Commencement Archive

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Class of 2011

Browse commencement speeches from 2011, including addresses by Felipe Calderón, Robert Krulwich, and Ahmed Zewail. Each record links to the available source material, transcript, video, and archive context.

37 addresses 10 themes 6 highlights

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Highlights from 2011

Records with stronger source signals, summaries, transcripts, videos, or visual archive material.

  01     Felipe Calderón Stanford University Mexican President Felipe Calderón urges Stanford graduates to graduate as human beings and good citizens, using their privileged education to serve others and become agents of positive change. He recounts his family's struggle against Mexico's autocratic regime and his father's advice to fight for what is right, then frames climate change and poverty as twin global challenges that can be addressed simultaneously through science and pragmatic policy. He closes by encouraging graduates to pursue happiness and meaning, citing the poem 'Ithaka.'    InfographicSummaryTranscriptOfficial source   02     Robert Krulwich University of California, Berkeley Robert Krulwich addresses Berkeley Journalism School's Class of 2011 amid a difficult job market and a changing media industry. He argues that the era of secure, protective jobs at large media institutions—exemplified by Charles Kuralt's CBS career—has vanished, and that graduates cannot rely on companies to keep them safe. He encourages young journalists not to wait to be hired but to act on their own hunger and initiative, illustrating with stories from his own early, self-started forays into journalism.    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideo   03     Ahmed Zewail Caltech Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail addresses Caltech's 2011 graduates, sharing his personal journey from Egypt to America and Caltech in pursuit of knowledge, and crediting passion and optimism for his success. He urges graduates to use their exceptional education to shape the future through science, which he argues drives societal advancement more than politics. Drawing on the recent Egyptian uprising and his role as U.S. Science Envoy, he advocates for science diplomacy and 'soft power' as tools for global progress and democracy.    InfographicSummaryTranscript   04     Conan O’Brien Dartmouth College Conan O'Brien delivers a largely comedic commencement address filled with jokes about Dartmouth's traditions, rival Ivy League schools, and his own career, before transitioning to a sincere message. He reflects on his public professional disappointment in 2010 after leaving The Tonight Show, arguing that failure and disappointment can lead to clarity, reinvention, and originality. He advises graduates that their dreams will inevitably change and closes with his own maxim about working hard and being kind.    InfographicSummaryTranscript   05     Jim Steen Kenyon College Kenyon College swimming coach Jim Steen delivers a baccalaureate address framed as a coaching session about one's capacity to perform. He draws on his experiences coaching, citing ideas from Malcolm Gladwell, Scott Adams, and others, to argue that performance and mastery depend on discipline, risk, imagination, and attitude rather than talent alone. He concludes by urging graduates to reframe threats as challenges as they begin life after college.    InfographicSummaryTranscript   06     Sheryl Sandberg Barnard College Sandberg tells Barnard's 2011 graduates that gender equality is their generation's central moral challenge, citing statistics showing women remain vastly underrepresented in leadership across government, business, and academia. She urges the graduates to be ambitious, believe in and own their success, choose supportive life partners, and not 'lean back' from their careers prematurely. She encourages them to pursue work they are passionate about and to aim high, closing with the question of what they would do if they weren't afraid. 
Photo: World Economic Forum  /  CC BY-SA 2.0  /  source    InfographicSummaryVideoOfficial source   

Represented themes

Common ideas classified across this year's speeches.

Purpose & Meaning 15 Failure 8 Public Service & Civic Life 9 Resilience 9 Love & Relationships 7 Global Responsibility 6 Courage 8 Work & Ambition 8 Social Justice & Equality 3 Hope & Optimism 8

All 2011 addresses

Complete archive records for this year, sorted by institution.

Ashford University

Sheryl Sandberg

Barnard College

Makoto Fujimura

Belhaven University

Central European University

College of William and Mary

Connecticut College

Conan O’Brien

Dartmouth College

Conan O’Brien

Dartmouth College

Gallaudet University

Hamilton Holt School

Harvard University

Hofstra University

Kean University

Ursula M. Burns

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Middlebury College

New York University

Stephen Colbert

Northwestern University

Oregon Episcopal School

Philadelphia University

Rice University

Arianna Huffington

Sarah Lawrence College

Whoopi Goldberg

Savannah College of Art and Design

Spelman College

Felipe Calderón

Stanford University

The Art Institute of California, Sunnyvale

Robert Krulwich

University of California, Berkeley

University of Minnesota

University of New Hampshire

Edward O. Wilson

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Denzel Washington

University of Pennsylvania

University of Southern California

Sergio Marchionne

University of Toledo

West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Yale University