-
Aaron Sorkin
Syracuse University
2012
-
Abigail Washburn
Colorado College
2012
-
Adam Savage
Sarah Lawrence College
2012
-
Adrienne Rich
Douglass College
1977
-
Ahmed Zewail
Caltech
2011
-
Al Gore
University of Tennessee
2010
-
Alan Alda
Connecticut College
1980
-
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Harvard University
1978
-
Alexis Ohanian
Carthage College
2014
-
Ali G
Harvard University
2004
-
Alice Greenwald
Sarah Lawrence College
2007
-
Amy Poehler
Harvard University
2011
-
Anderson Cooper
Tulane University
2010
-
Andrew Young
Connecticut College
1998
-
Andy Samberg
Harvard University
2012
-
Angela Ahrendts
Ball State University
2008
-
Angela Davis
Pitzer College
2012
-
Anita L. DeFrantz
Connecticut College
2004
-
Anna Quindlen
Villanova University
2000
-
Anne Lamott
University of California, Berkeley
2003
-
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Tufts University
2014
-
Anthony Corvino
Binghamton University
2009
-
Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw
University of Michigan
2015
-
Arianna Huffington
Smith College
2013
-
Arianna Huffington
Sarah Lawrence College
2011
-
Arianna Huffington
Vassar College
2015
-
Arnold Schwarzenegger
University of Southern California
2009
-
Art Buchwald
University of Southern California
1993
-
Atul Gawande
Williams College
2012
-
Atul Gawande
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2014
-
Barack Obama
University of Michigan
2010
-
Barack Obama
Arizona State University
2009
-
Barbara Bush
Wellesley College
1990
-
Barbara Kingsolver
Duke University
2008
-
Barnabas Binney
Rhode Island College (Brown University)
1774
-
Barney Frank
Harvard University
2012
-
Ben Bernanke
Princeton University
2013
-
Benjamin Carson Jr.
Niagara University
2003
-
Benno Schmidt Sr.
University of Missouri
2012
-
Bernard Harris
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
2015
-
Bill Clinton
Yale University
2010
-
Bill Clinton
New York University
2011
-
Bill Gates
Harvard University
2007
-
Bill Watterson
Kenyon College
1990
-
Billie Jean King
University of Massachusetts
2000
-
Billy Collins
Colorado College
2008
-
Billy Joel
Berklee College of Music
1993
-
Biz Stone
Babson College
2011
-
Bo Jackson
Auburn University
2009
-
Bobby Knight
Trine University
2010
-
Bono
University of Pennsylvania
2004
-
Bradley Whitford
University of Wisconsin
2004
-
Brian J. Dyson
Georgia Tech
1996
-
Brian Kenny
Ohio Northern University
2007
-
Callie Khouri
Sweet Briar College
1994
-
Candy Crowley
Maharishi University
2012
-
Carl Icahn
Drexel University
2008
-
Carl Schramm
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2009
-
Carly Fiorina
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2000
-
Carrie Chapman Catt
Sweet Briar College
1936
-
Charles W. Colson
Geneva College
1998
-
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Wellesley College
2015
-
Chris Gardner
University of California, Berkeley
2009
-
Chris Matthews
Fordham University
2006
-
Chris Sacca
University of Minnesota
2011
-
Chris Waddell
Middlebury College
2011
-
Chuck Norris
Liberty University
2008
-
Clayborne Carson
Niagara University
2008
-
Colin Powell
Northeastern University
2012
-
Conan O’Brien
Dartmouth College
2011
-
Cornel West
Wesleyan University
1993
-
Cory Booker
Pitzer College
2010
-
Cynthia Enloe
Connecticut College
2011
-
Dalai Lama
Tulane University
2013
-
Dana Gioia
Stanford University
2007
-
Daniel S. Goldin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2001
-
David Broder
Kalamazoo College
1975
-
David Brooks
Wake Forest University
2007
-
David Brooks
Rice University
2011
-
David Brooks
Sewanee: The University of the South
2013
-
David Byrne
Columbia University
2013
-
David Carr
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism
2014
-
David Cote
University of New Hampshire
2011
-
David Foster Wallace
Kenyon College
2005
-
David L. Calhoun
Virginia Tech
2005
-
David McCullough Jr.
