Northwestern SPS Celebrates Class of 2026 at Convocation Ceremony
Northwestern University School of Professional Studies (SPS) congratulates the Class of 2026! This year's convocation ceremony was held on Saturday, June 13 on the Evanston campus at Ryan Fieldhouse.
Friends, family, faculty, and staff gathered in person (and online via livestream) to honor 753 graduates. 681 earned graduate degrees across 17 programs, and 72 earned undergraduate degrees across 18 areas of study. Graduates hailed from 33 states, the District of Columbia, Armed Forces Europe, and 12 countries.
In his welcome address, SPS Dean Thomas Gibbons highlighted students with special honors, including Alpha Sigma Lambda inductees, active-military and veteran graduates, distinguished thesis award winners, and distinguished capstone award winners.
Kristian Hammond, the Bill and Cathy Osborn Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University and co-founder of AI company Narrative Science, delivered the Convocation keynote address which touched on the career challenges and opportunities for the graduating class during the rise of AI.
Hammond's remarks were followed by two student speakers representing the undergraduate and graduate programs: Alejandro Gutierrez, who earned his BS in Information Systems, and Lidia Teshome, who earned her MS in Global Health.
A common theme throughout the ceremony spoke to the courage of SPS students—many of whom are working adults balancing professional and personal responsibilities—while pursuing their degrees.
Hammond addressed that courage directly in his remarks: "It takes courage to return to learning after already building a life. It takes courage to sit in a classroom and admit that other people know things you do not. It takes courage to be graded again. It takes courage to ask basic questions. It takes courage to tell family, friends, colleagues, or yourself: 'I am not done becoming.' That courage deserves to be named. Transformation. This degree is not just evidence that you mastered new material. It is evidence that you were willing to transform."
Teshome reflected on the responsibility that comes with the degree: "Wherever your journey takes you, build something meaningful, serve with intention, and never forget the people and experiences that brought you here. Because this degree is not just a milestone—it is a responsibility."
Gutierrez offered a reframe of what it means to be a nontraditional student: "Yes, we may be an unusual group of graduates that do not fit into the traditional image of a college student. We came to this degree with full lives already in progress. And somewhere along the way, the world may have made us feel like that was a disadvantage. However, I want to offer a different interpretation."
Gutierrez continued, "The person with diverse work experience is not scattered—they bring perspective that cannot be taught in a classroom. The parent on the team is not stretched too thin—they are the most resourceful person in the room. And the person who got their degree later in life? They are not behind. They are persistent. And persistence, it turns out, is the most transferable skill there is."
The Convocation ceremony is available to view on the Northwestern SPS virtual convocation website.