May 28, 2020Animal Law & Policy ProgramCommencement Day 2020
Harvard Law School holds moving online commencement ceremony featuring students committed to animal law.
In the midst of these turbulent times we send positive wishes from Cambridge, where Harvard Law School recently held a moving online commencement ceremony featuring graduation speaker, Bryan Stevenson ’85, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. He told the Class of 2020: “My message to you is that I hope you’ll keep your eyes on the prize of doing justice and hold on. In these strange times, we need a generation of lawyers, like you, who commit to doing the things that are uncomfortable, that change narratives, that sustain hope, and that require proximity––to the poor, to those who suffer, to those who are marginalized, to those who are excluded.”
The 2020 graduates include Harvard Animal Law Society Co-Presidents Kelley McGill and Gabriel Wildgen; Vice President Boanne Wassink JD ’20, and Campus Outreach Chair, Harish Vemuri (pictured) who received the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership. Kelley, Boanne, and Ashley Maiolatesi, who also graduated today, were honored for performing more than 1,000 hours of pro bono work with the Animal Law & Policy Clinic. Boanne’s journey to animal law features on page 25 and 26 of a special commencement newsletter, Learning The Law, Serving The World.