Wellesley High School
2012
-
David Remnick
Syracuse University
2014
-
David Woodle
Penn State
2001
-
Dennis Lehane
Eckerd College
2004
-
Denzel Washington
University of Pennsylvania
2011
-
Denzel Washington
Dillard University
2015
-
Diana Nyad
Middlebury College
2014
-
Dolly Parton
University of Tennessee
2009
-
Doug Marlette
Durham Academy
2005
-
Douglas Smith
DeVry University
2010
-
Drew Brees
Loyola University
2010
-
Drew Houston
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013
-
Dwight Eisenhower
Penn State
1955
-
Earl Bakken
University of Hawaii
2004
-
Ed Helms
Knox College
2013
-
Ed Helms
Cornell University
2014
-
Ed Helms
University of Virginia
2015
-
Edward O. Wilson
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2011
-
Edward W. Brooke
Wellesley College
1969
-
Elias A. Zerhouni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2004
-
Elie Wiesel
Dartmouth College
2006
-
Ellen DeGeneres
Tulane University
2009
-
Emir Kamenica
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
2014
-
Eric Greitens
Tufts University
2012
-
Eric Idle
Whitman College
2013
-
Estelle Parsons
Connecticut College
2005
-
Eugene Mirman
Lexington High School
2009
-
Fareed Zakaria
Bates College
2009
-
Francine du Plessix Gray
Barnard College
2006
-
Frank McCourt
Syracuse University
2007
-
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Oglethorpe University
1932
-
Fred Armisen
Oregon Episcopal School
2011
-
Fred Rogers
Dartmouth College
2002
-
Gabrielle Giffords
Scripps College
2009
-
Gary Malkowski
Gallaudet University
2011
-
George C. Marshall
Harvard University
1947
-
George Plimpton
Harvard University
1977
-
George Saunders
Syracuse University
2013
-
George W. Bush
Calvin College
2005
-
Gerald Ford
Chicago State University
1975
-
Glenn Beck
Liberty University
2010
-
Gloria Steinem
Tufts University
1987
-
Greil Marcus
School of Visual Arts
2013
-
Guido Calabresi
Connecticut College
1988
-
Guy Kawasaki
Babson College
2000
-
Gwendolyn Brooks
University of Vermont
1986
-
Hank Aaron
Marquette University
2012
-
Henry A. Wallace
Connecticut College
1943
-
Howard Gordon
Connecticut College
2013
-
Ira Glass
Goucher College
2012
-
J.K. Rowling
Harvard University
2008
-
Jaclyn Rossi
Niagara University
2008
-
James B. Angell
University of Michigan
1879
-
James Bryce
Harvard University
1907
-
James Carville
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
2013
-
Jamie Hyneman
Villanova University
2010
-
Jane Lynch
Smith College
2012
-
Janet Napolitano
Northeastern University
2014
-
Janet Yellen
New York University
2014
-
Jarl Mohn
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
2009
-
Jason Kilar
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2015
-
Jay Leno
Emerson College
2014
-
Jean Andrews
University of Texas, Austin
2003
-
Jeff Bezos
Princeton University
2010
-
Jefferson Smith
University of Oregon
2012
-
Jeffrey Sachs
Connecticut College
2010
-
Jennie Cyran
Niagara University
2007
-
Jennifer Lee
University of New Hampshire
2014
-
Jerry Yang
University of Hawaii
2009
-
Jerry Zucker
University of Wisconsin
2003
-
Jessica Lange
Sarah Lawrence College
2008
-
Jill Abramson
Wake Forest University
2014
-
Jim Carrey
Maharishi University of Management
2014
-
Jim Steen
Kenyon College
2011
-
Jimmy Iovine
University of Southern California
2013
-
Jimmy Tingle
Harvard University
2010
-
Joan Didion
University of California, Riverside
1975
-
Jodie Foster
University of Pennsylvania
2006
-
Joe Plumeri
College of William and Mary
2011
-
John Doerr
Rice University
2007
-
John F. Kennedy
Yale University
1962
-
John F. Kennedy
American University
1963
-
John F. Kerry
Yale University
2014
-
John Green
Butler University
2013
-
John Jacob Scherer
Roanoke College
2010
-
John Legend
Kean University
2011
-
John Legend
University of Pennsylvania
2014
-
John Mackey
Bentley College
2008
-
John McCain
Liberty University
2006
-
John Roberts
Niagara University
2005
-
John Seely Brown
Arizona State University
2015
-
John Walsh
Wheaton College
2000
-
Jon Lovett
Pitzer College
2013
-
Jon Stewart
College of William and Mary
2004
-
Jonathan Safran Foer
Middlebury College
2013
