ModPo’s Dan Bergmann, the first-ever non-speaking person to give a commencement speech at Harvard

Dan Bergmann was a student in the very first ModPo season (fall 2012), his first course of any sort at that time, where he wrote his first (marvelous) essays and, during our Final Words webcast, joined us in person at the Writers House and uttered the righteous and memorable phrase: “Not impossible!” Soon Dan was joining Penn classes in person, including English 88 (the in-person class on which ModPo is based), arranged through our LPS. Then he matriculated at the Harvard Extension School. While taking classes at Harvard, he also re-joined ModPo as a Community TA (CTA) and has visited the Writers House a number of times.Everyone who admires Dan—and there are many of us!—is excited to hear that today, this very day, Dan will take his degree from Harvard.

And there’s more. I quote from Meredith Bergmann: “Dan … won the ALB Speaker’s Prize competition to deliver a graduating address to and on behalf of his fellow bachelor’s degree recipients. ‘Since I cannot speak, of course I had to try to win the oration competition,’ he explained.” Dan is the first-ever non-speaking person to give a commencement speech at Harvard. Not impossible!