Latest news with #classof2025
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
The Lions will have beers flowing but champagne on hold after failing to whitewash Australia in the third Test with a 22-12 defeat - it is a mini sweetener for the Wallabies but neither team will feel satisfied with the series outcome, writes NIK SIMON
By the time the sun returns and the players are relaxing on Bondi Beach on Monday afternoon, the Lions will look back on this tour with a feeling of pride. By then, the lightning storms will have passed. History will remember the class of 2025 as series winners but there will forever be a nagging feeling that they did not finish the job. It was a good outcome, two Tests to one, but not one that will propel them into the pantheon of greatness.
Irish Times
07-07-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Carl O'Brien: ‘Why grade deflation for Leaving Cert students might not be such a bad thing'
We asked recently what you'd like to know more about in the run-up to the Leaving Cert results. Many parents are keen for more details about the impact of the postmarking adjustment for the class of 2025. 'It's unfair - why should the class of 2024 have an advantage over the class of 2025,' said one parent. 'Thousands of students from recent years will have stronger grades. Surely there is fairer system?' wrote another. There's no doubt about it: this year's students are paying for the price of Covid-era grade inflation. Students' results this year will be inflated, on aggregate, by 5.5 per cent after marking is completed. This is 1.5 per cent lower than last year's 7 per cent postmarking adjustment. This, based on our rough calculations, could be the equivalent of roughly 10-12 CAO points for a higher level student. READ MORE Why is this happening? The Minister for Education wants to gradually return Leaving Cert grades to pre-Covid norms over the course of several years to maintain the integrity of the exam results. Many students are naturally worried that they will be disadvantaged in the hunt for CAO points compared to students on bumper grades from previous years. But will it really be so bad? After digging into the numbers, there are a few reasons to believe it might not necessarily be so unfair for many students. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 1. Lower grades may mean lower points There are several factors that influence the entry cut-off point for the CAO's round one offers in late August. They include the number of places on offer across individual courses, demand for these places and the points achieved by applicants. With so many candidates set to achieve lower points this year, on aggregate, it seems likely that CAO points will drop across many courses. Something similar happened in 2023. A particularly difficult higher level Leaving Cert maths paper meant the proportion of students who secured top grades fell significantly. For example, the proportion of students who achieved a H1 fell from 18 per cent in 2022 to 11 per cent in 2023. This meant there were thousands of fewer points washing around the system. This led to points falling across a majority – 60 per cent – of courses. More significantly, the proportion of students who secured their first-choice increased. John McGinnity, guidance counsellor with the Institute of Education, estimated at the time that the drop in the number of students who secured a H1 in maths was worth the equivalent of 20,000 points across the system. 'This drop in points had a ripple effect through the entire system given the interdependencies between courses as it cascaded down, reducing the points for those courses in the middle and lower ranges as it moved through,' McGinnity said in 2023. There is a chance, then, that with fewer points in the system this year, we could see points drop across many courses. It's not a given. In courses where there are increased applicant numbers – and no increases in places – there may be upward pressure on points. But there are reasons to be hopeful. A Leaving Certificate student checks their exam results via the online Department of Education hub. Photo: Bryan O'Brien Keywords: can leaving cert pass honours fail college education points 2. Fewer candidates with bumper results from last year The unfairness at the heart of grade deflation lies in the fact this the class of 2025 are competing against thousands of students from recent years with inflated results for the same CAO places. But how many? One higher education source tells me that data from early March shows that about 15 per cent of the 2025 CAO applicant cohort will be presenting Leaving Cert results from 2024. This is significantly down from the average of 17-18 per cent over the previous five years. These proportions are unlikely to have changed much since then, but the CAO should be able to provide more definitely data soon. How much impact this has across individual courses is another story. Either way, it is a positive indicator. Trinity College Dublin. Photograph: iStock. 3. Extra places in some courses New programmes and additional places may help to ease some points pressure across courses in very high demand such as dentistry, pharmacy and therapeutic areas this year. Last June, for example, the Government approved a significant expansion in training places for 'health and social care professions'. A total of 320 additional student places are being created in 2025 in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, radiation therapy, radiography, podiatry, social work, medical science and dietetics. In addition, there is a new dentistry course offered by the RCSI for the first time this year (20 places reserved for Irish/EU students), as well as pharmacy at University of Galway – two areas associated with sky-high entry points. Again, there is no guarantee that points will drop in these courses, but additional places are a positive indicator when it comes to easing upwards points pressure. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 4. What's up and what's down Later this week the CAO will provide a breakdown of general course preference trends among this year's applicants following the July 1st 'change of mind' deadline. This gives a clue about what's up and what's down this year in terms of CAO points. This, in turn, gives a clue about where points requirements are likely to rise and fall. If you can't wait for that, the figures as of March this year showed that applications for college degrees in areas such as construction, engineering and architecture increased considerably in 2025. Conversely, interest in third-level courses for languages and information and communication technologies (ICT) has fallen away. In the area of health studies, school leavers applying for degrees in medicine have increased by 4 per cent; dentistry and related subject applications had a 76 per cent increase; nursery and midwifery, which are skills in high demand. How were the exams for you? We'd love to hear your feedback on this year's Leaving Cert exams: what were the hardest?; what kind of toll did it take on students?; what changes would you like to see?; are you concerned about grade 'deflation' and its impact on CAO points? Please take a few minutes to complete our survey, below, and we'll share the results soon:
Wall Street Journal
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
At MIT and Yale, ‘Graduation's Ruined'
The same university administrators who allowed extremists to infiltrate their campuses also welcomed them to commencement. For two years the class of 2025 has been subjected to bullying by Hamas supporters. Did they—and their families—also have to suffer while collecting their diplomas? At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, kaffiyeh-clad student speaker Megha Vemuri claimed MIT had suppressed campus activists even as she railed against 'genocidal' Israeli soldiers attempting 'to wipe Palestinians off the face of the earth.' Administrators let her speak knowing that an antisemitic rant was likely. Ms. Vemuri, the 2025 class president, has an extremist record. She ran a self-described 'revolutionary' student publication that published an homage to Aaron Bushnell, who in 2024 committed suicide by self-immolation outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington while shouting 'Free Palestine.'