-
Jonathon Youshaei
Deerfield High School
2009
-
Joseph Brodsky
University of Michigan
1988
-
Joss Whedon
Wesleyan University
2013
-
Julia Keller
Dominican University
2010
-
Julianna Margulies
Sarah Lawrence College
2010
-
Kanye West
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
2015
-
Kati Marton
Central European University
2011
-
Katie Couric
Williams College
2007
-
Katie Couric
American University
2014
-
Ken Burns
Georgetown University
2006
-
Kermit the Frog
Southampton College
1996
-
Kirk Schneider
San Francisco State University
2010
-
Kofi Annan
Penn State
2005
-
Kurt Vonnegut
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
1974
-
Kurt Vonnegut
Agnes Scott College
1999
-
Larry Bock
University of California, Berkeley
2007
-
Larry Lucchino
Boston University
2008
-
Larry Page
University of Michigan
2009
-
Lee Corso
Florida State University
2012
-
Leonard A. Lauder
Connecticut College
1989
-
Lewis Black
University of California, San Diego
2013
-
Lewis Lapham
St. John’s College
2003
-
Lisa Kudrow
Vassar College
2010
-
Louis B. Susman
Connecticut College
2012
-
Lyndon Baines Johnson
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
1964
-
Lynn Sherr
Wellesley College
2010
-
Madeleine Albright
Wellesley College
2007
-
Madeleine Albright
Harvard University
1997
-
Madeleine L’Engle
Wellesley College
1991
-
Makoto Fujimura
Belhaven University
2011
-
Margaret Atwood
University of Toronto
1983
-
Margaret J. Geller
Harvard University
1995
-
Margaret Spellings
Montgomery College
2006
-
Maria Shriver
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
2012
-
Marian Fontana
Massachusetts School of Law
2006
-
Marissa Mayer
Illinois Institute of Technology
2009
-
Mark S. Lewis
University of Texas, Austin
2000
-
Marlee Matlin
Wilkes University
2007
-
Martha Nussbaum
Connecticut College
2009
-
Martin Marty
Eastern Mennonite University
2004
-
Martin Scorsese
New York University Tisch School of the Arts
2014
-
Marvin Bell
Northwest Institute of Literary Arts
2008
-
Mary Barra
University of Michigan
2014
-
Mary Karr
Syracuse University
2015
-
Mary Robinson
Harvard University
1998
-
Maya Rudolph
Tulane University
2015
-
Meg Greenfield
Williams College
1987
-
Mehmet Oz
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
2011
-
Melissa Harris-Perry
Wellesley College
2012
-
Meredith Monk
Sarah Lawrence College
1985
-
Meredith Vieira
Tufts University
2008
-
Meryl Streep
Barnard College
2010
-
Meryl Streep
Vassar College
1983
-
Michael Bloomberg
University of North Carolina
2012
-
Michael Dell
University of Texas, Austin
2003
-
Michael Ignatieff
Niagara University
2006
-
Michael J. Burry
University of California, Los Angeles
2012
-
Michael Lewis
Princeton University
2012
-
Michael Oren
Brandeis University
2010
-
Michael Uslan
Indiana University
2006
-
Michelle Obama
Spelman College
2011
-
Michelle Obama
Dillard University
2014
-
Mike Judge
University of California, San Diego
2009
-
Mike Tomlin
Saint Vincent College
2008
-
Mindy Kaling
Harvard Law School
2014
-
Mother Teresa
Niagara University
1982
-
Muriel Siebert
Case Western Reserve University
1998
-
Naomi Wolf
Scripps College
1992
-
Natalie Portman
Harvard University
2015
-
Neil Gaiman
The University of the Arts
2012
-
Neil Howe
University of Mary Washington
2012
-
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rice University
2013
-
Neil deGrasse Tyson
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
2015
-
Njabulo S. Ndebele
Wesleyan University
2004
-
Nora Ephron
Wellesley College
1996
-
Omid Kordestani
San Jose State University
2007
-
Oprah Winfrey
Howard University
2007
-
Patricia McGowan Wald
Connecticut College
1981
-
Paul Glaser
Stanford University
2004
-
Paul Hawken
University of Portland
2009
-
Peter Dinklage
Bennington College
2012
-
Phil Rosenthal
Hofstra University
2011
-
Porochista Khakpour
Desert Academy
2010
-
Rachel Maddow
Smith College
2010
-
Rahm Emanuel
George Washington University
2009
-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Harvard University
1838
-
Randy Pausch
Carnegie Mellon University
2008
-
Ray Bradbury
Caltech
2000
-
Ray Sidney
Edwin O. Smith High School
