‘Be kind, show love, and do the right thing for the right reasons.’
That was the message Ralph Vieux, a staff assistant in the Office of Community Engagement, Equity, and Belonging at Harvard Law School, conveyed to the Harvard Law School Class of 2025 during this year’s Class Day ceremony.
Recognized by the graduating class for his devotion to the Harvard Law community, Vieux was honored as the recipient of the 2025 Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Appreciation Award. The award is given each year to a staff member who demonstrates commitment to the student experience and concern for students’ lives and work.
In his introduction, Class Marshal Benjamin Reichard ’25 said one of the most important lessons he learned at Harvard Law is that “community is built, not merely found.”
“We did not just show up on campus, stumble into social spaces. Through intentional effort and sharing our time, energy, and perspectives with each other, we made those social spaces for ourselves and others,” Reichard told the graduating class. “Honestly, my deepest learning didn’t come in class, but came from sharing community with you all.”
He credited Vieux with embodying the spirit of community building at Harvard Law. “He’s one of the brightest, friendliest faces on campus and is an essential part of student life!”
Vieux joined Harvard Law School in 2017 as a member of the J.D. Admissions Office, where he served in the front office, greeting visitors, fielding calls and emails from prospective students, applicants, and admitted students, and helping to coordinate programming for Admitted Students Weekend.
Since August 2021, he has served as a staff assistant in the Office of Community Engagement, Equity, and Belonging at Harvard Law School, where he helps to administer the law school’s Future Leaders in Law Program, a yearlong pre-law fellowship initiative that brings together individuals with a range of lived experiences, primarily from first-generation and less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.
Vieux began his remarks by thanking “first and foremost … my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t be here or who I am without him.” He expressed gratitude to the students for selecting him for this award. “Shout out to all of you! Much appreciated!,” he said.
He also expressed gratitude to his family members, including his father, who helped him “learn how to be a man,” his mother, who helped show him “how to love;” and his brothers, who contributed to shaping a character-building environment. He particularly thanked his wife who, he said, “holds me together,” and his sons, Lucas and Nathan, who have taught him the most in the last five years, he said. “Shout out to my boys!,” he beamed.
Vieux urged the graduating class to remember they too had people in their lives they needed and should be thankful for.
“We all need each other … [this is] something this world is clearly not paying attention to right now.”
“You’re not here graduating by yourself,” he said. “You had so many people with you. Whether you’re a J.D., LL.M, or S.J.D … all of you here who are graduating had one person, or a whole bunch of people, in your corner, helping you go through the ups and the downs of your journey here. In short, we all need each other. Something this world is clearly not paying attention to right now.”
He offered graduates three pieces of advice for how to navigate the next chapter of their lives.
“One, be kind to everyone you interact with,” Vieux advised the hundreds of graduates in an audience that blanketed Holmes Field. You never know what people are going through and you could be the reason why the person smiles that day.”
“Two, show love to the people who hate on you. … In the words of Taylor Swift, ‘haters gonna hate,’” he said, “but you shouldn’t respond with the same kind of energy. …Respond with love and peace and joy. And take the high road.”
“Thirdly and lastly, do the right thing for the right reasons,” he said. “It’s going to matter when you become a parent, when you are in your job. Whoever you interact with, these things people will see in your character: who you are here, not who you’re trying to put on. Okay? It matters.”
Vieux wrapped up by saying that although, as a father, he’s not supposed to have favorites: “Shout out to my favorite class, the Class of 2025!”
View full coverage from the festivities of the 2025 Class Day and Commencement Ceremonies at Harvard Law School
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