Brooklyn College to Celebrate the Class of 2022 at Barclays Center

The ceremony will feature Honorary Degree Recipient and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Roberta Gbowee.

Marking its first return to an in-person Commencement Ceremony in two years, Brooklyn College will celebrate the accomplishments of the Class of 2022 on May 31 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The ceremony begins at 9 a.m.

The college will recognize the conferral of 3,195 baccalaureate and 966 master’s degrees, along with 96 students receiving advanced certificates. Included in the Class of 2022 are 10 veterans and service members. In all, 4,257 graduates will join the prestigious Brooklyn College family of more than 160,000 proud alums worldwide.

“Being able to return to an in-person celebration of our students’ remarkable accomplishments is truly something special,” said President Michelle J. Anderson. “How they have endured and persevered is remarkable, and the Class of 2022 represents the best and the brightest Brooklyn College has to offer. I am confident the graduates will make a tremendous impact on the world, just as they did on our campus community.”

The valedictorian is Carina D’Urso, who will receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies. D’Urso earned a perfect 4.00 grade point average and graduates summa cum laude. Following commencement, she will pursue graduate studies in human development and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she plans to concentrate in the arts and learning. The salutatorian is Hafsa Fatima, a Macaulay Honors College graduate and chemistry minor, who will receive a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and a B.A. in art. She will be attending The University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

Brooklyn College is pleased to announce that, pending CUNY Board of Trustees approval at its May 16 meeting, Leymah Roberta Gbowee will serve as the honorary degree recipient and keynote speaker. Gbowee is a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and renowned human rights leader who led the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that worked to end the 14-year civil war in Liberia. She is also the founding head of the Liberian Reconciliation Initiative, a forum for the victims and perpetrators of human rights violations to bring about healing and produce a more accurate accounting of the country’s devastating civil war. Today, she is the executive director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa, established in Ghana in 2006 as a nongovernmental organization to advance women’s leadership in the governance of the continent’s peace and security.

Brooklyn College will bestow its Distinguished Alumnus Award to philanthropist and Brooklyn College Foundation Board of Trustees member Leonard Tow ’50. Leonard and his wife, the late Claire Tow ’52, established The Tow Foundation in 1988. Through more than 700 fellowships, scholarships, internships, professorships, and teaching awards, they have enriched the quality of intellectual life for Brooklyn College's entire campus by providing the means to allow its students and faculty to become exceptional in their fields. The couple also donated $10 million in seed money for the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, which opened in 2018. The state-of-the-art center has transformed the campus footprint and is home to the Conservatory of Music and the Department of Theater.

The recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor will be Jules Coleman ’68. Coleman is one of the world’s most renowned scholars of law and jurisprudence. Widely acknowledged to have created the field of the philosophy of tort law, as well as inclusive legal positivism, Coleman was the first and remains the most influential advocate of a corrective justice approach to tort law. A first-generation college student, Coleman received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Brooklyn College in 1968; his Ph.D. in philosophy from Rockefeller University in 1972; and his master of studies in law from Yale Law School in 1976.

About Brooklyn College

Widely known for its offer of an excellent education at an affordable tuition and recognized nationally for its diverse student body, Brooklyn College has been an anchor institution within the Borough of Brooklyn and greater New York City for more than 90 years. With approximately 16,000 students in more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the arts, humanities, sciences, education, and business, the college is renowned for its rigorous academics, award-winning faculty, distinguished alumni, and community impact. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn College offers a vibrant and supportive student experience on a beautifully landscaped 35-acre campus in the borough’s Midwood neighborhood.