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘The most subversive thing you can do is read': 2025's best graduation speeches
America's higher education may be under attack from the federal government – but students from the class of 2025 still have to graduate. And so commencement season, somehow, occurred, with the world's best and brightest politicians, entertainers and athletes, plus a frog, presenting their hard-earned wisdom. From Percival Everett to Simone Biles to President Trump himself, here are 10 lessons we've learned from the year's graduation speeches. Elizabeth Banks advised her fellow University of Pennsylvania grads not to put too much stock in pie metaphors. The biggest division in this country, the comedy actor and director said, was economic, with vast wealth concentrated in the hands of a small number of people. But they don't have a monopoly on the future. 'I can understand why you believe that life is a zero-sum game,' Banks said. 'If one person takes a bigger slice, everyone else has to take a smaller slice and the total size of the pie remains the same. And that is true with actual pie. But not with life. Not with opportunity. 'You're really only ever competing with yourself, with the limitations you're willing to accept, with the smallness of someone else's idea of what you're capable of. So stop competing and start beating the pie lie.' Unfortunately, one thing could stand in the way. 'The biggest derailment to the future you want to build is irresponsible ejaculation,' Banks warned. 'I know all the doctors on this stage with me agree that that is the cause of all unwanted pregnancy.' Everyone deserves to 'be able to determine whether, when and with whom you become a parent'. So, she said: 'Wrap it up. Keep abortion legal.' Levar Burton, the actor and TV host who inspired several generations of kids to read, brought his message to Howard University, where the crowd still knew the words to the Reading Rainbow theme song. At a dark time for America, he offered some hope. 'At every level, in every era as slaves and then as the descendants of slaves, we have challenged this nation to live up to the promise of its founding proposition that all men are created equal,' he said. 'In 2025, America is still addicted to its racism,' like 'an alcoholic who has yet to hit rock bottom'. Still, 'only in America could a descendant of slaves, for whom simply knowing how to read was once punishable by death, grow up and become a celebrated champion for literacy and the written word. This, too, is America. This is still a land of great promise and opportunity yet untold.' Burton said he only wished the country could live up to its original promise. 'To do that, she must shun the scourge of racist thinking and behaving and policymaking that holds this nation back. 'There's gonna be another day. You hear me? There's gonna be another day,' he told the crowd, referencing an ad-libbed line from the show Roots that lifted him to stardom. 'And even though the future may look uncertain, graduates … That day has arrived. This moment is yours to shape.' Speaking at Yale University, Jacinda Ardern noted the unexpected benefits of impostor syndrome and sensitivity. 'Self-doubt brings with it humility,' the former prime minister of New Zealand said. 'It drives you to seek information, to listen to experts who can teach you and advisers who can guide you.' And sensitivity – 'the thing that moves you to tears when you see the pain of others' – can 'be what drives you to action,' she added. 'In fact,' she said, 'all those traits that you might have believed your whole life were weaknesses – questioning yourself, the doubt that brings humility, or sensitivity that comes with empathy – may just be what the world needs more of.' At Bates College in Maine, the scholar and psychologist Angela Duckworth asked graduates and faculty to perform an excruciating experiment: handing their phones to the people next to them for a quarter of an hour. 'I want to talk about something that might seem trivial, but in fact has profound implications for your future success and happiness, something as consequential as your major or where you land your first job, and that's where you choose to keep your phone,' Duckworth said. Her research on goals and self-control had yielded a surprising conclusion, she said: 'Willpower is overrated. In study after study, psychologists like me have found that achieving what you want out of life has very little to do with forcing yourself to act in one way or another.' Instead, she said, successful people 'deliberately design their situations in ways that make wise choices easier' – a practice called 'situation modification'. Teenagers are spending eight hours a day looking at screens, she said. 'If you don't like how your phone grabs your attention, directs your thoughts, triggers your desires, then push it away. On the other hand, if you do want something to take up more of your conscious awareness, art, poetry, a really good novel, keep it as close as possible.' That goes for friends, too: 'Phones can connect us to people who are far away, but they can also separate us from the people right in front of us.' Percival Everett, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James, gave a brief but stark call to action at Wesleyan University, describing this year's graduates as perhaps 'the last line of defense of and for American intellectual life'. Fascists, he said, burn books because 'they are afraid of thought'. Students, however, had learned to read – and not just books. 