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№ 2013.021 — University of Mississippi — Commencement address
Sharyn Alfonsi
Field: letters
Sharyn Alfonsi, a 1994 Ole Miss journalism graduate and CBS correspondent, delivers a humorous keynote to journalism and integrated marketing communications graduates. She shares lessons from her career, including a rejection letter that mocked her appearance, and offers advice on persistence, hard work, humility, and balancing career with family. She emphasizes refusing to take no for an answer, never getting comfortable, being genuinely nice, and ignoring distractions to 'run your own race.'
Key moments
- 01 Reads aloud a discouraging early rejection letter and urges graduates not to take no for an answer
- 02 Advises taking any job in the field, no matter how small, over higher-paying alternatives
- 03 Warns against getting comfortable, citing her choice to pursue reporting over anchoring
- 04 Discusses being 'nice' versus 'stupid nice' and balancing career with family life
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