UMass Boston

The following remarks were delivered by the 2026 Graduate Student Speaker Sachin Gupta during UMass Boston's 58th Commencement ceremony.

It was May 2018. I was walking through the crowded streets of Old Delhi when my phone buzzed. It was an email from the fifth and last graduate school I had applied to in the United States. At that time, I was just another student carrying a quiet dream of crossing oceans to learn physics from the best professors.

The email began with the word ‘Unfortunately.’

For a few seconds, everything slowed to a crawl. I remember calling my parents with a heavy heart telling them about the rejection.

“So, what do you want to do now? What does your heart say,” they asked.

I said, “I want to try one more time.”

“Then try again. Your life should be decided by your courage... not by an email. At least not that kind of email.”

A year later, I arrived in the U.S. at UMass Lowell for my PhD in Physics. But just as I was settling in, the pandemic came. For personal reasons, my PhD advisor moved to Europe. I was again stuck. I have always felt that life gives us circumstances we do not choose. We learn who we are by how we respond to them. So, I started sending emails looking for a new PhD advisor. One of them, Professor Chris Fuchs, who works on QBism–an interpretation of quantum theory, responded.

In my email, I had written that I wanted to do my PhD “under” him. In his reply, he crossed out the word “under” and replaced it with “with.”

That was a deeply meaningful moment for me. In that small correction, I realized the difference between walking behind someone and walking alongside. I feel proud that I am completing my PhD with him.

When I arrived at UMass Boston in September 2021, the campus was still under construction. But the beautiful ocean view stole my heart. As I immersed myself in my studies, I noticed something was missing. I had trouble meeting other graduate students with whom I could freely talk about not just physics but also philosophy, poetry, or politics.

So I had two choices: I could spend my entire degree complaining about what was missing and waiting for someone else to step up, or I could do something.

I began talking to my closest friends about starting a graduate club, and soon talking became doing, and the kind of community I wished for started to come into being. Over time, it became a place where graduate students could meet, connect, and belong over coffee, cookies and pizza.

I am proud that in the four years since we found it, the club has won the Best Graduate Club award three times, including this year.

I share this because I truly believe that when something important is missing in our lives, we can either wait for someone else to create it, or we can stand up and build it ourselves.

I once wrote in a poem while walking by the water near Campus Center.

“I wish life would have been a draft–
So I could write, erase, rewrite, erase,
until I could write it to what my heart wanted me to be.
But
It is written like words carved into stone.
Once it is written, it is written.”

And perhaps that is what makes life beautiful, terrifying and exciting. We do not get endless drafts. We do not get to return to old chapters and rewrite them.

Our choices slowly become our lives. The risks we do not take, the words we never say, the dreams we abandon out of fear quietly become part of our story, too.

And maybe that is why it becomes so important to live honestly. To choose for yourself. To listen carefully to what your heart is asking of you. Because this life, with all its uncertainty, is still the only one we get to write.

And perhaps that is where education enters our lives. Though it cannot change all the circumstances, it offers us freedom:

Freedom to imagine differently.
Freedom to choose differently.
Freedom to build a life that truly feels our own.

And the degree that you hold today is a symbol that you own that freedom.

I think my time here is almost over, but before I leave, I want to say one final thing. When I was younger, I believed that as humanity progressed, the world would naturally become more peaceful, more compassionate, and happier. But reality turned out to be more complicated.

And when I ask myself what we can do, I arrive at a simple answer:

In a world becoming faster, louder, and more artificial, perhaps our greatest responsibility is not merely to become smarter. Perhaps it is to become more human.

in how we listen.
in how we care.
in how we show concern for others.

The Buddha once said, “Atma Deepo Bhava,” which means be your own light, be your own beacon. And perhaps that is why it feels so meaningful that we call ourselves Beacons at UMass Boston. I believe it is an opportunity to earn that name. In this tough time, let us not only be a beacon for ourselves but also for someone who has lost hope, or for someone who feels alone.

Be a beacon of humanity in times that desperately need more humanity.

Today, standing here at UMass Boston, I feel grateful that a dream born could travel all the way from my birthplace in India, Moradabad, to Massachusetts.

This journey was not perfect, easy, or certain, but it was worth it. And perhaps that is the message I want to leave you with today: Live your life on your own terms, dream without fear, and keep walking toward what sets your soul on fire. No matter how many times life tells you “no.”

Congratulations Class of 2026! Go Beacons