Commencement/Baccalaureate Address

Barbara P Bush
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at University of Pennsylvania - May 14, 1990
May 14, 1990
Thank you very, very much. Thank you very much, Provost Aiken, President Hackney, my very good friends Walter and Lee Annenberg. You know, like Ben Franklin, both Walter and Lee served as distinguished American Ambassadors. And like Franklin, both are great patrons of Pennsylvania. And like Franklin, half the things on the Penn campus are named after them. I want to congratulate also the families and the friends and the fans of all the students, and most of all, the University of Pennsylvania Class of 1990. I'm thrilled to be […]
Pat Schroeder
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Speech at the University of Pennsylvania - May 16, 1988
May 16, 1988
I remember being on the other side of this podium 27 years ago, sure that graduation speeches were though[t] up by the faculty who want you to sit through just one more lecture before getting your diploma. Congratulations to the graduating class of 1988. The diploma you have earned is quite an achievement. But as a parent of a son who is graduating from college this month, I want to also commend your families. They stood by you during your first exams, muffled their complaints when they got that huge […]
Portia Simpson Miller
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
“Balancing the Books While Balancing People’s Lives” Commencement Address at Lafayette College - May 24, 2014
May 24, 2014
Honorable Members of the Board of Trustees Madam President, Professor Alison Byerly Ambassador Stephen Vasciannie Distinguished faculty members, honored guests, Fellow recipients of honorary degrees, Members of the graduating Class of 2014, Family and friends… It is my pleasure to be here with you today in the historic and lovely town of Easton. I am proud to be at an institution named in honor of the ideals of the Marquis de Lafayette. Graduates, today is your day! Accept my sincere congratulations on the attainment of this important milestone. Now is […]
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Remarks on the Value of Diversity - July 17, 2009
July 17, 2009
Excerpt of Justice Ginsburg's keynote speech at the 2009 graduation ceremony at Sciences Po (Paris Institute of Political Studies). Members of the faculty, graduating students and their families, and friends of Sciences Po, I am glad to speak at this celebration. I have read of Sciences Po’s initiative to achieve excellence in diversity, made a priority by President Descoings. Through that initiative, talented students from all quarters of French society are drawn to this great school. The design is to deepen the complexion and life experiences of the student body […]
Ursula K. Le Guin
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
A Left-Handed Commencement Address - May 22, 1983
May 22, 1983
I want to thank the Mills College Class of ’83 for offering me a rare chance: to speak aloud in public in the language of women. I know there are men graduating, and I don’t mean to exclude them, far from it. There is a Greek tragedy where the Greek says to the foreigner, “If you don’t understand Greek, please signify by nodding.” Anyhow, commencements are usually operated under the unspoken agreement that everybody graduating is either male or ought to be. That’s why we are all wearing these twelfth-century […]
Kathy Hochul
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at University at Albany - May 14, 2022
May 15, 2022
Good morning graduates, are we fired up today or what? Oh, I can feel the energy. What an exciting day for you. And first of all, to your parents, you can finally put away the checkbooks, the money is yours. You don't have to send it off to this institution. Go have a good time, go to Disney World, whatever you're going to do once these kids are gone. So, to parents and family members, you've also been on this journey, and you inspired in your children and your loved […]
Mary McLeod Bethune
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
"A Philosophy of Education for Negro Girls" - 1920
January 1, 1920
For the past seventy years the Negro has experienced various degrees of freedom. That which was given him in the early years of emancipation was more genuine and perhaps more benign that than which today he must take. For today he must free himself by reason of his ability and by merit, and by whatever trust and confidence may be found in himself. A great deal of this new freedom rests upon the type of education which the Negro woman will receive. Early emancipation did not concern itself with giving […]
Margaret Chase Smith
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Westbrook Junior College - June 15, 1983
June 25, 1953
You young women are on the threshold of the finest years of your life. Make the best of those years, not only for yourselves but for your families, your friends, and your country as well. Make better use of those years than has the generation preceding you. Give the young women who follow you a heritage of peace instead of the world of suspicion, aggression, treason, character assassination and moral delinquency that has been thrust upon you by the older generation that has preceded you. Show them the way to […]
Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Courage: Its Commencement and Challenge - June 3, 1964
June 3, 1964
It is a great pleasure for me to be here at this historical and lovely school which was founded in 1799—one year before the City of Washington. This is a most important day in your lives. For me this ceremony has an added dimension—a sentimental one. The President and I have shared the joys and strengths of long time friendship with the proud parents of Beth Jenkins. Today is, therefore, a very special and proud day for us too. And to you parents who have given so much in devotion […]
Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
The Total Woman: Baccalaureate Address at Radcliffe College - June 9, 1964
June 9, 1964
It is four years since that anxiously-awaited envelope postmarked "Cambridge, Massachusetts" arrived in your home. This day marks the culmination of those years. You have struggled, groaned and grown within the demanding and rigorous intellectual life of this remarkable institution, and here you are today—ready to turn your knowledge and skills to new fields. But with all your perception, with all your brainpower, I wonder if you know how great is the pride in you of those who are in this hall today? What can I say to make you […]