Yifu Mu ’14 to Deliver Commencement Address

Head of School Chris Day P’12,’13 is pleased to announce that alumnus Yifu Mu, a member of the Class of 2014, will deliver the Commencement Address at Cardigan’s 76th Commencement exercises on May 29.

In 2012, two years before he would graduate from Cardigan, then 12-year-old Yifu Mu helped organize a service trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where the local residents lack simple necessities including stable electricity. Working with his father and other Cardigan families, Yifu helped install solar-powered LED lighting in several local homes. The project has grown to include almost forty participants and they return every summer to continue their work. To date, the ‘Light Up Tonle Sap’ project has installed solar panels, LED lights, and fans in more than 300 Cambodian village homes. 

When asked if he thought he would still be planning this service trip so many years later, his answer is simple: “You have to finish what you start. You have to take ownership for it, and that resonates, I think, with a lot of things Cardigan taught us.”

“He is at once selfless and determined, inclusive and competitive, global in his outlook, yet local in his actions. Yifu is the kind of person so many of us aspire to be, and I know that he will inspire our graduates.”

Head of School Chris Day P’12,’13

After graduating from Cardigan, Yifu attended Holderness School and then Georgetown University, where he earned degrees in linguistics and computer science. Yifu currently serves as director of technology for the TAMID Group, an organization that “facilitates experiential education and cultivates relationships to create a strong and lasting connection to Israel for emerging professionals.” He is also currently pursuing a master’s degree in computational linguistics at Georgetown.

Mr. Day is excited to introduce Yifu, whom he knew as a student at Holderness, to the Class of 2022. “He is at once selfless and determined, inclusive and competitive, global in his outlook, yet local in his actions,” says Mr. Day. “Yifu is the kind of person so many of us aspire to be, and I know that he will inspire our graduates.”