Speakers encouraged members of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development class of 2025 to embrace opportunity and lead with courage and balance at the school’s commencement ceremony in the Charles E. Smith Center Saturday.

GSEHD keynote speaker Lewis Ferebee, the chancellor of D.C. public schools since 2018 and a 1998 GSEHD master’s graduate, said the over 350 graduates should “be ready” to make change and embrace life’s unexpected opportunities. He said GSEHD not only prepares, but “ignites” graduates to pursue knowledge and face challenges in their future careers in education.

Ferebee said when he began his career as a teacher he prioritized standardized test scores, but missed out on giving his students other opportunities like making Mother’s Day cards in school. He said graduates need to “find balance” in their work, elevating the academic level of students while also cultivating personal relationships with them and their families.

“Find balance in your approach for driving student outcomes, but also all the other things that you’re responsible for, especially in the relationship that you’re responsible for cultivating,” Ferebee said.

He said early in his career as an assistant principal in North Carolina, he was offered the chance to lead the worst-performing school in his district, but saw it not as a burden, but an opportunity to turn it around. He told graduates to be ready for similar moments in their lives when unexpected opportunities to create change arise.

“Be ready,” Ferebee said. “Be ready to be tapped, be ready to put in the work, be ready to be impactful and have balance in your work.”

GSEHD Dean Michael Feuer, who will step down from his position on July 1 after 15 years in the role, said graduates will have to navigate a “trapeze act” once they leave the school, balancing whether they will fight for “what’s right” and express their dissent of disagreeable government policies, or if they will be “checking out” to protect their mental health. He told graduates they will lead a more satisfying life and career by “hanging in” instead of “hanging up.”

“Don’t quit,” Feuer said. “Don’t renounce your citizenship and move, use your voice, get on the community bulletin board, tell your neighbors what you think, sign up with the local political forum, lobby for change, go to rallies, use social media, mobilize protests, show up on election day.”

Student speaker Jacqueline Hatch said being an educator is more than the ability to synthesize “confounding” theories and present “groundbreaking” research, but rather having the courage to lead during difficult times and ask “If not me, who?” She said graduates should remain “unapologetically and vehemently” curious and continue to pursue knowledge in the face of adversity.

“We will live to witness injustice, face more adversity, encounter choices that test our tenacity and our resilience,” Hatch said. “Whatever the plight, may you always meet every obstacle with that same sense of wonder you began here with.”

Alumni speaker Maxwell Gocala-Nguyen, a 2016 GSEHD alumna and president of the GW Alumni Association since 2023, said he wants graduates to use the knowledge from their new degrees and create “meaningful, impactful moments.” He said during his time at GW, he found the “courage” to live more authentically and find ways to better the communities he was a part of.

“As new alumni, I hope that you too continue to hold your experiences in the highest regard and never lose sight of your impact,” Gocala-Nguyen said. “You have done the work, now is the time to make your mark.”