Class of 2026
Majors:
Calista Cornet | 院晶深
Leo Glasgow | 郭立鸥
Nile Johnson
Genevieve Moore | 莫艾珍
Emily Shen | 沈傳寧
Tianran Song | 宋恬然
Minors:
Ally Han | 韩锦阳
Kaleb Kavuma | 康伟明
Owen Sharp | 单培文
Serena Tang | 唐启沅
Kayla Wang | 王凯儿
2026 Levinson Program Commencement Class Speaker Remarks
Tianran Song | 宋恬然
May 22, 2026
"Good afternoon, faculty, families, and friends. My name is Tianran or Tiana Song, and it is a great honor to stand here today on behalf of the CAPS Class of 2026 as your commencement speaker.
Standing up here looking at my peers, I’m reminded of a specific rite of passage that every CAPS senior has mastered over the past four years. Whenever we tell someone we major in CAPS, there is this hesitant pause of polite confusion. “CAPS? What’s CAPS” they’ll ask, caught off guard by this acronym that isn’t as universally known as CS or Econ” And so, we patiently explain that “It’s the Levinson Program in China and Asia-Pacific Studies.” And right on cue, you watch the light return to their eyes as they beam in misplaced understanding: 'Oh, you mean Asian Studies?'
And for those members of the audience who might be wondering the exact same thing right now—no, we are not Asian Studies. While Asian Studies is an equally wonderful field, CAPS is unique in that, to paraphrase our beloved program director Professor Xu, it is the only undergraduate program in the country explicitly dedicated to navigating the complexities of China-US relations. At a time when every major headline underscores the weight of this bilateral relationship, our field of study has never felt more relevant. Much like the recent high-profile state visits to Beijing, our program is built on a simple, foundational principle: you can’t truly understand a place from the pages of a textbook alone. You have to actually go there.
So besides cultural electives, two-hour long seminars, research, and Chinese language classes that we navigated on the slopes and gorges of Ithaca alongside the rest of our Cornellian peers, as members of the CAPS program, we departed the familiar icy tundra of upstate New York and embarked on a slightly more nomadic path. In a journey that traced back to our very first welcome calls with Professor Xu, Bryant and Hao Laoshi, 我们拔山涉海, scaling mountains and braving oceans, to the far side of the world, to the very focus of our studies: China.
For a semester, we lived, studied, and grew together on the campus of 北大, Peking University. Immersing ourselves in a completely different rhythm of life bonded us in a way few other college students will ever experience.
Whether it was playing poker late into the night in the lounges of our dorms in 中关新园, or racing on shared bikes, 共享单车, from 二教 to the dining hall while desperately trying not to crash into pedestrians and speeding mopeds, or taking late-night calligraphy classes in packed 2 rooms alongside local Aunties and Uncles tracking every stroke with their recording devices, or engaging with the brilliant guest speakers that Professor Xu carefully curated for us, every single one of those moments turned a group of classmates into a tight-knit family.
Indeed, family is the best way to describe the CAPS community. Most of us hail from incredibly different backgrounds. We have people like Leo, who flies between Russia and Queens; Gen, who anchors her Hong Kong upbringing with family trips to West Virginia; Calista, who came from France and grew up in the city of love, Paris, Kaleb from Kenya; and myself—born in Beijing, but moved to the good ol’ garden state of New Jersey at the ripe age of five. We came from entirely different corners of the world, representing entirely different academic disciplines across campus, like Serena majoring in Hotel Management in Nolan and Ally majoring in Urban and Regional Studies in AAP. Before Beijing and CAPS, we had perhaps only vaguely heard each other’s names in passing across a crowded campus. But out of thousands of students, this program found a way to bring us all together.
Beyond the ties we’ve made with each other, our semester abroad allowed us to build bridges with the local students at PKU and beyond. No matter which semester we went abroad, every single graduate in this room shares the foundational milestones of the program. We all took the winding roads out to Chengde, experiencing a rural side of the country where, just a few hours outside the bustling capital, there were children studying in bare, concrete courtyards who still found the joy to welcome us with folded paper stars and pink lollipops. And we all traced the century-long transformation of Tianjin, which holds a particularly special place in our hearts as Professor Xu’s hometown, touring the historic European concessions and the former residence of playwright Cao Yu with peers from Tianjin Foreign Language University.
In these moments, CAPS’ emphasis on experiential learning truly came to life. We lived the Chinese proverb, 读万卷书不如行万里路; we learned firsthand that reading ten thousand books does not compare to traveling ten thousand miles.
And looking around this room, we certainly covered those miles. The collective travel logs of this graduating class reads like a guide to China itself. Every semester, the program sends its cohort to a different weeklong destination. Between us, we’ve covered the provinces of Hunan, Henan, Chongqing, and more.
That being said, I want to give a huge shoutout to my wonderful cohort, Leo, Gen, and Serena, who traveled with me to Hunan last spring. I will never forget that night we randomly 3 decided to eat the spiciest Chongqing-style hotpot in a no-name town in Hunan. Gen, I will always be in awe of how you didn’t break a sweat despite the sheer amount of peppers and chili oil in that broth. Shoutout to Leo, for at least trying. And, of course, to my dearest roommate Serena, who accompanied me in watching the two of them from a safe, heavily hydrated distance.
It is undeniable that CAPS has given us lifelong friendships. Shoutout to Emily—genuinely the sweetest person, for being the glue of this cohort, organizing every social, and casually being the most talented Yangqin player I know. Ally and Calista, it was so nice bonding with you over our last social, finding that we share so much in common. Eliza, I can’t wait to see how your final senior vlog turns out. And to Owen, Kaleb, and Kayla—while our paths may not have crossed as deeply, it’s been an absolute privilege to share this program, and this stage, with you.
On behalf of all of us, I want to thank everyone who has made the CAPS experience possible. Thank you to all of our CAPS professors for challenging our perspectives and providing us with the theoretical underpinnings of a rapidly shifting global landscape. Thank you, Bryant, for being the absolute operational backbone of this program—for fielding our endless barrage of emails and keeping us all on track. To Hao Laoshi, who is cheering us on from all the way in China: thank you for making our transition across the world so seamless. You anticipated our every need and took such wonderful care of us.
If Hao Laoshi was the mom of our cohort, then Professor Xu, you were undeniably our dad. Thank you for teaching us, for being our biggest advocate, and for going out of your way to introduce us to virtually everyone we meet.
You showed us what it means to build connections, which brings me to the greatest lesson we are taking away from this program. As CAPS students, our main takeaway isn't just an understanding of international relations or language fluency. It’s the ability to look at the world through multiple lenses. We learned to sit with nuance, to lean into discomfort, and to build bridges across cultural and political divides. In a world that often demands quick, polarized answers, our education has taught us the value of listening deeply and thinking critically.
As the CAPS Class of 2026 steps out into the world today, we are going in entirely different directions—into tech, policy, law, finance, and academia. But wherever we go, we carry a piece of this global journey with us. We are a small cohort, but our impact is going to be vast. 4
To my brilliant, driven, and inspiring peers: Thank you for the laughs, the late nights, and the memories that span continents. I’m so incredibly proud to graduate alongside you. Congratulations, CAPS Class of 2026! We made it!"
