What It Takes HBS To Stage A Graduation

2016 Class Day student speaker Marcelle de Souza Goncalves Meira

Every university graduation requires tremendous background support. That’s especially true at Harvard Business School, given the size of the 900-plus graduating class and the 10,000 visitors who come to campus to watch HBS’ Class Day on May 25 and commencement on May 26. According to the school, it takes 10,000 staffing hours to stage the Class Day event. They lay 15,000 feet of electrical cords, erect 230,000 square feet of tents and set up 6,000 chairs on Baker lawn in front of the school’s iconic library facing the Charles River (see video below).

This year’s student address will be delivered by Marcelle de Souza Goncalves Meira, who was chosen to speak at Class Day by her peers through an audition process that included more than 50 student speeches. Marcelle came to Harvard Business School two years ago with her husband, Pedro Meira, who died of cancer last September at the start of what would have been his second year in the MBA program. The husband and wife couple are both from Brazil. She studied aeronautical and mechanical engineering and worked for the Boston Consulting Group before coming to HBS (see video below).

And check out our celebratory video for graduating MBAs from last year. Good time to watch it for this year’s celebrations (see below). We hope to do another once all the graduation ceremonies are completed this year.