2025 Student Commencement Speakers: Different Backgrounds, One Special Day

Duke Today

2025 Student Commencement Speakers: Different Backgrounds, One Special Day

One is a first-generation Indian-American who grew up in Princeton, N.J. The other grew up in the rural United States, rodeo riding. Though Danica Bajaj and Lucas Vaughan come from different upbringings, they have one thing in common: They were selected as the undergraduate and graduate student commencement speakers for the Class of 2025.

 

A Message of Hope

Bajaj, who will graduate with a computer science major and a philosophy minor, says her message to students this year will center on “finding hope and community during times of uncertainty.”

She will talk about entering college after the pandemic and transitioning from the loneliness of lockdowns to building “a community more meaningful than any we’d inhabited before.”

A Robertson Scholar dedicated to advancing well-being across Duke University and the Durham community, Bajaj has been involved in numerous clubs and campus activities at Duke and within the community.

She founded and taught the house course “The Gratitude Equation: Adding Joy to Life at Duke.” It explored gratitude’s scientific foundations and its practical applications in daily life.

She also worked with Student Affairs to put up a tent on Central Campus for all student groups to use as event space.

“This way groups have access to Duke health and security resources when they host parties. It’s been up for 16-plus parties now hosted by a range of organizations,” she said.

“I love seeing people from completely different walks of life come together. It’s a value that’s shaped a lot of what I’ve done at Duke.”

Danica Bajaj

As a member of Duke Dhamaka, a competitive bhangra folk dance team, Bajaj helped choreograph this year’s senior performance.

“I love seeing people from completely different walks of life come together. It’s a value that’s shaped a lot of what I’ve done at Duke,” Bajaj says.

Off campus, Bajaj worked on opioid crisis intervention in North Carolina, which included attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings, conducting research, and securing a $250,000 grant to implement a Mobile Syringe Service Program for HIV prevention in rural North Carolina.

Bajaj says her time at Duke has been “the most transformative four years of my life. Through the Robertson program and the communities I’ve been lucky enough to be part of – faculty mentors, research labs, and student groups – I’ve been challenged, supported and inspired in ways I’ll carry with me forever.”

She plans to take six months off before working full-time for Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in NY in its social impact sector.

 

Not His First Rodeo

“Duke opened its doors to me – a cowboy turned soldier turned grad student soon to be cyber guy – and surrounded me with brilliant minds from across the globe,” says Vaughan, who will graduate from the Sanford School of Public Policy and be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Vaughan will deliver the graduate student speech about his experience at Duke.

“From the moment I stepped foot on this campus, I saw people who could accomplish anything they set their minds to. I was humbled to discover they viewed me as a peer – believing I, too, could do the same,” he says.

Vaughan began doing rodeos at four years old. He spent his childhood moving often but always to rural areas rooted in the Western ranching lifestyle. He qualified twice for the National High School Finals Rodeo and earned a college rodeo scholarship.

“From the moment I stepped foot on this campus, I saw people who could accomplish anything they set their minds to.”

Lucas Vaughan

During his undergraduate years, first at New Mexico State University and later at Lubbock Christian University, he packed mules and guided pack trips on horseback in Kings Canyon National Park, worked in the meat science lab at Texas Tech, worked cattle at a 16,000-head feedlot in Brawley, Calif., near the Mexican border, and ranched in Nevada. He earned a bachelor’s in animal science.

He spent his last winter as a civilian at Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Alta, Wyo., before entering the Army, where he served 13 years on active duty, most of them in special operations. During his military career, he deployed three times and graduated from Ranger School.

He took advantage of the Army's Green to Gold active-duty option, which required him to participate in the Army ROTC as a cadet. That led him to Duke.

“I was blessed to discover that Duke Army ROTC has an outstanding cadre (the military instructors), and the other cadets are some of the most talented young people I have ever met,” Vaughan said.

His time at Duke led him to the Master of International Development Policy (MIDP) program where he focused on national security, cyber policy and food security. He also will receive a certificate in Middle East studies. He earned Distinguished Military Graduate, an honor awarded to cadets in the Army's ROTC program who demonstrate exceptional achievement in academics, leadership, and physical fitness, ranking in the top 20 percent of all cadets nationwide.

Vaughan’s wife is a Duke postdoc associate in geopolitics and humanitarian crises. They have a five-year-old daughter – a big Duke fan who loves walking around campus and having pizza at Brodhead Center.

This summer, he and his family will relocate as he begins advanced training as a newly commissioned cyber officer.