Students have just two opportunities to walk through the famed Van Wickle Gates during their time at Brown — once when they begin their studies and again when they graduate. As graduating senior Lauren Maunus readied herself to cross that threshold one last time, she found herself reminiscing about her first tour through the gates, at Opening Convocation in Fall 2015.

“It’s been a very transformative few years in witnessing my own growth and exploration,” Maunus said. “Coming into Brown, I was really just an extension of myself in high school and fixated on academics. Now, I’m thinking so much about politics and climate change and the future of this world and how members of a community relate to each other. I’m asking questions of positionality and privilege.”

Waiting for Maunus on the other side of the gates is an advocacy position at Sunrise Movement, a climate change coalition based in Washington, D.C. Maunus dedicated much of her senior year transforming a 13-year-old climate advocacy student organization into Sunrise R.I., a highly engaged campus group that in just a few short months has grabbed headlines.

“I think the fact that Sunrise R.I.’s name is unavoidable in any local discussion on climate, and the fact that we’re actually changing politicians’ minds, is really important to see,” Maunus said. “It really instills that hope that we can actually set the direction for the future we want to create.”

For soon-to-be graduates, the Commencement and Reunion procession is the first of many end-of-year celebrations taking place that day. For alumni, it’s often the last event of the weekend — most had arrived on Friday to attend receptions with classmates, academic forums and Campus Dance, another beloved Brown tradition.

Class of 1977 graduate Nancy Harris spent part of her weekend visiting Harkness House, the onetime residence of her husband Brad Parsons, a 1976 graduate.

“I remember my husband threw something and cracked the ceiling [while he was a student],” Harris said while waiting for her about-to-graduate son Colby Parsons to process through the Van Wickle Gates. “The crack is still there.”

Class of 1954 graduate Bob Jenks, too, remembers engaging in “all kinds of misbehaving” at Brown. He and his wife, Jeannie, return every five years to take part in the procession.

“It’s just pure fun, it really is,” he said. “There’s a certain camaraderie you feel with the graduates, and there’s an excitement in reliving your first time down [College Street].”

A significant contingent of Class of 1969 alumni celebrating their 50th reunion turned out, including Ira Magaziner, who served as this year’s chief marshal. He had two 50-year anniversaries to celebrate — that of his graduation and that of the Open Curriculum, for which he was one of the chief architects.

On Sunday, Brown’s unique “inversion” tradition during the procession allowed Magaziner to come face to face with graduating seniors. After stepping through the gates, he and senior leaders from Brown greeted alumni and students by the thousands. Alumni followed his lead, lining up along College Street to cheer on the new graduates. And after the last senior passed through, Magaziner and his fellow alumni rejoined the parade, propelling seniors to their graduation ceremony at the First Baptist Church in America.

High-fiving countless cheering alumni boosted Meghan Mozea’s sense of pride and accomplishment. The senior, who had spent the last four years tutoring both children and prison inmates, advocating for sexual health resources and studying for a degree in history, said she would stay in Providence for one more week before heading to Stanford University for a one-year teacher education program.

“Even though I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in the fourth grade, it wasn't until these last four years of learning and teaching that I truly began to unpack the magic that can take place in the classroom,” she said.

Mozea found herself moved by the symbolism embedded in the procession.

“Walking through those gates is a lot more than getting the diploma,” Mozea said. “It’s validation that, no matter the path, the struggles, the ups and downs that it took to get here, we are all here and now walking through those gates together. And we carry with us through those gates the relationships we built, the knowledge we gathered and our peers who weren’t able to walk through the gates themselves.”