Celebrating UC Berkeley Journalism’s Class of 2026

‘And today, you begin walking’

A new generation of journalists in UC Berkeley Journalism’s Class of 2026 dropped the mic and left the building with a master of journalism on May 17, as friends, family, classmates, mentors and teachers celebrated their achievements.

Commencement ceremonies followed three days of “Showcase” where students shared their capstone projects  in audio, documentary film, multimedia, photojournalism and narrative.

At Commencement, held at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse this year, Dean Michael D. Bolden welcomed students and loved ones:

“If I have learned anything from a life of reinvention, from journalism, from teaching, from loss, from beginning again, or from once walking 500 miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, it is this: The map is a lie. But the path is real. 

And today, you begin walking. Not because the road is easy. Not because the destination is guaranteed. Not because the world is waiting politely for your byline or screen credit. You begin walking because that is what journalists do. We run toward the thing everyone else is avoiding, whether it be a fire, a hurricane, war. We ask the questions no one wants asked. We enter the silence and come back with evidence.”

Students in the Class of 2026 nominated and voted for their speakers, a tradition going back more than a decade. Faculty speakers included Assistant Professor Lisa Armstrong and Lecturer John D. Harden. Award-winning Puerto Rican journalist Bianca Graulau was the keynote speaker. (Please find our Q&A with her here.)

Student speaker Minahil Arif talked about the repression of journalists and the torch to be carried by the next generation:

“Press freedom has become deeply compromised within this country where we are accused of spreading fake news just for speaking the truth, but in other parts of the world, in Palestine, Israeli military forces have killed, injured, detained and tortured hundreds of journalists, targeting them for simply doing their jobs. And across the world, in Lebanon, Sudan, Iran and beyond, journalists continue to be killed, imprisoned and silenced by those in power….The sole purpose of silencing their voices is to silence us, but that means we take our job even more seriously. We show up when it matters. We have to be truthful, not neutral. And we cannot be deterred in our efforts to speak truth to power.”

Student speaker Robert Strauss, who is 73 and began his degree in the early 1970s, said he did what he was supposed to do at Berkeley in those days: drop out (and take a bus to Vegas). He became a successful journalist, historian and author before returning to campus in a new media landscape at North Gate Hall — one where he found both new technology and a beloved community — two years ago.

“You will never be remembered for your ‘no’s,’ only your ‘yesses,’” he told fellow students. “The answer to every puzzle is ‘Yes.’ I promise you that you won’t regret it. You had to answer ‘Yes’ to get here, right? I will be there to remind you.”

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Watch the Commencement ceremony:

Special thanks to photographers Marlena Telvick, Richard H. Grant, Xavier Zamora, Dan Chamberlain and Charlie Wang.