February 2026 Commencement Address 

Beloved Graduates,

Today you complete a journey of learning that has spanned many years, and you stand poised at a new beginning. The sweat you've shed, the effort you've poured in, and the moments of perseverance you've endured at Yonsei University have culminated in today's accomplishment. I congratulate you wholeheartedly, with the love of the entire Yonsei community.

My gratitude goes to the esteemed guests joining us today for this significant celebration, including Honorable Chairman Hur Dong-soo and Members of the Board of Trustees, President of the Yonsei Alumni Association Lee Kyoung-Ryul and our former presidents. I also offer sincere thanks to the professors and staff who have devoted themselves to teaching our graduates with passion and dedication. Most of all, let us give a heartfelt round of applause to the parents and families who have stood by their side with steadfast support.

Dear graduates,

Today you take leave of Yonsei's familiar grounds and step boldly toward the world that awaits. As spring returns to thaw the hardened earth and bring forth new life, so too will you become seeds of hope in the world beyond these gates. Hence this commencement is an occasion of joyful sending-forth.

All your memories of your years on Yonsei's campus — freshman orientation, opening assemblies, the University Festival, Yonsei-Korea games, the anxiety of course registration, nervously checking your grades, running breathlessly between buildings, cherry blossoms and fall colors that stopped you in your tracks, snowmen sprouting like mushrooms on the library lawn on freezing winter days, friends and seniors with whom you shared concerns and dreams, even that old couch in your club room that became your favorite hangout — have become your unique experience, cherished and irreplaceable.

Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan draws a distinction between space and place. 'Space' is abstract, filled with potential. 'Place' is space transformed by experience, life, and emotional bonds—somewhere that holds special meaning for you personally. When you took your first steps as

freshmen, Yonsei University was a space of possibilities. Now, at graduation, Yonsei has become a place imbued with your youth. Here you've encountered countless people, had momentous experiences, learned lessons, felt deeply, stumbled and stood back up. Having grown through all of this, you now step toward new spaces ahead.

 

Beloved Graduates,

The world awaiting you is unfamiliar territory once more. What lies ahead will be anything but straightforward. Possibility lives in the unknown. You'll search for direction amid uncertainty, and on your journey toward success, you'll sometimes face disappointments and failures you didn't anticipate. But these are precisely the moments through which we continue learning and growing. My hope is that you become people who can always get back up from wherever you fall, people who hold fast to who they are.

The AI revolution has brought humanity to the threshold of rapid and profound transformation. We've reached a moment when we must fundamentally rethink what it means to be human and what values we should pursue. Lately we often ask ourselves: "What can humans still do that AI cannot?" In his celebrated 『 The Future that Arrived Early』, our alumnus novelist Chang Kang-myoung answers: "To imagine well, to believe we can change the future, and thereby change it."

What you've gained at Yonsei goes beyond your major or technical expertise. You've learned how to ask questions, the courage to think differently, and how to truly listen to others. Questions and courage, openness and care for others—these are what enable good imagination. In our fast-changing world, right answers keep shifting, but the capacity to question yourself and reflect stays with you. This capacity will keep you grounded.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, be Yonseians who value direction over the size of your success, responsibility over speed. Imagine well, and thus transform your spaces and surroundings into places filled with meaning, warm with life.

Proud Yonseians,

From today forward, as you step boldly into a new world, you are the face of this university and its living history. This place today is not only one of farewell but also one of welcome, as we receive you among our 400,000 Yonsei alumni. As Yonsei graduates, may courage and wisdom walk with you always. May that courage and wisdom flow into the world as a force for good. On the new paths you create, I hope you shine as brilliantly as you do today. And may Yonsei remain in your life's journey as an unfading memory, as the youth that continues to shine in your heart. Yonsei will walk alongside you and support you every step of the way.

Once again, my heartfelt congratulations on your graduation.

 

Thank you.

 

February 23, 2026

Dong-sup Yoon

President, Yonsei University