Speeches / page 192

Kay Bailey Hutchison
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Southern Methodist University - May 18, 2013
May 18, 2013
Thank you Gerald Turner for being a great president of a great university and thank you trustees and the people who are so supportive sitting back here. And congratulations graduates of 2013. SMU does hold a special place in my heart. It is my husband Ray’s alma mater, both undergraduate and Law School. We love the SMU traditions and we both serve on advisory boards here. SMU contributes to the excellence of American higher education. I have been thinking and speaking a lot about America in the last few days […]
Samantha Power
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Barnard College - May 17, 2015
May 17, 2015
Thank you Gerald Turner for being a great president of a great university and thank you trustees and the people who are so supportive sitting back here. And congratulations graduates of 2013. Good afternoon, President Spar, faculty, trustees, alumni, families and friends of the strong and beautiful Barnard graduates! Congratulations, class of 2015! Columbia grad Madeleine Albright has said, "It used to be that the only way a woman could truly make her foreign policy views felt was by marrying a diplomat, and then pouring tea on an offending ambassador's […]
Elizabeth Dole
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Smith College - May 17, 1998
May 17, 1998
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your warm welcome. Thank you, Dr. Simmons, for your kind introduction. What a privilege to be with you — a woman for whom I have great respect and admiration. And that certainly applies to the other women you honor today. Heartfelt congratulations to the class of '98! And thank you for the honor of sharing this special moment with you, your families, friends, and instructors. Let me say a word to parents, who have supported and encouraged and loved you, who have written checks […]
Dianne Feinstein
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Stanford University - June 13, 1993
June 13, 1993
First of all, let me say how honored I am to become a part of this class of 1993. Suddenly, I feel, believe it or not, 38 years younger. To tell the truth, I can't remember who delivered our commencement speech 38 years ago, and I suspect that over time, you won't remember either who it was who gave that one last lecture before you actually received your diploma. So in preparing these remarks, I tried to keep in mind what one critic said years ago of a particularly long-winded […]
Dianne Feinstein
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Golden Gate University School of Law - June 4, 1977
June 4, 1977
What is your degree worth in today's world? Is your degree worth the paper it's printed on? I wonder. Consider that we live in the most educationally oriented country in the world today, that we have tremendous expectations of what America owes us, and that today the average college graduate joins a treadmill for status, a search for his or her place in the sun. Consider the competition in the job market. The fact that today the prototype of the general assistance welfare recipient in the city and county of […]
Maya Angelou
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Wellesley College Commencement Address - May 28, 1982
May 28, 1982
Graduates, Now the joy begins.  Now the work begins.  The years of preparation, of tedious study and exciting learning at least begin to make sense.  The jumble of words and the tangle of small and great thoughts begin to take order, and this morning you can see a small portion, an infinitesimal portion, of the map of your future… …you have still had to develop an outstanding courage to invent this moment, for you have invented it.  Of all your attributes—your youth, your beauty, your wit, your kindnesses, your money—courage […]
Hillary Rodham Clinton
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Wellesley College Commencement Address - May 29, 1992
May 29, 1992
President Keohane, trustees, faculty, students, parents, friends, and, most of all, honored graduates of the Class of 1992. This is my second chance to speak from this podium. The first was 23 years ago, when I was a graduating senior. My classmates selected me to address them as the first Wellesley student ever to speak at a commencement. I can't claim that 1969 speech as my own; it reflected the hopes, values, and aspirations of the women in my graduating class. It was full of the uncompromising language you only […]
Geraldine A Ferraro
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Wellesley College Commencement Address - May 31, 1985
May 31, 1985
New Doors, New Directions: Facing America’s challenges in a changing world Thank you, Dr. Keohane for that kind introduction I am very glad to be here in Wellesley this morning. I must say, it is wonderful to be in a place that already has a woman President. I understand that when Wellesley was founded, one fellow objected that “vigorous study will prove too strenuous for the feminine mind and condition.” I just want you to know I ran into a few of his relatives and they didn’t think a woman […]
Madeleine K Albright
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Smith College - May 18, 2003
May 18, 2003
President Christ, Provost Bourque, Shelly Lazarus, distinguished faculty, parents, friends and members of the Class of 2003, good afternoon. I want to begin by thanking you very much for the honorary degree. I know I speak for my fellow honorees in saying how grateful I am. I have seen the list of those who have received such degrees from Smith in the past and it is breathtaking. I can now say I have something in common not only with Eleanor Roosevelt and Toni Morrison, but also Garry Trudeau and President […]
Tammy S Baldwin
categories: Commencement/Baccalaureate/Convocation Address, Speeches
Commencement Address at Smith College - May 17, 2009
May 17, 2009
President Christ, members of the faculty, parents, and especially the graduates.... It's wonderful to be here this morning surrounded by so many incredible women. It's especially exciting for me to be here with my class for our 25th reunion. My classmates are not only some of my best friends. They were—and are still—some of my role models. My bio says I won my first campaign for public office when I was 24 years old. But my classmates always remind me that's not completely true. My first campaign was right here […]