'You have learned to read the world, people, actions, conspiracies. You have learned to think for yourselves.' Everett called reading 'the most subversive thing you can do. When you read, no one knows what's going into you, even if they are reading over your shoulder, and they are.' His advice for graduates: 'I ask nothing more from you than to do what you have been doing. Go out into the fray and keep reading.' At his alma mater, the University of Southern California – known for producing Hollywood luminaries – the film-maker Jon M Chu emphasized the importance of a good story, especially at a time when it can feel like the world is falling apart. Right now, he said, familiar stories were disintegrating, and 'fear, blame, and division dominate our airwaves.' But instead of despairing, he added, this was 'a moment of profound opportunity. Because when the old stories fall apart, it means it's time to write a new one.' He continued: 'Whoever tells the best story holds the power. Your ability to understand, interpret, and ultimately shape stories is critically important no matter what you want to do.' Machines may be able to assess data and 'even create art, but they cannot authentically feel or intuitively connect. In whatever field you are in, your power to convey information in ways that emotionally connect will be more valuable than we even currently acknowledge.' Simone Biles is, of course, a top contender for the Greatest of All Time – but she told graduates at Washington University of St Louis that 'being the Goat was never the goal.' Instead, 'my goal was to be the greatest Simone Biles of all time.' Biles urged listeners to do the same: be the 'greatest you of all time' – and in the process, embrace failure. 'When you're reaching for things, you're going to fall short, and yes, sometimes you're going to fail,' she said. 'When – not if, but when – this happens to you, just learn from it, and move on to Plan B. If plan B doesn't work out, then make a Plan C, and then guess what – there's the rest of the alphabet. The key to success is the willingness to always find a way.' Graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point were treated to inspirational remarks by their commander-in-chief. Among other insights into the human condition, Donald Trump delved into questions of terminology, noting that the preferred term for people on the left is 'progressive' rather than 'liberal', and 'that's why I call them liberal'. He also questioned whether it was acceptable to say 'trophy wife', ultimately deciding that it was. Still, he cautioned against obtaining one. 'That doesn't work out too well, I must tell you,' he said as he regaled the newly minted officers with the life stories of the professional golfer Gary Player and real estate developer William Levitt. 'A lot of trophy wives – doesn't work out, but it made him happy for a little while at least. But he found a new wife. He sold his little boat and he got a big yacht,' Trump said of the latter. The president also pointed out that he won last year's election. At the University of Maryland – the alma mater of his creator, Jim Henson – Dr Kermit the Frog offered a sunny vision in challenging times. Life, he said, was about 'finding your people, taking the leap, and making connections'. 'Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side. Because life is better when we leap together,' the frog advised. But, he warned biology majors: 'You're not going to get me to step foot inside your lab.' The physician and author Abraham Verghese spoke at Harvard University as it defends itself from the Trump administration's attempted crackdown on academia. Outrage over the government's actions, he said, should lead to new appreciation – 'appreciation for the rule of law and due process, which till now we took for granted', he said, as well as 'appreciation of actions that demonstrate thoughtfulness, decency, generosity, kindness, humility and service to community'. Verghese reflected on how, during the Aids epidemic, many young people returned to their home towns to spend their last days. 'Given the prevailing sentiments against gay people in small towns in the rural south, I found myself pleasantly surprised to find my patients were so well received by their families. They were cared for lovingly to the end. You see, love trumps all bigotry. Love trumps ideology.'
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hazleton Area Class of 2025 graduates after multiple postponements
Jun. 7—HAZLE TWP. — Hazleton Area's Class of 2025 graduated on Saturday afternoon following multiple delays to the ceremony's start time due to weather. Originally, the class was scheduled to graduate at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, and the day and time had shifted multiple times since Friday morning. Student speakers at the ceremony included Valedictorian Gabriella Bredbenner, Salutatorian Faith Russo, and Class President Franklin Ritz. High school Principal Anthony Conston, school board President Edward Shemansky, and Superintendent Brian Uplinger also offered remarks to the students and the significant crowd of guests. The high school chorus performed a mashup of "You Will Be Found" from "Dear Evan Hansen" and "The Story of Tonight" from "Hamilton." For information on the ceremony, including a full list of graduates, look for The Times Leader's special graduation section.
