Jurassic World Star Bryce Dallas Howard Graduates From NYU After 21 Years

Bryce Dallas Howard has already become a household name for her decades of work as an actress, but it looks like she just accomplished a pretty epic milestone. On Friday, the actress took to Instagram to announce that she is officially a college graduate, and that she has graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Howard, whose filmography as an actress and director includes Jurassic World, Black Mirror, and Star Wars: The Mandalorian, revealed that she first enrolled in the school in 1999 before taking a leave of absence to begin her acting career, making this degree “21 years in the making.” Howard also acknowledged that while they won’t be able to have a formal graduation ceremony this year due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, she wanted to thank “everyone who supported and encouraged” herself and her fellow graduates.

Howard also spoke about the graduation in a newsletter for the Nine Muses Lab, a program that she helped teach while at NYU.

“In the last two decades, my career has continued to include ever-evolving passions and curiosities,” Howard writes in the letter. “I got married to my college sweetheart and we had two awesome kids. There have been world events where we felt the rug pulled out from underneath us (hi, 2008) and personal challenges that led to a real crisis of confidence (looking at you, motherhood). Despite all this, continuing to pursue my degree and complete schoolwork never felt like a chore. I had put off taking my social science classes while at NYU, so I enrolled in various sociology and psychology classes. I took literature and philosophy courses — heavy academic stuff, and I was ready for it in a way I would never have been earlier. Since I wasn’t physically in New York, I couldn’t complete my studio credits, so they were converted into even more social science and humanities credits. I got so hooked on classes that if I was curious about a class but knew full well it didn’t fall exactly into what qualified as a credit that would transfer, I would still take the class! “Writing for Video Games,” “Creative Nonfiction,” and “Entertainment Law” to name just a few.”

“As the years passed, a passion for personal development and learning blossomed,” Howard continued. “Similarly, a desire to exist within a community of individuals who were also experiencing the transformative effects of an education. I remained focused and determined to complete my degree and often fantasized about walking at graduation. I wasn’t at all intimidated by the fact I would be decades older than the majority of graduates. Seth (my husband) and I did the math and realized that many babies born the year I first started NYU were probably graduating alongside me, which made me even more excited. How wild, how weird, and what a great story.”

Bryce can next be seen in Jurassic World: Dominion, which is currently scheduled to hit theaters on June 11, 2021.