Rita Dove

In her Commencement address, poet Rita Dove described poetry as a process of “making the language your own”—an exploration she likened to the transformative education the graduates received from Smith. “Whether you end up as a politician or a painter, a novelist or a neurologist, this you all have in common: You have learned how to pursue thoughts and ideas, and hopefully you have grown to love that pursuit,” said Dove, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry.