Giving a college commencement speech. Advice?

The Dean’s Office called and asked me to give the fall commencement address for graduates of our college, many of whom will be going into teaching and the sports-related health professions. I’ve been told to keep it to 15 minutes, focus somewhat on education, and that’s about it.

On my own I sought out a few graduates, with really incredible stories. They all agreed that it would be fine if I shared parts of their stories, and they are pretty amazing - one is a single mom student teaching with two kids. Pretty inspiring stuff.

Common themes from their stories centered around having family and friends support them, having a strong passion for their field of study, some hesitation and confusion about the future, and having a professor or advisor who really changed how they saw their world.

My inclination is to make “passion” the organizing theme of this speech. I might talk about how my own path looks a little odd until you understand my passion for teaching, which is why I taught primary school and worked in student affairs before becoming a prof. Then share some examples of how these new grads are following their own passion, and that they will make some missteps along the way, and the way out of them is to follow one’s passion.

It’s just in my head now, but I’m open to good suggestions, and flourishes that Dopers might recommend…

As a retired faculty member I would urge you to make it short, anything over 45 minutes is ridiculous. I like the idea you are going to be using student anecdotes. Graduation speakers who are all I, I, I, me, me, me are the worst. We once had one that described his career year by boring year from college to his late 60’s. A couple of jokes or funny anecdotes is good, especially at your own expense. Be upbeat, nobody wants a downer on graduation day.

I think the second and third paragraphs of your post are the place to start. Tell the graduates of the success stories, including yours, and then draw the stories together with the connecting thread you found. They will experience some hesitation, some confusion, but with passion and the support network of friends and family, they will find the path to their own success.

It looks like you have a good start already. Good luck.

Some comments I might make:

“Congratulations to all of you graduates! Some of you will remember these few short years at college as a wonderful stepping stone to your career - and some of you will look back and say it was the best 9 years of your life. Regardless of how long it took you to get to this graduation ceremony - congratulations to all of you!”

“Normally, this is a day to celebrate the efforts of the graduates, and thank the teachers that helped them achieve their goals - but let’s not forget that other powerful force; the people who helped you stay focused and gave you support and encouragement when you felt frustrated and perhaps wanted to quit at some point: your family, your spouse, your kids and your friends; the people in this audience who were there for you, and are here cheering you on today. And by the way, now it is your turn to repay them for their efforts - get a job!”

“I think it is fair to assume all of you started off with a plan in mind, but I think it is also fair to assume most, if not all of you, have seen your plans change. That is to be expected - as we learn, we find out more what excites us, what challenges us, and what sparks our passion! Your task is to take that passion and run with it. Think of those great teachers who most inspired you. Why? Because they had a deep passion for what they do and you, and all of the other students in that class, could feel that passion every time you entered that classroom. And I think I speak for all of those teachers when I say they are proud of you, wish you all the greatest success, and after you have become wildly successful and reached the pinnacle of your field, it wouldn’t hurt to buy them a Mercedes or something as a thank you.”

Ha! Great advice, all. Keep it coming! I am going to devote some time to writing tonight.

“No matter what a stripper tells you, there is no sex in the Champagne Room. None. Oh, there’s champagne in the Champagne Room. But you don’t want champagne. You want sex. And there is no sex in the Champagne Room.”

Apologies to Chris Rock.

But, as he aptly demonstrated, as long as you speak from the heart and say what you genuinely believe, you can’t go too far wrong.

Mostly.

The best ones make the faculty cringe and the students crack up. Search for Jon Stewart’s and Conan O’Brien’s respective addresses.

And also remember that you are not Jon Stewart or Conan O’Brien. Seriously, know you comedic limits.

Word, not to mention I’m on the faculty. Not much to be gained by mocking my colleagues. (Them=mostly tenured. Me=one year from tenure.)

Most of the faculty are pretty funny, easygoing, loose folks. They’ll laugh at a good joke, but not one that comes across as assholish…

I think your audience is the parents in attendance. Make them happy and you’ll make your colleagues happy, and their children happy. How you do that though, I have no idea (unless you can give them their money back).

Wear sunscreen!

In order to stay calm, I recommend you picture all those young college girls in their underwear.

The college is about 85-90% women. When I was on stage last year, I noted that this was nirvana for a foot fetishist.

If you keep it down to 15 minutes and have something to say about education other than “you can make money with it,” you will be way, WAY ahead of most of the commencement speakers I have heard. The bar is ridiculously low.

Oh, and don’t plagiarize large sections of your speech from the “Institutional History” section of the university’s web site. We had a guy who did that once. The faculty were Not Impressed.

You’ve got 15 minutes, so write it for 10 minutes.

Well, I gave the speech Saturday. I had three vignettes - one was a metaphor about flying, how when you’re 10,000 feet in the air, everything looks perfect, but on the ground everything is irregular and bumpy. I shared a story about how much I sucked as a first year teacher, then talked about how I was named teacher of the month six months later, and how that award means as much to me as other fancy stuff I’ve been awarded with because I had to really fight to get to that level.

Second vignette was a discussion of three graduates who were doing great things. One was a first-generation student from the Rio Grande Valley. Another started studying Spanish, but discovered that she wanted to be a therapist/counselor. The last one was a single mom who planned to get a MSW.

Last vignette used Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died on Challenger and her quote “I touch the future, I teach.” I asked all of the grads to keep their regalia on until they took a picture with a kid, so that the picture would motivate that kid to finish HS, an associates, a bachelors, or grad school.

I used the iPad app Teleprompt+ to scroll my speech and time it perfectly. It clocked in at 14:58. Got a great round of applause and tons of compliments from my colleagues. More than one mentioned that it was the best speech in years. Walking out of the concert hall, I was outside talking with grads and families for about 30 minutes. Finally had to sort of run for it or else I’d never have a chance to leave!

It was awesome to have my kids (5 and 2) and my parents there. My dean was really pleased with the speech and another colleague of mine was gushing about it Monday morning. Very cool feeling. I believe it was a success, and thanks to all of you that gave advice!

I didn’t see this thread when you were in prep mode, but am really glad to read how it went. Congratulations! Pulling something like that off, to such great feedback and with your family there - that’s really wonderful!

Well done, congrats. Sounds like a really great speech. In fact, even just reading that bit in your post was probably better than what I sat through at my graduation…

Just do a Lisa Lampenelli routine - you’ll kill.