Class of 2021

An old and familiar notion holds that the experience of adversity builds character; given that, how much character must there be in the ranks of the Class of 2021?

The disruptions, obstacles, and setbacks are numbingly familiar by now: from a rapid shift to remote learning in the spring of 2020 to the new routine of masks, sanitizing, and mentally calculating a distance of six feet between one’s self and one’s peers. If the global pandemic weren’t enough, there was also a summer that saw the largest sustained protests in American history, a presidential election, the arrival and rollout of life-saving vaccines — and that was just the last 12 months.

But this class is so much more than the last 12 months, and will be so much more in the future. What stories will these newly-minted UConn alumni add to that illustrious volume that began in 1881? Only time will tell, but — having sensed the swells and sweeps of history already in their lives — we can be sure they’re ready to chart that safe passage to tomorrow.