Commencement Addresses

The commencement ceremony affirms each student’s search for knowledge. It often includes a speech which seeks to put their recent hard (or not so hard) work into the context of their future. Many of us hear one or two commencement addresses as graduates or listen to a handful as spectators. Yet – as we graduate from one year to another, one relationship to another, one experience to another – we always are learning.

Though these myriad departures and arrivals of everyday existence are seldom met with ceremony, words traditionally reserved for momentous occasions may ring true and inspirational at any hour. That’s why we created this unique archive of commencement addresses (below), selecting an eclectic menu of thirty-eight extraordinary speeches from thousands that we have reviewed since beginning work on this initiative in 1989. 

Though some of these wonderful remarks were given decades ago, we believe they are as relevant and important, perhaps increasingly so, as the more current speeches. Thus we encourage you to read with abandon and an open heart, recognizing and celebrating your own constant commencement into tomorrow, finding ways to place it firmly within the context of progress for all humankind.

               - Tony Balis

P.S.    We recently began to hallmark a few outstanding class day speeches, given to seniors the day before commencement. In addition, here are our suggestions on how to write a commencement speech and the audio from a recent Public Radio show on commencement speeches:

Minnesota Public Radio show on commencement speeches, June 2011

In addition, we shortly will add our revised recommendations for the Top Ten Commencement Speeches of All Time, selected from the menu below.