On behalf of the faculty, Teaching Assistants, and staff at UCLA Linguistics, congratulations to the UCLA Linguistics Class of 2020 for all of your hard work! You put in countless minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years into linguistic research in and outside of the classroom.
You listened to recordings and live language consultants to train your ears to pick up the subtle nuances of phonetics and deciphered the psychology of phonology. You built forests from sentences for syntax and peeled back the layers of interpretation in semantics. You explored world languages and cultures both familiar and foreign.
You crammed through late nights, balanced opportunities to learn new skills and get involved in your campus community, you wrote in code and sputtered out foundational sounds of language which others only understood to be gibberish. You managed to keep going though fires, demonstrations, and a global pandemic that upended your final quarter.
Through it all, you kept going, kept achieving, kept dreaming, and kept supporting each other on your road to this, your graduation. We recognize your sacrifices and honor your commitment to your education and this scientific community. We are proud of you and envision bright futures for all of you, wherever you decide to go from here!