Remarks to the Spring Class of 2026

President Bloomberg addressed the graduating spring Class of 2026 on May 9, 2026, in the Wolstein Center. Her remarks appear below as prepared.

Graduates, let me start by telling you how very proud I am of all of you. Getting to this day is a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself. This year in particular, though, I have been absolutely wowed by all that you have achieved in lead up to this day. 

Some of you have overcome enormous obstacles, yet you persevered. Some of you have grappled with serious illness, family loss, and tragedy, yet you are here today. Many of you have set goals for yourself, achieved that goal and then, instead of resting on your accomplishments, pushed yourself to set new, higher goals. You persisted.

There are three things I’ve seen in you this year that particularly stand out to me — and I want to talk about these: optimism, teamwork and leadership.

When I was a young educator in Minnesota in the Minneapolis Public Schools, I was mentored by a school social worker who was several years old than me — and very wise. She didn’t really give me much direct advice about working with the young adolescents in my classroom. Instead, she would tell me stories about her son back when he was a young kid. (He was just a few years older than I was at the time.) Ms. Mattie Shaw would tell me about how, as a pre-teen and early teenager, her son would come home with a ragtag group of “square pegs,” misfits and quirky kids of all shapes, sizes, color, countries of origin. Her son and this group of pre-teens would hang out at the house and do what Mattie would call “odd doin’s,” like rooting around looking for old clothes to cut up and make costumes, and making instruments out of just about anything. She told me she would worry because they were a bit too old to be playing dress up or make believe. 

But her son would say: “Mom, relax. You’re just not seeing it yet. We’re making something awesome here. It’s going to be beautiful, and you are going to love it. It might be weird, but it’s groundbreaking.”

That boy’s name was Prince Rogers Nelson, and he went on to give the world an extraordinary gift of music. You likely know him just by his first name: Prince. The tenth anniversary of his passing was just last month. 

Mattie always said her son was the most optimistic person she ever knew. And then, significantly, he put in the effort to achieve the optimistic vision he had for himself. 

“It’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be groundbreaking.” And then, he would do the work to make it so.

Prince himself described something he did in 2007 as an “audacious act of optimism.” 

Some of you may have seen (or have since seen a recording of) his performance that year in the halftime show of the Super Bowl. Just before the end of the first half of the game, the clouds opened up, and there was an absolute deluge of driving, cold, miserable rain. The halftime show organizers were worried about the cameras and all the audio equipment shorting out; they were worried people would seek shelter and that no one would stay in their seats for the show. The recommendation was to cancel Prince’s performance — or perhaps record and broadcast it later.

Prince rejected the recommendation and made it clear he intended to perform. 

The producers said, “The stage isn’t safe, and we don’t have a way to keep you dry.”

He said he would stand directly in the rain. He said, if the technology failed, he would just grab his acoustic guitar and perform anyway. 

And then he famously said: “Can you make it rain harder? This is going to be magical.”

To this day, if you Google the best Super Bowl halftime show ever, it will tell you that it is that show in 2007 when Prince delivered a super-charged rendition of “Purple Rain” while standing soaking wet in the middle of a massive downpour.

It was his audacious act of optimism.

Can you make it rain harder? 

So, now back to you, graduates:

Whether it was students involved in the spring musical "Starmites" (that sold out!), the senior film festival, the Washkewicz College of Engineering senior design symposium, or McNair scholar researchers…

I saw so many of you show audacious optimism in the face of tough circumstances, and then put in the work to achieve your vision of what was possible: 

• “You should have seen how hard it was to come together as a team, but we knew it could happen.”
• “For the longest time we could not for the life of us get this machine to work, but we knew it was possible if we kept at it.”
• “A lot of people thought we were crazy for asking that particular research question, but we did it anyway and look what we’ve learned!”

For me, here’s the thing about optimism:

What’s the point of persisting if you don’t believe things will get better? Optimism isn't just a feeling — it’s a mindset and a behavior.

Pessimists can get ground down by failure and blame. Optimists “get on with it.” They see the path forward, because they believe there is one.

Can you make it rain harder?

And here’s another thing: Success very rarely happens in a vacuum. For most of us, for most of our lives, team will continue to be everything. Rarely can we succeed over time by going it alone.  

Those stories that Mattie told me about her son Prince and the rag tag group of square pegs he cultivated…they went on to collaboratively create music the world won’t forget.

Tod Bolsinger, seminarian and leadership scholar said this: “It is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. The primary way to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships, to how well we know and trust one another. Then, we’ll build the future we seek together.” 

Teamwork matters. 

One more brief Prince story, this time about cultivating the heart of a leader. 

Even after he had achieved worldwide fame, Prince continued to spend a lot of time in and around Minneapolis and not just at Paisley Park. He would often frequent a place called the Dakota Jazz Club. He was famous for taking the stage after closing and just playing his guitar much to the delight of his hometown fans, but what I remember most is what he would do when a new, relatively unknown musician would be booked for a show. Often tickets were discounted just so the Club could draw an audience for these young musicians. 

Prince would show up dressed like anyone else: t-shirt and jeans, sometimes a baseball cap, and he would sit in the audience to listen to the show. 

Prince showed up for new young performers just starting out. He used his fame, his power, and his presence to shine a bright light on them, not himself. 

Leaders show up, they give back, they support. 

Graduates, it may not feel this way, but you are in that position now, and you will continue to be as you develop your career and personal life. You have the opportunity to show up, give back, support.

Part of being a leader means reaching back and extending a hand to people who will follow in your footsteps. 

I don’t talk about Prince because I expect all of you will go on to be world-famous musicians. I talk about Prince on this tenth anniversary of his passing because, for me, he stands for things that I see in so many of you — attributes that I believe we all should stand for: 

• Choosing optimism as a powerful force in our lives and our communities;
• Cultivating our team — our community — because we rarely achieve success on our own; and
• Showing up with the heart of a leader who reaches back and supports those who follow.

I know that all of you are capable of doing this. When you do, you will make the world a better, more connected, more resilient place for all of us.

Congratulations, graduates.