{"id":320637,"date":"2026-05-18T01:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/320637\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T01:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:53:14","slug":"northeastern-oakland-campus-celebrates-commencement-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/320637\/","title":{"rendered":"Northeastern Oakland Campus Celebrates Commencement 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 In the middle of Northeastern University\u2019s commencement ceremony for the Oakland and Silicon Valley graduating class of 2026, a small white dog leaped from a spectator\u2019s lap and chased an unsuspecting pair of ducks across the grass on Holmgren Meadow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like the graduates seated around him, he was having his moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two-hour ceremony, held at the Oakland campus on Saturday and livestreamed on the university\u2019s website, celebrated 304 graduates \u2013 84 from Oakland, 206 from Silicon Valley, and 14 others \u2013 who gathered with their friends, families and faculty to receive their degrees, a culmination of years of work, all wrapped up in this moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my honor to welcome all of you to this extraordinary day,\u201d said Oakland Dean Dan Sachs from the stage. \u201cIt\u2019s one ceremony, two campuses, one Northeastern family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University
\nMore than 300 undergraduate and graduate students received degrees. Photos by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

Dean Sachs was joined by Silicon Valley Dean Caroline Simard, whose campus opened in San Jose in 2015. Simard began the ceremony of speeches and degree presentations by acknowledging the Golden Graduates in attendance, from the Northeastern class of 1975 and Mills classes of 1972 and 1973.<\/p>\n

It was a historical day for Northeastern Oakland, with the last Mills legacy undergraduate class receiving their degrees, four years after Northeastern University merged with Mills College in 2022.<\/p>\n

But whatever school they started with, or campus they attended, alumni speaker Richard Yue reminded the graduates that they are now part of the Northeastern network, with 365,000 alumni worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYour degree is not just a credential, it\u2019s a connection,\u201d said Yue, who graduated from the Silicon Valley campus last year and works as a software engineer at Meta. \u201cWelcome to the Northeastern family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yue assured the graduates that entering a challenging workplace isn\u2019t a cause for doubt, but an opportunity for continued learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University
\nStudents from Northeastern\u2019s Oakland and Silicon Valley campuses received degrees. Photos by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

When he started at Meta, he said, it seemed like everyone had an encyclopedic knowledge that he wasn\u2019t sure he could match. His mantra became: \u201cI know a lot, but there\u2019s a lot I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yue has already made great strides in his field: building a computational model that rivals Google Translate in decoding complex acronyms.<\/p>\n

But before he could accomplish such professional feats, Yue had to step into the world as a new graduate and commit to a mindset of continued learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cA year ago, I was in your shoes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was there that I realized that my learning did not stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Yanbing Li, chief data product officer at Datadog, a cloud-based monitoring and analytics company headquartered in New York, told the graduates that they are entering a new work landscape, one steeped in artificial intelligence. In fact, she called the class of 2026 \u201cthe first AI-native graduating class.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s talk about the elephant in the room,\u201d said Li, who received her master\u2019s degree from Cornell University and Ph.D. from Princeton and has worked in technology for nearly 30 years. \u201cMany of you may be wondering what happens to me in a world where a machine can do what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li said that while her work has advanced AI, including helping to build self-driving trucks and perfect digital AI products, she never defined herself by this work. In fact, it was her ability to pivot her skills in different roles, not fixating her professional identity to one concept, that has buoyed her longevity in an ever-shifting technological landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Family members and friends cheer on graduates. Photo by Scott Chernis for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

Ultimately, she said, she wasn\u2019t there to talk about AI, but the importance of human resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been an extra special weekend of commencement for me,\u201d she said, sharing that she attended her own daughter\u2019s college graduation the day before. But her daughter\u2019s twin, who would have also been receiving a degree, passed away a year prior to graduating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy am I telling you something so heavy on the day of your celebration?\u201d she asked. \u201cBecause the most important things in life generate no alerts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li said that the past year has been difficult for her family. But her surviving daughter completed her degree, she returned to work and her husband continued his pursuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about the absence of pain but the capacity to keep going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Li\u2019s speech touched Elizabeth Sheets Orcutt, who graduated with a master\u2019s degree in public administration. A commuter student from Walnut Creek, Orcutt held down a job and studied for her degree on the Oakland campus during a particularly challenging time in her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commencement address from Yanbing Li deeply resonated with me because my older brother died during the fall 2025 semester,\u201d Orcutt said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve carried the grief of that life-changing loss while completing my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband, Mark Orcutt, was in attendance to support his wife\u2019s achievements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a year she took on more than anyone should,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving my family with me on the beautiful Oakland campus is something I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d Orcutt said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m incredibly grateful for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow graduate Annabel Pena, who received a master\u2019s degree in public policy, agreed that reaching this milestone in front of friends, family and faculty was particularly meaningful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Pena exited the stage, her family erupted in hoots, hollers and hugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting celebrating with my family,\u201d Pena said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most exciting part of the day came when Sachs encouraged the graduates to turn their tassels to the left, signifying that they had officially graduated, and \u201clet the flutterfetti fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release of multi-colored, biodegradable confetti has become a tradition that Northeastern has adopted from Mills, dating back over a decade.<\/p>\n

In unison, everyone flicked their wands into the air and a cloud of colors shot toward the sky and fluttered slowly to the ground, a colorful reminder on campus \u2013 for a day or two, until the moisture dissolves them into the grass \u2013 of a moment that will last a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Vickie Jean DeHamer is a Northeastern Global News reporter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 In the middle of Northeastern University\u2019s commencement ceremony for the Oakland and Silicon Valley graduating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2007,3265,2080,38954,123280,3412,133744,133745,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-320637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ai","tag-alumni","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-commencement","tag-commencement-2026","tag-meta","tag-northeastern-oakland","tag-northeastern-silicon-valley","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}