Year
Class of 2017
Browse commencement speeches from 2017, including addresses by Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Tim Cook, and Theo Epstein. Each record links to the available source material, transcript, video, and archive context.
3 addresses 8 themes 3 highlights
Highlights from 2017
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Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar Stanford University California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar offers three reflections organized around the metaphor of the 'edge' and the 'core' of awareness. Drawing on his immigrant family history and personal anecdotes, he highlights the unprecedented global progress graduates have inherited, the value of bridging divides and seeking truth, and the importance of public service in protecting democratic 'civic architecture.' He urges graduates to bring marginalized concerns from the periphery to the center of their attention and to write a letter to their future selves naming their core values. InfographicSummaryTranscriptVideoOfficial source 
Tim Cook Massachusetts Institute of Technology Apple CEO Tim Cook urged MIT's Class of 2017 to seek purpose beyond themselves and to ask how they will serve humanity. Drawing on his own search for meaning and his work with Steve Jobs, he argued that technology must be paired with human values and the humanities to do great things, and that solving the world's hardest problems requires placing people at the center of one's work. InfographicSummaryOfficial source 
Theo Epstein Yale University InfographicTranscriptOfficial source Represented themes
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