2007
-
Rev. David O’Connell
Niagara University
2008
-
Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider
Niagara University
2007
-
Rev. Joseph L. Levesque
Niagara University
2007
-
Richard Costolo
University of Michigan
2013
-
Richard Feynman
Caltech
1974
-
Richard Russo
Colby College
2004
-
Robert Ballard
Connecticut College
2007
-
Robert Krulwich
University of California, Berkeley
2011
-
Robert M. Gates
University of Georgia
2009
-
Robert Pinsky
Stanford University
1999
-
Robert Rodriguez
University of Texas, Austin
2009
-
Roger Goodell
University of Massachusetts Lowell
2010
-
Roger Rosenblatt
Brigham Young University
1998
-
Ron Suskind
Lewis & Clark College
2015
-
Ronald Reagan
Eureka College
1957
-
Ronan Farrow
Dominican University of California
2012
-
Russell Baker
Connecticut College
1995
-
Ruth Westheimer
Trinity College
2004
-
Sal Khan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2012
-
Salman Rushdie
Bard College
1996
-
Sandra Soto
University of Arizona
2010
-
Sanjay Gupta
University of Michigan
2012
-
Seamus Heaney
University of Pennsylvania
2000
-
Sean Lebowitz
Binghamton University
2004
-
Sergio Marchionne
University of Toledo
2011
-
Seth MacFarlane
Harvard University
2004
-
Sheryl Sandberg
Barnard College
2011
-
Sheryl Sandberg
City Colleges of Chicago
2014
-
Soledad O’Brien
University of Delaware
2012
-
Stephen Colbert
Northwestern University
2011
-
Stephen Colbert
University of Virginia
2013
-
Stephen Colbert
Wake Forest University
2015
-
Stephen King
Vassar College
2001
-
Stephen R. Kellert
University of Western Sydney, Australia
2013
-
Steve Ballmer
University of Southern California
2011
-
Steve Blank
Philadelphia University
2011
-
Steve Jobs
Stanford University
2005
-
Sting
Berklee College of Music
1994
-
Sue Monk Kidd
Scripps College
2010
-
Sumner Redstone
Northwestern University
2002
-
Susan Rice
Stanford University
2010
-
Susan Sontag
Vassar College
2003
-
Susan Sontag
Wellesley College
1983
-
Sutton Foster
Ball State University
2012
-
Suzan-Lori Parks
Mount Holyoke College
2001
-
Terry Gross
Bryn Mawr College
2014
-
Terry Teachout
Hamilton Holt School
2011
-
Theodor ‘Dr. Seuss’ Geisel
Lake Forest College
1977
-
Thomas L. Friedman
Williams College
2005
-
Tiffany Shlain
University of California, Berkeley
2010
-
Tim Cook
Auburn University
2010
-
Tim Minchin
University of Western Australia
2013
-
Tim Russert
Niagara University
2000
-
Tom Brinck
The Art Institute of California, Sunnyvale
2011
-
Tom Brokaw
Connecticut College
1996
-
Tom Hanks
Yale University
2011
-
Toni Morrison
Wellesley College
2004
-
Tony Snow
The Catholic University of America
2007
-
Tory Burch
Babson College
2014
-
Tracy Chevalier
Oberlin College
2013
-
Ursula K. Le Guin
Mills College
1983
-
Vaclav Havel
Harvard University
1995
-
Vera Rubin
University of California, Berkeley
1996
-
Vernice Armour
Ashford University
2011
-
Vernon Jordan
Columbia University
2013
-
Victor Hwang
Austin Community College
2014
-
Wade Davis
Colorado College
2010
-
Wally Lamb
Connecticut College
2003
-
Wangari Maathai
Connecticut College
2006
-
Warren Burger
Pace University
1983
-
Wesley Chan
University of California, San Diego
2012
-
Whoopi Goldberg
Savannah College of Art and Design
2011
-
Will Ferrell
Harvard University
2003
-
William Allen White
Northwestern University
1936
-
William Chiu
Halsey Junior High School
2012
-
William H. Gass
Washington University
1979
-
William Kunstler
State University of New York, Buffalo
1995
-
Woody Hayes
Ohio State University
1986
-
Wynton Marsalis
Connecticut College
2001
-
Wynton Marsalis
University of Vermont
2013
-
Yoko Ono
Maine College of Art
2003
-
Yvonne Thornton
Tuskegee University
2003
-
Zadie Smith
New School
2014
-
Zubin Damania
University of California, San Francisco
1999
The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever
Looking for some new words of wisdom? Check out our hand-picked selection of commencement addresses, going back to 1774. Search over 350 speeches by name, school, date or theme — and find out what they have in common with pop songs — on our blog: n.pr/ed.
May 19, 2014, Last updated: July 2, 2015