Lessons from ancient, modern, quantum worlds - Harvard Gazette

Three graduating students selected through a University-wide competition will deliver speeches at Harvard’s 375th Commencement at Tercentenary Theatre. Kiesse Nanor will present the Latin Salutatory, Andrew O’Donohue will give the Graduate English Address, and Noah Eckstein will deliver the Senior English Address. Kiesse Nanor’s path reflects a long engagement with the ancient world, beginning with Greek myths and a book that prompted her to analyze hero stories. She chose Latin for its grammatical precision and later developed a deeper interest in Virgil’s poetry through translation and classroom discussion. At Harvard, she took a general education course connected to the professor whose work she had read for years.

"Three graduating students selected in a University-wide competition with their peers will deliver speeches Thursday at Tercentenary Theatre in one of Harvard's oldest Commencement traditions. Kiesse Nanor, a senior, will deliver the Latin Salutatory; Andrew O'Donohue, doctoral candidate in political science, will present the Graduate English Address; and Noah Eckstein, also a senior, will give the Senior English Address."

"Kiesse Nanor has long been drawn to the lessons of the ancient world. She was just 12 years old when she purchased "The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours." She'd grown up listening to Greek myths, but the book - written by Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature - made her think about how intertwined they were and what they said about what it means to be a hero."

""Taking stories and looking at them as something that can be analyzed really productively - that was just really cool for me," she said. When she entered high school at Exeter, she considered taking French, which she'd grown up speaking with her mom, but opted for Latin instead. "I'd never encountered a language that was so grammatically precise," she said. Every word seemed to have an implication behind it."

"When she arrived at Harvard, she took the course that inspired Nagy's book. "I sat in the first row of the Gen Ed course, like, 'Oh my gosh, this is the professor whose book I've read for the past six years!'" she said."

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