CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Following her heartfelt speech at Harvard University’s graduation ceremony, Yurong “Luanna” Jiang was frequently approached by peers who commended her on sharing the idea that it’s essential to recognize our shared humanity instead of disparaging others for their differences.
“We’ve begun to believe that those who differ from us in thoughts, beliefs, or faith — whether they’re far away or right beside us — are not only incorrect but also malevolent. It doesn’t need to be like this,” she expressed in her speech, which was met with enthusiastic applause.
“If I were to distill the essence of my message into one sentence, it would be that humanity’s progress and decline occur collectively,” Jiang explained to The Associated Press on Friday. “We are navigating through challenging times, marked by divisions in ideologies, ethnic backgrounds, and identities. Now is when we could benefit from embracing moral imagination and envisioning our interconnectedness with each other.”
The 25-year-old Jiang’s speech never directly mentioned the Trump administration nor its multi-pronged attack on the nation’s oldest and richest university. But she said the turmoil beyond their campus and its impact on her classmates was on her mind as she delivered her speech.
“Students can be very emotionally charged because they care deeply about a lot of issues,” said Jiang, who comes from China and graduated with a masters degree in public administration in international development. “When you are emotionally charged and activated, it’s very easy to demonize another person.”
She said the relentless attacks from the Trump administration on the school’s funding and threats to detain and deport people studying in the U.S. on student visas have left her unsettled, adding huge uncertainty to her future plans.
“In terms of the plan going forward, I would say everything is up in the air at this point,” Jiang said, who had hoped to remain in the United States for a few years but now is open to working in international development overseas. “At this point, it’s difficult to say what will happen.”
This week, the Trump administration asked federal agencies to cancel about $100 million in contracts with the university. The government already canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants, moved to cut off Harvard’s enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status. Then it widened the pressure campaign, suspending visa applications worldwide and threatening to deny U.S. visas to thousands of Chinese students nationwide.
These actions resonate with Jiang and her classmates — about 30% of Harvard’s students are international, and China has among the highest numbers.
“The anxiety is real,” said Jiang, who knows two international students from China who are weighing whether to travel for work in Kenya and Rwanda.
“Because of the uncertainty of their visas, they are facing a very tricky situation,” she said. “They can either go abroad, go to Kenya and Rwanda to do their internship and work on poverty alleviation and public health but risking not being able to make it back to campus safely. Or they can stay on campus and do their internships remote.”
“It’s pretty heartbreaking,” she continued“They wanted to help humanity and, to see them entangled in politics they didn’t choose, is hard.”
Jiang, who went to high school in the United Kingdom and earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University, said there should be more, not fewer, academic exchanges between China and the United States.
“Humanity is facing a lot of crisis,” she said. “There are conflicts. There is climate. There are a lot things that not only one country can tackle. China and the U.S. are the two most powerful economies or countries in the world. They have to work with each other to be able to combat the problems or the issues that affect every single human being.”
Jiang also defended the importance of international students at Harvard, recalling how 60% of the students stood up at the Kennedy School of Government commencement when the dean, Jeremy Weinstein, asked how many came from outside the United States. Then he asked if they had learned something from their international classmates, and most everyone stood.
“A lot of us clapped and cheered. A lot of us were in tears,” she said, as Weinstein told them to “look around, this is your school.”
Without international students, it would be a challenge for Harvard to achieve its mission, Jiang said. Campus culture depends on its globally diverse student body, studying and hanging out together.
“Harvard wants its students to go and change the world and you can’t change the world without understanding the world,” she said. “You can’t understand the world without truly having a personal connection with people from all sorts of countries.”
