Commencement Archive

Home / Archive / 2013

Year

Class of 2013

Browse commencement speeches from 2013, including addresses by Ed Helms, Joss Whedon, and Sharyn Alfonsi. Each record links to the available source material, transcript, video, and archive context.

31 addresses 10 themes 6 highlights

Previous: 2012 Next: 2014

Highlights from 2013

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

  01     Ed Helms Knox College Ed Helms, drawing on his own career path from film editor to comedian, argues that fear should be treated not as a command to retreat but as useful information. He recounts how examining his fears revealed his true desire to pursue comedy and how confronting the fear of bombing onstage helped him improve. He urges graduates to orient their lives toward discovery rather than avoiding failure, and to trust their instincts and passions.    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideoOfficial source   02     Joss Whedon Wesleyan University Joss Whedon opens by joking about a past Wesleyan address by Bill Cosby before declaring that the graduates are going to die, using mortality and the body's biological drive as a starting point. He argues that the central gift of human existence is the contradiction and tension between body and mind, and within the mind itself, urging graduates to listen to internal dissent in order to earn their identity. He contends that peace comes from accepting the part of oneself that can never be at peace, that understanding opposing views strengthens one's own, and that everyone is unavoidably connected to others and thus already changing the world.    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideoOfficial source   03     Sharyn Alfonsi University of Mississippi 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.'    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideoOfficial source   04     Barack Obama Morehouse College President Obama addresses the Morehouse College Class of 2013, opening with humor about the rainy weather and the school's traditions before invoking the college's history and its mission to cultivate honest, responsible men. He connects Morehouse's legacy—including that of alumnus Martin Luther King Jr. and president Benjamin Mays—to the progress and remaining challenges facing African Americans. He urges graduates to use their education and example for purposes larger than personal success, calling on them to accept both collective and individual responsibility for those left behind. 
Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza  /  Public domain  /  source    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideo   05     Ben Bernanke Princeton University Ben Bernanke delivers a lighthearted commencement address framed as 'Ten Suggestions' rather than commandments, drawing on his experience leaving Princeton for Washington. He reflects on life's unpredictability, the ethical responsibilities that come with luck and meritocracy, the value of public service, and the importance of personal relationships and self-development. He closes with humorous but earnest advice about failure, money as a means rather than an end, and staying connected to family.    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideo   06     George Saunders Syracuse University George Saunders tells graduates that his deepest regret is his failures of kindness, illustrating this with the memory of a shy classmate he never bullied but also never truly helped. He argues that selfishness stems from built-in human confusions and that, while ambition and success have their place, the central goal of life should be becoming kinder and more loving. He urges graduates to accelerate that process rather than wait for it to come naturally with age.    InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideo   

Represented themes

Common ideas classified across this year's speeches.

Purpose & Meaning 14 Courage 8 Resilience 7 Work & Ambition 6 Failure 8 Identity & Authenticity 8 Kindness & Empathy 7 Public Service & Civic Life 7 Mortality & Time 5 Leadership & Integrity 4

All 2013 addresses

Complete archive records for this year, sorted by institution.

Butler University

Columbia University

Columbia University

Connecticut College

Kerry Washington

George Washington University

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jonathan Safran Foer

Middlebury College

Morehouse College

Tracy Chevalier

Oberlin College

Princeton University

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Rice University

School of Visual Arts

Sewanee: The University of the South

Arianna Huffington

Michael Bloomberg

Stanford University

George Saunders

Syracuse University

Tulane University

University of California, San Diego

Richard Costolo

University of Michigan

University of Mississippi

University of Southern California

Wynton Marsalis

University of Vermont

Stephen Colbert

University of Virginia

University of Western Australia

Stephen R. Kellert

University of Western Sydney, Australia

Wesleyan University

Whitman College

Yale University