Commencement/Baccalaureate Address / page 24

Samantha Power
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Why Can't We?: Santa Clara University Law School Commencement Address - May 20, 2006
May 20, 2006
I'm always a little surprised to be asked to be a commencement speaker. It is clear from your roster of past speakers that you could have lined up an Attorney General or a Cabinet Secretary to help you usher in your post-law school lives. But inexplicably you chose me: a woman who was a decidedly average student in law school, who never took the bar exam and who, despite shelling out 100,000 bucks, still can't quite decide what she wants to do with her life. I can't imagine why, after […]
Barbara P Bush
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Wellesley College Commencement Address - June 1, 1990
June 1, 1990
Thank you President Keohane, Mrs. Gorbachev, Trustees, Faculty, Parents, Julia Porter, and certainly my new best friend, Christine Bicknell, and, of course, the Class of 1990. I am really thrilled to be here today, and very excited, as I know you all must be, that Mrs. Gorbachev could join us. These are exciting times. They are exciting in Washington, and I have really looked forward to coming to Wellesley. I thought it was going to be fun -- I never dreamed it would be this much fun. More than ten […]
Mary Robinson
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Harvard University Commencement Address - June 4, 1998
June 4, 1998
It is a great honor and pleasure to be invited today to share this happy occasion, not only with the members of the graduating class of 1998, but also with the families and friends who have no doubt supported you along the way with their kind words of advice and encouragement. I do remember sitting where you sat this morning, when I was part of the class of 1968. I still remember how uncertain and insecure I felt but how proud my father was on the day. I called my […]
Gloria Steinem
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Bennington College Commencement Address - June 5, 2015
June 5, 2015
In tribute to the real, let me just say that there is no way that I can live up to your expectations. Also that, listening, seeing Mariko, listening, seeing all of you, is such a gift to me. You have no idea how – are you braced for my favorite word? – fan-fucking-tastic. But in real life everybody, including Lacan, is like those nests of Russian dolls in which there is the littlest person in the center and they go like that [motioning outward]. I think we’re all like that. […]
Gloria Steinem
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Tufts University Commencement Speech - May 17, 1987
May 17, 1987
Mr. President--at last I can say that with pleasure--and administrators of the university and all its schools--their family, friends and significant others-- Faculty with tenure. Faculty without tenure-- Parents and families of graduates. Step parents and chosen family of graduates--and anyone else who helped pay the bills. Friends and lovers of graduates--(you know who you are). Also student[s] who someday will graduate, returning graduates, and people who just stopped by to watch because, like me, you are commencement junkies-- Staff members who house, feed and maintain all of the above, […]
Gloria Steinem
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Living the Revolution: Commencement Address at Vassar College - May 31, 1970
May 31, 1970
President Simpson, members of the faculty, families and friends, first brave and courageous male graduates of Vassar — and Sisters. You may be surprised that I am a commencement speaker. You can't possibly be as surprised as I am. In my experience, commencement speakers are gray-haired, respected creatures, heavy with the experience of power in the world and with Establishment honors. Which means, of course, that they are almost always men. But this is the year of Women's Liberation. Or at least, it's the year the press has discovered a […]
Christine Todd Whitman
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Deerfield Academy Commencement Address - May 28, 1995
May 28, 1995
Trustees, members of the faculty and staff, friends, families, and especially today's graduates: Thank you for inviting me. I'm going to start this speech in a slightly unusual way for a Republican -- by sharing a piece of advice I learned from the former Democratic Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo. He said, "Commencement speakers should think of themselves as the body at an old-fashioned Irish wake. They need you in order to have the party, but nobody expects you to say very much." That's a lesson I'll try to […]
Queen Noor of Jordan
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at College of William and Mary - May 11, 2003
May 11, 2003
President Sullivan, distinguished members of the William and Mary community, proud parents and friends, and of course most important, graduates of the class of 2003.Congratulations. Congressman Lewis, it's only appropriate that I follow you once again in my life. Once an ardent member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, which began my life- long commitment to social justice and peace. And now sharing with you the privilege of this great honor from the College of William and Mary, I salute you and it is an enormous privilege […]
Queen Noor of Jordan
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at High Point University - May 5, 2006
May 6, 2006
Thank you very, very much for that warm welcome. Members of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Qubein, distinguished faculty, honored guests, families and friends, and most of all, graduates of the Class of 2006. It is such a privilege to share this joyful, proud and hopeful day with all of you. Considering what is happening all around us, it is good for the soul to look out at all the faces in this audience, full of excitement, expectation, and of course, relief. And that is just the parents. Having gained […]
Queen Noor of Jordan
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Mount Holyoke College - May 26, 2002
June 26, 2002
Honored Guests, Faculty, Ladies and Gentlemen, and of course, The Graduates of 2002: Thank you very, very much. It's an enormous privilege to be here on this truly magnificent campus, in the company of such distinguished fellow honorary degree recipients, of course the faculty of such an exceptional institution, family and friends of the graduates of the Class of 2002. Thank you all. Now I have to warn you at the outset that I have been given a great deal more time than my fellow recipients, so I will do […]