Recalling the time two giant pandas waylaid his dreams, Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan gave William & Mary graduates an unconventional piece of advice: “Don’t follow your dreams; write your story.”
“It is understandable for you to be anxious about your future,” he said. “The thrill of freedom must be now tempered with responsibility. My best advice is this: Don’t chase your dreams. Write your story. And I promise you, you will be so proud of the end.”
Sanjayan spoke to more than 2,500 graduates and 12,000 friends and family who gathered at Zable Stadium Friday night for the university’s Commencement ceremony, despite a rainy start to the event.
“This is the real reason why academic robes were invented, to protect scholars in any weather,” joked W&M President Katherine A. Rowe.
Along with serving as the Commencement speaker, Sanjayan received an honorary degree at the event. Sanjayan is one of the world’s leading conservation scientists and hosts the PBS series “Changing Planet” in addition to helming Conservation International. William & Mary is currently celebrating the Year of the Environment, which seeks to advance sustainability efforts on campus and expand the university’s environmental impact around the world.
Pandas and pivotal moments
Sanjayan’s dream as a graduate student was to study African cheetahs. When funding for his work fell through because of controversy around two giant pandas being imported from China by the same funding agency, his advisor suggested something a little less exotic: gophers.
“I knew nothing about gophers, and I told him that,” Sanjayan said. “So he gave me a VHS cassette tape and said, ‘Watch this. It’ll teach you everything you need to know about catching gophers.’”
The tape? The classic comedy “Caddyshack.”
“And with that, gone was my dream of sitting on top of a Land Rover in khakis with my binoculars, maybe sipping a gin and tonic at sunset, watching a big cat walk across the African savannah,” he said.
Instead, he headed to the agricultural heartland of California with a pickup truck and a dog. He asked farmers if he could capture gophers on their land, and they’d invite him into their homes.
“I learned that these were folks just like me,” he said, adding that they cared deeply about the land and were concerned about changes they were seeing and what those changes meant for future generations.
“I realized that even though we both cared about the same thing, the only difference was that we were speaking two different languages,” he said. “I was speaking a language of love — I love nature, I love the spring wildflowers. They were speaking in a language of value — two sides of the same coin. That moment is seared in my memory. It stuck with me, and that forms the basis of everything we do at Conservation International.
“Love is a powerful emotion, but it’s not enough to save the world. To do that, you also need value. … Simply put, if we cannot show that a tree is worth more alive than dead, we’ll continue to cut down trees.”
While Sanjayan’s dream of studying cheetahs didn’t come true, it taught him to see life as a story.
“That idea of seeing your life as a story and placing yourself in the story, that’s a really great skill. As pivotal moments become clear, they help you write your next chapter, chapters that become more important as you get older,” he said.
Today’s graduates face difficult times, but they also have an opportunity to make a significant impact.
“Your generation will confront the worst, and you will have the opportunity to do the most,” Sanjayan said. “And we all really hope, really hope, that you are a great generation. We need your creativity. We need your skills. We need your decency. We need your commitment to healing our planet.”
Awards and honors
In addition to Sanjayan, a number of people in the William & Mary community were honored at the Commencement ceremony, including this year’s recipients of the Values in Action Awards and the Duke Award.
This year’s Lord Botetourt Medal, honoring the graduating senior with the greatest distinction in scholarship, was presented to Connie Ryu ’25.
Sarah Devendorf ’25 received the James Frederic Carr Memorial Cup, which goes to the graduate “who best combines the qualities of character, scholarship and leadership.”
Grace Molino Ph.D. ’25 received the Thatcher Prize, which honors outstanding scholarship, service and character in the graduate and professional schools.
The student recipients of this year’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards, which recognize people for heart, mind, and helpfulness to others, were presented to Allisyn Lam ’25 and Kyle Lewis-Johnson ’25. Father Kyle O’Connor, parochial vicar and chaplain for Catholic Campus Ministry, also received a Sullivan Award.
Two faculty were honored with the Graves Award, which recognizes sustained excellence in teaching: Aiko Kitamura, teaching professor of Japanese studies, and John Strong, CSX professor of business administration.
Student reflections
Momen Zahid ’25, a biology major with a minor in data science, offered this year’s student reflections at the ceremony.
“William & Mary isn’t the kind of place you cruise through,” he said. “It challenges you, sometimes it humbles you, but it also gives back professors who care more than you expect, friends who show up when you least expect it and quiet moments that shape you when you’re not even paying attention.”
Last month, as he prepared for Commencement, he said that being selected as speaker wasn’t just an honor, “it’s my way of thanking this place, and all the people who helped me grow into the person I am today.”
A 6-foot-5 former standout defensive lineman from Ashburn, Virginia, Zahid said he reveled in being one of the only NCAA D1 athletes of Pakistani American descent at William & Mary.
“I rarely saw athletes who looked like me growing up, and it’s something I take pride in,” he said. “A little brown boy recognized me at Eid once and told me I inspired him; that moment meant everything.”
Zahid says fostering a sense of belonging and having a voice to inspire change are things that deeply resonate with him. Belonging is one of W&M’s core values.
“I didn’t always feel like I fit into every space I entered,” he said. “But over time, I learned that belonging isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you create, for yourself and others.”
As he reflects on the past four years and his time at William & Mary, Zahid says he has his family to thank for all their support and encouragement. The next steps for Zahid include revisiting football, pursuing a graduate degree and a developmental contract with the WWE.
No matter what he decides to pursue, Zahid will embrace the major moments of growth he’s had at William & Mary and beyond.
“William & Mary has changed my life,” he said. “It stretched my ideas of who I could be and grounded me in a sense of purpose beyond just achievement. I can’t imagine a better way to honor that shared journey as we all step into the next chapter of our lives.”
Erin Jay and Claudette Brooks contributed to this story.
Staff, University News & Media