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№ 2009.001 — Arizona State University — Commencement address
Barack Obama
Field: politics
President Obama addresses ASU's Class of 2009 amid economic recession and global challenges, urging graduates to reject a 'me-first' definition of success based on titles, wealth, and status. He argues that such a focus distracts from values and breeds complacency, and instead calls on graduates to pursue meaningful work, serve others, and continually build a lifelong 'body of work.' He cites historical and contemporary figures who succeeded without prestige to encourage graduates to change the world.
Key moments
- 01 Joking about the ASU controversy over not awarding him an honorary degree and noting one's title says little about a well-led life
- 02 Describing the difficult times graduates face, including recession, two wars, and global threats
- 03 Critiquing the 'me-first' approach to success for compromising values and breeding complacency
- 04 Urging graduates to apply their degrees to public service and to 'find somebody to be successful for'
- 05 Offering examples of late or unlikely successes (Paine, Julia Child, Colonel Sanders, Churchill, Kurt Warner)
Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording