Great College Speeches

Parents Forum
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<p>As we are in the midst of college commencement season, we are hearing a lot of famous speakers and great speeches on college campuses. In listening to and thinking about President Obama's recent speech at Notre Dame, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread on great speeches that have been delivered on college campuses. Please contribute any that you think others might enjoy or appreciate. </p>

<p>One of my favorites was an address given by the late Charlton Heston to the Harvard Law School in 1999. Here is the full text of that speech:</p>

<p>Speech by Charlton Heston
"Winning The Cultural War"
Harvard Law School Forum
February 16, 1999</p>

<p>I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten
class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends
to be people."</p>

<p>There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New
Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various
nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American
presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including
Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best.
There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never
sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.</p>

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<p>Sandra Tsing Loh addressing the 2005 Caltech graduates. [Caltech</a> Commencement](<a href=“http://pr.caltech.edu/commencement/05/loh_speech.html]Caltech”>http://pr.caltech.edu/commencement/05/loh_speech.html)</p>

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</p>

<p>The pole dancing line made me laugh out loud!</p>

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<p>Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture - Carnegie Mellon</p>

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<p>Great high school speech by one of the original Apple programmers:
[“Hindsight</a>” Commencement Speech](<a href=“http://www.gallagher.com/hindsight.html]"Hindsight”>http://www.gallagher.com/hindsight.html)</p>

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<p>I think a lot of kids have already learned the 'live off your parents for as long as possible" lesson…</p>

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<p>My two favorites are commencement addresses given last year:</p>

<p>JK Rowling at Harvard 2008</p>

<p>Oprah at Stanford 2008</p>

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<p>I didn’t realize I was violating any copyright issues on Charlton Heston’s famous speech at Harvard which soonafter gathered a lot of national attention. Here is a link to the full speech:</p>

<p>[Charlton</a> Heston’s Speech to the Harvard Law School Forum](<a href=“http://www.fa-ir.org/ai/heston.htm]Charlton”>http://www.fa-ir.org/ai/heston.htm)</p>

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<p>Steve Jobs’ commencement speech is one of the best speeches I’ve heard. Personal, thoughtful, emotional, deep and useful.</p>

<p>Text: [Text</a> of Steve Jobs’ Commencement address (2005)](<a href=“http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html]Text”>http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html)</p>

<p>Video: [YouTube</a> - Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc).</p>

<p>What do you think?</p>

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<p>I hated the speech at my commencement, but it was provocative: [Solzhenitsyn’s</a> Harvard Address](<a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html]Solzhenitsyn’s”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html)</p>

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<p>The late David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College commencement address (sometimes titled “This Is Water”) - a very generous and insightful piece.</p>

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<p>Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99:</p>

<p>Wear sunscreen.</p>

<p>If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. </p>

<p>Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Well nevermind, you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in twenty years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are NOT as fat as you imagine.</p>

<p>[Wear</a> Sunscreen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen]Wear”>Wear Sunscreen - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>I’m not sure that it’s even really a commencement speech, but it’s remarkable regardless.</p>

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<p>Conan O’Brien’s Commencement address in 2000 at Harvard, his alma mater, has become a cult classic. Most such addresses are forgotten by dinnertime of the day they’re delivered; this one is handed down from year to year by students to other students who haven’t yet read it.</p>

<p>[February</a> 7 | Conan O’Brien’s Commencement Speech](<a href=“http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm]February”>http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm)</p>

<p>And as LMNOP says, JK Rowling at Harvard last June was truly awesome as well.</p>

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<p>^If JK Rowling had had any success directly after her college graduation, we would not have had Harry Potter.</p>

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<p>Former Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin gave a terrific one at his alma mater, Marquette in 2007 I think… funny, but positive. Miss him at SI.</p>

<p>[steve</a> Rushin - News](<a href=“http://steverushin.com/news.htm]steve”>http://steverushin.com/news.htm)</p>

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<p>From the Conan speech</p>

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</p>

<p>And those were some great episodes:
“I call the big one bitey.”
“Batman’s a scientist.”
“Mono=one. Rail=rail. Thus concludes your extensive six week course of monorail conducting.”
“The School of Hard Knockers”
“Hey! That’s not the wallet inspector!”
“That sounds like a drunk pig.”
“Ah, ha, ha, ha ah, ha!!!”
“I’m giving you the beating of your life!”</p>

<p>And so on…</p>

<p>Quite the credit to Harvard.</p>

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<p>It is the fondest desire of most Harvard students to find ways to make Harvard cringe and blush. Conan has mastered the art.</p>

<p>When he was an undergrad, I’ll bet he was one of the guys who liked to pee on the John Harvard statue too. :)</p>

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<p>Here’s a great one Feynman gave to the graduating class of Caltech back in 1974.</p>

<p>[Cargo</a> Cult Science](<a href=“http://www.pd.infn.it/~loreti/science.html]Cargo”>http://www.pd.infn.it/~loreti/science.html)</p>

<p>Still rings very true today about how science is, and should, be done.</p>

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<p>Thanks for posting that speech, Racin Reaver. Integrity in work and relationships is truly important.</p>

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<p>Peter Schickele–aka PDQ Bach–gave a great musical speech at his Alma Mater, Swarthmore. I heard at least part of it when he played it on his radio show, Schickele Mix. I can’t seem to find it online.</p>