“Not Quite a Tourist, Not Quite a Local”: Minerva Students Reflect on Four Years Across Borders

At Minerva University’s 2026 graduation ceremony, student speakers reflected on grief, courage, friendship, and the communities they built across four years of living and learning around the world. This week, students representing more than 40 countries graduated in San Francisco after four years spent building community across cities, cultures, and continents.

Student speaker Wisdom Ifode reflected on arriving in San Francisco for the first time and confronting realities that challenged his assumptions about the United States.

“Now, with all these thoughts running through my head, I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when the first thing I encountered when I got on the streets of San Francisco was a homeless man asking me for $2,” Ifode said. “My first thought was, me too, bruh. But my second thought was how such a huge wealth disparity existed in this city.”

Throughout his remarks, Ifode reflected on the vulnerability, adaptability, and curiosity that shaped the cohort’s experience moving between cities and cultures.

“Despite not knowing the language, you armed yourself with Google Translate and the mandatory phrases of hello and thank you, and went out to volunteer, attend rallies, engage in civic projects, and enrich the towns you lived in,” he said.

He also spoke about the emotional complexity of living between cultures and communities while learning how to engage respectfully with the cities students temporarily called home. “You all have shown bravery through vulnerability with each other in powerful stories of your struggles and your individual journeys of healing,” Ifode said.

“Gathering every Saturday night to participate with humility and curiosity in conversations about how to engage in the local community without overstepping your position as a not quite a tourist, and not quite a local.”

As graduates prepare for life after Minerva, Ifode encouraged classmates to remember the courage that brought them across borders and into unfamiliar environments.

“You have all the courage you need to face what life throws at you,” he said. “You too left your parents and guardians, your friends, your hometowns, and you threw everything you could into pursuing your dreams.”

Ifode also reflected on the uncertainty many graduates are stepping into, acknowledging both the beauty and instability shaping the world around them.

“We are stepping out into a world of wondrous beauty,” Ifode said, “but also a playground of that great eternal struggle of good and evil.”He encouraged graduates to remain grounded through both periods of uncertainty and moments of joy.‍

“There will be seasons where you are waiting and figuring it out,” he said, “and there will be seasons when it seems like everything finally clicks into place.”

In his closing, Ifode spoke about the lasting friendships and global support network students built during their time at Minerva, encouraging graduates to lean on one another and remember that wherever life takes them, another Minervan is likely only a phone call away.

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Student speaker Jonathan Shamwana spoke about grief, memory, and the ways classmates learned to care for one another across continents and cultures, recalling “soup nights” where students gathered over homemade meals to discuss personal stories, difficult questions, and current events shaping the world around them.

“That night, we heard about how in Mexico, death is pulled into the everyday, into streets and homes,” Shamwana said. “People opened up about grieving past versions of themselves after illness, breakup, or the natural passage of time.”

Shamwana reflected on how students learned to support one another through uncertainty, heartbreak, celebration, and change while moving across cities together. 

"My friends have shown me that this holding isn’t confined to a kitchen floor in India,” Shamwana said. “It’s how we survived the world these past four years.” From the “freezing peaks of the Himalayas” to “the cozy corners of 16 Turk,” Shamwana described a class shaped by shared vulnerability and deep connection.

“We held each other through the ecstasy of love and the withering of heartbreak,” Shamwana said. “We’ll hold each other as we dance into graduation night, and as we stumble forward into unwritten futures.”

The remarks closed with a reflection that resonated throughout the ceremony and captured the spirit of the graduating class: “We hold each other’s brokenness into joy.”

For the Class of 2026, Minerva was an experience shaped by community, curiosity, and learning how to navigate an increasingly interconnected world together.

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View the full 2026 Minerva University Degree Conferral Ceremony here and learn more about the Minerva experience here.