As the commencement speaker at Harvard University in 2006, Mr. Lehrer stated, I have come with only one major commencement-like point to make..
In commencement addresses like this, people admonish us: take risks; be willing to fail.
CARSON: Giving a commencement address like this has made me as proud as anything I've ever done.
GARY TAUSTINE New York, June 1 , 2012To the Editor: As a freshly minted Duke grad, I wish I'd had Michael R. Bloomberg as our commencement speaker, like our rival, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to send us into the real world.
The lesson was powerful: I could either continue inhaling commencement speeches like Pirate's Booty or stop pretending that I was young and idealistic, and that I still had a chance to leave a lasting mark on the world.
Will Brown, a senior studying computer science at the engineering school, said, "I think, 'Good for Barnard, they're going to have an awesome commencement,' " but like many of his classmates, he wished Mr. Obama were speaking to Columbia.
Which leads me to my last point: commencement ceremonies, like the rest of higher education, are becoming more corporatized.
Gloria Steinem likes "Commencement".
"She loved to go out, she loved to bake, she improvised on the piano, she loved the commencement balls, she liked to dance".
In commencement speeches and the like, people say that education is all about opportunity and expanding your horizons.
