The 2025 Commencement Speaker Is Chris Carlson '15
Brewster Academy is very proud to welcome alumnus and Olympic Bronze Medalist Chris Carlson, Class of 2015, as this year’s Commencement keynote speaker.
Brewster is equally proud that Mr. Carlson’s storied rowing career began right here on campus. When he arrived at Brewster from his hometown of Bedford, N.H., Mr. Carlson had never tried rowing. In short order, however, he picked up the sport under Coach Nick Docter, and soon became an impact member of the team—earning the attention of many college rowing coaches.
Initially attending Marist College after graduating from Brewster, Mr. Carlson was a regular in the Varsity 8+ in his first two years, and rowed in the team’s IRA finalist Varsity 4+ boat.
He transferred to rowing powerhouse University of Washington, where in his junior and senior years he was named Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year, earned multiple medals rowing in the Varsity 8+ at IRAs, won the Pac-12 Championship, and defeated other elite Division 1 crew programs including Dartmouth, Cornell, California, Northeastern, Stanford, and Oregon State.
As a college senior in 2019, Mr. Carlson earned All Pac-12 and All-Academic Pac-12 honors. He graduated from UW in 2019 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science.
Internationally, while in college and since graduating, Mr. Carlson has been a member of six USA National Teams, and his professional accomplishments include finishing sixth in the eight at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, finishing fourth in the eight at the 2022 World Rowing Championships, reaching the semifinals in the The Grand Challenge Cup in the eight at the 2022 Henley Royal Regatta, and winning gold in the eight at the 2018 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
But of course, he is most well known in the sport for his 8-man rowing Olympic bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
A 2024 inductee into Brewster’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Mr. Carlson resides in Boston, and continues to pursue his professional and international rowing career with an eye toward the L.A. Olympics in 2028.
But first, he is training for the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, coming in late September 2025.
The Brewster community welcomes Mr. Carlson, and his enlightening thoughts on perseverance.
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Watch the Commencement ceremony, including Chris's speech on our YouTube channel here.
