On Thursday, May 26th, Harvard will host its first in-person Commencement since 2019. While most students will celebrate one final tradition after a pandemic-warped college experience, for some student athletes, graduation represents a final conflict between two parts of their collegiate identity: school and their sport. Both Sailing Nationals for women’s fleet racing and Track & Field Regionals occur on the 26th. How do seniors choose between the culmination of two endeavors they have dedicated four years to?
Each athlete is grappling with this difficult decision in their own way. Emma Kaneti ’22 from the Sailing Team chose to attend Nationals. Jada Jones ’22 on Track & Field chose Commencement. Sharelle Samuel ’22 on Track & Field is still deciding.
After consulting their peers, teammates, coaches, and family, these students, as well as a handful of other unlucky spring athletes whose sports conflict with graduation, must ultimately decide which they value more. Samuel even conducted an Instagram poll. Unsurprisingly, responses varied a lot across fellow student-athletes, students, and coaching staff. While these athletes generally felt supported through their decision-making process, the inevitable repercussions of their choices extend beyond the student. The choices are individual but directly impact people they care about.
Jones’ choice to attend graduation impacted her team, “This [graduation versus regionals] decision only affected the relay teams. I felt like I was letting my teammates down [by missing the race] and I felt bad about that. But, they were extremely understanding and luckily my coach was a little disappointed but not angry.”
Commencement is a bittersweet time for most seniors, but student athletes face another goodbye. For many seniors, their spring season is their last opportunity to compete in their sport before moving into a full time job. With the pandemic disrupting two spring seasons, most senior athletes only truly got to experience two full sports seasons, further heightening the severity of the choice.
“How could I be fully committed to something and shed blood, sweat, and tears for something and be apart of something for four years and then just not finish it?” Kaneti said. “I think it is really upsetting to miss the ceremony, Commencement, and everything. But, I still will be here for part of senior week, and I have my friends from college for life. So, it doesn’t feel like I’m missing out on so much, whereas if I don’t compete at nationals, it is my last chance to sail in college.”
Other senior athletes apply this same logic to their academic careers as Harvard students. Samuel helped with Spring dorm cleanup her freshman year and remembers the class of 2019’s Commencement and their celebrations. She says, “I think [those memories are] why I hold this idea of graduation in my mind so highly at the moment…I essentially lost two years of my college experience, and graduation is a huge milestone and huge celebration and huge moment for our class. Missing so much of other prior experiences due to Covid-19 has made me really want to have this graduation moment.”
Despite this challenging decision and the frustration it creates, these student-athletes do not view Harvard or their sport any less favorably. They recognize neither Harvard nor their sport bears responsibility, and that uncontrollable sports scheduling is to blame. Students’ decision-making reflects the balance between these emotional and logistical factors.
For Jones, her lost seasons during Covid-19 grant her extra eligibility, so she can run in graduate school. “I decided to attend graduation because I figured I’d make regionals again, but I would only graduate from Harvard once.” Despite added years of eligibility, future competition is never guaranteed nor always feasible.
Kaneti likely will not continue sailing competitively after graduation, tipping the scales of her student-athlete equation. “This year, it became more apparent to me how much I really missed in terms of sailing — and that really weighed into my decision a lot — whereas I was still a student last year just remote,”she said. “I feel like in terms of being a Harvard student I’ve had more time than being a Harvard student athlete… I’ll always be a Harvard graduate, but I won’t always have the chance to sail in college.”
Being a student-athlete requires constant sacrifice, and evidently, graduation is no exception. Regardless of their choices, the students are finding ways to celebrate their time at Harvard and on their teams. Jada Jones is finding ways to compete after college. Emma Kaneti is trying to get her own cap and gown to celebrate while at nationals. They will always be both students and athletes, representing Harvard in whatever form they select.
Hannah Davis ’25 (hannahdavis@college.harvard.edu) will be attending neither Nationals nor Commencement.