Seniors deserve better than Jay Shetty

The following is an open letter and reflects the authors’ views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here. 

We are writing to express our strong disapproval of the selection of Jay Shetty as the 2025 Class Day speaker. The conduct of Shetty, a self-described former Hindu monk turned wellness podcaster, does not reflect our values as a class. We deserve better than a self-help guru and repeated plagiarist who runs a “school” that an expert claims exhibits “similar patterns” to a multi-level marketing scheme. 

We agree with the Class Day chairs that mental health and community wellness are critically important topics to discuss at Class Day. A social media influencer with no public record of clinical or medical training in these areas, however, should not be the one to do so. Though we acknowledge the logistical difficulties in doing so, we strongly urge that the Class Day chairs consider replacing Shetty with a different speaker. 

It is ironic that the Class Day speaker announcement video highlighted Shetty’s commitment to asking questions such as “How do we show up as our authentic selves?” when, in fact, he has repeatedly misrepresented his actual life experience. As an investigation in The Guardian details, Shetty has engaged in a pattern of behavior which we believe to be highly inappropriate and clearly disqualifying. 

Shetty’s claims about his education and background do not hold up under scrutiny. He stated in his 2020 self-help volume, “Think Like a Monk,” that he lived in India as a Hindu monk for three years — a narrative central to his authority as a spiritual guru. But considerable evidence points to him having spent much of that period in England traveling, blogging, and giving lectures. He has also claimed to hold a degree in behavioral science, even though the institution which supposedly gave Shetty his degree has indicated that it does not offer a program in behavioral science. Shetty has since changed his story; he now says that his three years as a monk were spent in both India and the United Kingdom and that his degree is in management science.

Shetty’s involvement in a questionable business venture also deeply concerns us. The Jay Shetty Certification School (JSCS), which trains students to become certified life coaches via a six-month-long, $7,400 online course, has claimed it is accredited by Ofqual, an agency that regulates certifications in England — a claim that Ofqual has denied. JSCS appears to have since removed references to Ofqual on its website. The College of New Jersey Emeritus Professor William Keep, an expert in multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs), told The Guardian that although JSCS does not meet the formal definition of an MLM, it shares qualities with MLMs. (Shetty’s lawyers disputed this charge to The Guardian.)

Given the emphasis Princeton places on academic honesty, it is noteworthy that Mr. Shetty’s own work would be subject to multiple and brazen violations of Princeton’s academic honesty guidelines. As The Guardian details, “Shetty built his social media presence by lifting content from other people, making inspirational quotes — many of which had been copied, oftentimes verbatim, from accounts with smaller followings — look like original content.” After a social media influencer exposed Shetty’s methods in 2019, Shetty updated previous posts to include attributions and removed many others; his lawyers told The Guardian “it was a learning experience” for Shetty. 

We reiterate our deep disappointment in Shetty’s selection as Class Day speaker. Class Day is an opportunity in which “the Graduating Class has full charge and which we run to suit ourselves, in our characteristic way.” In the past, Class Day speakers have included public servants of import such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Congresswoman Terri Sewell ’86, and Senator Cory Booker. They have also included prominent entertainers such as Trevor Noah, Ellie Kemper ’02, and Marshawn Lynch. These speakers have, through their actions and words, demonstrated a commitment to the principles that make us proud to be Princeton students. The selection of Shetty falls far short of that standard. 

As Shetty has posted, “Give yourself permission to walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes.” (Shetty did not come up with that quote himself.) We urge the Class Day chairs to walk away from Jay Shetty and reconsider our choice of whom we wish to serve as capstone to our time at Princeton. 

Izabela Konopka is a senior majoring in Politics. She may be reached at ikonopka[at]princeton.edu. 

Joshua Yang is a senior majoring in Philosophy. He is a former associate Prospect editor for the ‘Prince.’ He may be reached at joshuayang[at]princeton.edu. 

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Members of the Class of 2025 may sign this open letter here.

