of discipline and growth. As we figure out what comes next, new jobs, new cities, new research, new dreams, and maybe even new disappointments, I hope we trust ourselves enough to keep choosing rooms that demand more of us,” Maheshwari said. “That we choose to sit through the self-doubt, the fear, and do it anyway. As Emily Dickinson wrote, ‘We never know how high we are till we are called to rise.’”

Alumni Association President Michelle-Kim Cohen’s welcome of the graduates into the global UMass Amherst alumni family was followed by the presentation of the degree candidates from the Marieb College of Nursing, College of Natural Sciences, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the College of Education, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Riccio College of Engineering and the Isenberg School of Management.