Commencements
Inspiration





GRADUATION SPEECHES ARCHIVE

Sorted by: Date | Profession | Alphabetical

Alan Alda, actor

Jean Andrews, marine scientist and artist

Earl Bakken, businessman

Larry Bock, businessman

David L. Calhoun, businessman

Katie Couric , TV journalist

Paul Glaser, actor and director

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers

Woody Hayes, college football coach

Paul Hawken, entrepreneur

Guy Kawasaki, businesman

Brian Kenny, sportscaster

Billie Jean King, tennis player

Jessica Lange, actress

Larry Lucchino , businessman

John Mackey , businessman

Chris Matthews, journalist

Marc S. Lewis, professor of clinical psychology

Suzan-Lori Parks, playwright

Anna Quindlen, Pulitzer Prize winner author

J.K. Rowling , writer

Ray Sidney, businessman

Doug Marlette, Pulitzer Prize winner editorial cartoonist

Muriel Siebert, businesswoman

Margaret Spellings, politician

Yvonne Thorton, Pulitzer Prize nominated author

Michael Uslan, movie producer

David Foster Wallace, novelist

John Walsh, author and art historian

Bill Watterson, cartoonist

Ruth Westheimers, professor and media psychologist

▫ Bradley Whitford, actor

Oprah Winfrey, talk show host

David Woddle, businessman

Jerry Zucker, movie director and producer

You might wonder why do I have so few speeches. For one, this site is something that I do in my spare time - which with two young kids, a full time job, and a husband who works six days a week- is definitely limited. Second, it is really hard to find truly inspirational speeches. As I said in the about graduation speeches section, the majority of the commencement speeches are plain boring. They either talk about politics and how graduates can change the world or, if they try to be motivational, the speakers use the words too directly: for example " Take risks" or " Fight your fears" - which are all true but they do not work in helping people.

I like the speech where the author is a good storyteller so we can really learn from his or her life experience (check out for example Steve Job's college graduation speech), or the ones where the speaker gives advice using metaphors to make a point.

On average, for each graduation speech that I put on my side I go through at least 20 others that I reject as not having enough good life advice. Therefore, if this would be a repository of commencement speeches I would have already had a list of 400 or so by the time I am writing this blurb (October 2007). It just recently occurred to me that many people may not have realized that I am so painstakingly trying to find really meaningful speeches so I will start listing below the speeches that did not make the cut, in case anybody is interested.