# @brownu on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DYsoIeQiZE7
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/65816890-brownu-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5e90628932.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-05-23T22:05:25.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Brown University (@brownu) — https://gondola.cc/brownu

## Caption

“Curiosity requires vulnerability. To be openly curious — to ask other humans questions, particularly publicly — is to admit all that we do not know.”

At Brown University’s 2026 Baccalaureate ceremony, bestselling author and Brown alumna Xochitl Gonzalez encouraged graduating seniors to embrace curiosity, question assumptions and stay open to learning throughout their lives.

Growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, Xochitl Gonzalez wasn’t exactly praised for being a nosey, or “compulsively curious,” child.

When she pressed her grandparents on why she had to eat lentils every week, why her uncle was laid off from his job, or why her cousin broke up with her boyfriend, Gonzalez was routinely met with a refrain designed to stanch the flow of constant questions: “Because ‘Y’ is a crooked letter.”

But her grandparents’ approach had the opposite effect on her relentlessly inquisitive young mind.

“All that answer did was make me determined to know what, in fact, had led ‘Y’ astray,” the award-winning author said in the First Baptist Church in America, where she delivered the Baccalaureate address to Brown University’s undergraduate Class of 2026 on Saturday, May 23.

The colorful, multi-faith service celebrates bachelor’s degree recipients and honors the many spiritual and cultural traditions of the University community one day before their degrees are conferred during Brown’s Commencement and Reunion Weekend. #Brown2026 #BrownU

🔗 Read more about this year’s Baccalaureate ceremony at the link in our bio.

📸 Image credit: Nick Dentamaro

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## Tags

brown2026, brownu

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