Signed,

Lia Opperman ’25 

Annie Rupertus ’25

Grace Porter ’25

Alison Araten ’25

Wilson Conn ’25

Gordon Lam ’25

Alan Gutierrez ’25

Anika Asthana ’25

Zachary Siegel ’25

Sidney Singer ’25

Zain Ahmed ’25

Edward Siaw ’25

Valerie Neske ’25

Jackson Lichtenberger ’25

Iris Ushizima Sabino ’25

Kyung Eun Lee ’25

Frida Ruiz ’25

Ron Shvartsman ’25

Sydney Cha ’25

Genevieve Cox ’25

Desmond Lam ’25

Nicholas Urbati ’25

Nate Howard ’25

Aaron Serianni ’25

Ethan Haque ’25

August Roberts ’25

Bracklinn Williams ’25

Santhosh Nadarajah ’25

Krishna Parikh ’25

Anya Kalogerakos ’25

Luke McSorley ’25 

Mason Tate ’25

Adrian Moreira-Behrens ’25

Emilio Chan ’25

Jasper Waldman ’25

Roma Bhattacharjee ’25

Danielle Shapiro ’25

Cassadie Royalty ’25

Lucia Brown ’25

Jacob Santelli ’25

Bryce Springfield ’25

Evey Howe ’25

Jello Zhou ’25

Alex Borengasser ’25

Hannah Van Zandt-Rollins ’25

Emily Paulin ’25

Isabel Yip ’25

Martin Mastnak ’25

Samyukta Neeraj ’25

Conor Warren ’25

Elizabeth Polubinski ’25

Madeline Heyler ’25

Schuyler Saint-Phard ’25

Yousef Amin ’25

Ben Kim ’25

William Yang ’25

Hali Liu ’25

Vincent V.H. Nguyen ’25

Nicholas Lawson ’25

Alexander Tao ’25

Zoë Koniaris ’25 

Caroline Schuckel ’25

Erica De San Jorge ’25

Jessie Wang ’25

Olivia Williams ’25

Okezie Eze ’25

Finn Dowdall ’25

Alexandra Wong ’25

John Maier ’25

Amelia Sanchirico ’25

Brennan McClelland ’25

Julianna Lee ’25

Zane Smith ’25

Vincent Jiang ’25

Hailey Lambert ’25

Adaora Nwokeji ’25

Jack Jennings ’25

Caitlin Durkin ’25

Ethan Arrington ’25

Alliyah Gregory ’25

Srista Tripathi ’25

Sarah Sharma ’25

Emilia Santianni ’25

Alex Slisher ’25

David Tang ’25

Philip Wang ’25

Maxfield Evers ’25

Tara Shukla ’25

Jiacheng Xu ’25

Ash Reddy ’25

Meryl Liu ’25

Irene Kim ’25

Amanda Wang ’25

Ella Weber ’25

Libo Tan ’25 

Stephen Jiang ’25

Leyuan Ma ’25

Kalu Obasi ’25

Ignacio Arias Philippi ’25

Andy Nguyen ’25

Michael Emperor ’25

Isabelle Clayton ’25

Mori Ono ’25

Kevin Go ’25

Tiffany Tsai ’25

Lily Parris ’25

Afzal Hussain ’25 

Parker Summerhill ’25

Natalia Eichmann ’25

Emanuelle Sippy ’25

Ronald Anglade ’25

Kerrie Liang ’25

Anna Solzhenitsyn ’25

Molly Lopkin ’25

Christine Chen ’25

Asa Santos ’25

Walker Penfield ’25

Mohammed Musa ’25

Adam Sanders ’25

Fernanda Tovar ’25

Amelia Feiner ’25

Aaron Dantzler ’25

Anh Kien Nguyen ’25

Celia Murphy-Braunstein ’25

Brandon Matthew Gauthier ’25

Sophia Grace Capili ’25

Juliana Vasquez ’25

Nicolas Nee ’25

Toussaint Santicola Jones ’25

David Fu ’25

Vanessa Herrera ’25

Aidan Mahoney ’25

Amina Anowara ’25

Claire Shin ’25

Sophia Zelizer ’25

Nora Goodman ’25

David Prilutsky ’25

Yonah Berenson ’25

Sebastian Castro ’25

Antonio Warren ’25

Katharine Kalap ’25

Estelle Botton ’25

Annie Liu ’25

Michelle Liu ’25

Ryan Marin ’25

Sajia Shahrin Neha ’25

Alessandro E. Troncoso ’25

Soncera R. Ball ’25

Charlie Nuermberger ’25

Dawood Virk ’25

Amanda Branom ’25

Nathan Beck ’25

Helena Drake ’25

Hayden Messina ’25

Ghazal Madaeni ’25

Alex Ostrin ’25

Yejin Suh ’25

Andrew Zucker ’25

Ryan Konarska ’25

Alexandra Roberts ’25

Avi Chesler ’25

Lois Omotara ’25

Claire Brockman ’25

Kohei Sanno ’25

Yutaka Yasuda ’25

Oliver de Bono ’25

Blue Carlsson ’25

Tiffany Zhong ’25

Hannah Van Dusen ’25

Julian Lim ’25 

Alexander Yoo ’25

Destiny Gonzales ’25

Rishi Gorrepati ’25

Osvaldo Flores ’25

Brandon Ambetsa ’25

Nely Serrano ’25

Grace Houlahan ’25

Hei Wang Cheng ’25

Sung Cho ’25

Orie Bolitho ’25

Nyherowo Omene ’25

Hutshie Faugas ’25

Allison Thomas ’25

Jacob Penstein ’25

Nasir Al-Sabah ’25

Niccolo Platt ’25

Jonathan Tenenbaum ’25

Clarissa Allert ’25

Sujay Swain ’25

Anki Manjunatha ’25

Evan Chandran ’25

Bita Jalalian ’25

Lucia Wetherill ’25

Claudacia Clemmons ’25