Graduating senior John Yeldham will address the Class of 2025 during the Arts & Sciences Recognition Ceremony on May 11. He will be joined by alumnus John R. Green, AB ’90.
Student Speaker: John Yeldham
John Yeldham has seen firsthand the benefit of being surrounded by a strong community. “I chose WashU because I wanted an environment that was academically challenging but also supportive,” he said. “I really found that here.”
One of his favorite WashU memories was participating in the Gephardt Institute’s St. Louis Fellows Program, where he had the opportunity to go into the city and see how everything he learned in the classroom could be applied to real life. He also enjoyed participating in the Dean James E. McLeod First-Year Writing Prize, which allowed him to learn about the life of the late Dean McLeod while also pursuing an ambitious essay on the intersection of rap music and criminal law. “Being recognized for that writing really encouraged me to keep pursuing my interests and step outside the box during my time at WashU,” he said.
When he addresses the Class of 2025, Yeldham hopes to impart a simple but important message: “Having a strong sense of community uplifts us all,” he said. “We really have that at WashU, and, as we graduate into an uncertain time, I hope that everyone continues to build a sense of community wherever they're headed.”
Yeldham said he would encourage younger students to take advantage of the many opportunities the university provides. “There's so many amazing people to meet and so many opportunities to attend,” he said. “But I’d also encourage them to get out into St. Louis as much as possible. We have so much on this campus, but there's also so much beyond it.”
After graduation, Yeldham will get to experience a new side of the Danforth Campus as a student at WashU Law. His majors in environmental policy and Spanish and his minor in anthropology have prepared him well for this next chapter, he said. “I'll be able to apply a lot of the skills I learned as an undergraduate, whether it's critical thinking, essay writing, or reading. I look forward to being able to do that.”
Alumni Speaker: John R. Green
John R. Green, AB ’90, turned his love of language into a distinguished career as an Emmy and Peabody award-winning television producer. Green double majored in English and French at WashU, an education that taught him to follow a story wherever it took him.
Looking back on his 27 years as an executive producer at ABC News, one morning stands out. “I was running the live Good Morning America broadcast on September 11, 2001,” he recalled in 2020 as part of the Distinguished Alumni Awards. “That really changed the way I view the impact of what we do in broadcast journalism.”
Green is currently the president and senior executive producer of 10/10 Twin Productions, a production company specializing in taped and live news, documentary, and entertainment specials and series. He has also authored two children’s books — “Dream Grabber” and “Dream Jumper” — inspired by the bedtime rituals that he used to help his two children go to sleep.
In a return to his alma mater, Green co-teaches “Modern Media: The Good, the Bad, & the Future,” an Ampersand program for first-year students that launched in 2023. In this course, he and Eileen G’Sell, senior lecturer in college writing, help students explore the modern media landscape, from network TV news to TikTok.
He couldn’t have predicted the trajectory of his career while he was an undergraduate, but he always believed that his Arts & Sciences education would take him far. This generation of students has the same bright future, he said in 2020. “The value of a liberal arts education is enormous. If the passion is there, the work will come.”
Meet the 2025 graduate ceremony speakers and student marshals.
