speech on college life

Speech on College Life

College life is a new chapter filled with excitement, opportunities, and challenges. It’s a time when you step out of your comfort zone and explore the world around you.

In college, you’ll meet people from diverse backgrounds and learn to balance academics with other aspects of life. The experiences you gain here will shape your future and broaden your perspectives.

1-minute Speech on College Life

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s talk about college life. Picture a place where you can grow, learn, and make lifelong friends. That’s what college is all about!

First, let’s think about learning. College is not just about books and exams. It’s a place where you learn about life. You learn how to solve problems on your own. You learn how to take care of yourself. You learn how to work with others. In short, college prepares you for the real world.

Next, think about the friendships. College is a place where you meet people from different places. You share ideas, dreams, and even food. You study together, laugh together, and sometimes cry together. These friendships often last a lifetime.

Then, there’s freedom. In college, you get to make your own choices. You decide what to study, when to study, and even where to study. You learn to be responsible for your actions. This freedom helps you become a confident person.

Lastly, college life is fun. There are sports, clubs, and cultural events. You get to try new things and discover new passions. You learn to balance work and play. This makes college life exciting and memorable.

In conclusion, college life is a journey. It’s a journey of learning, friendships, freedom, and fun. It shapes you into who you are and who you want to be. So, embrace it, enjoy it, and make the most of it. Because college life is not just about getting a degree, it’s about growing as a person. Thank you.

2-minute Speech on College Life

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s talk about college life. It’s a big step, a new chapter, and a world full of opportunities. It’s a time that shapes us, helps us grow, and paves the way for our future. It’s a journey, and like any journey, it comes with its own set of challenges, joys, and lessons.

First, let’s talk about freedom. In college, you’re your own boss. You decide when to study, when to play, and when to sleep. It’s a time to learn responsibility. It’s a time to understand that every choice we make has consequences. But remember, with great freedom comes great responsibility.

Next, let’s talk about friendships. College is where you meet people from different walks of life. You learn about new cultures, new ideas, and new ways of thinking. These friendships often last a lifetime. You grow together, learn together, and build a network that helps you in your future endeavours.

Now, let’s talk about learning. College is not just about textbooks. It’s about learning life skills. It’s about learning to work in a team, to manage your time, and to solve problems. It’s about exploring your interests and discovering your passion. It’s about finding what you love and pursuing it with all your heart.

But college life is not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s also about challenges. It’s about dealing with stress, handling failures, and overcoming obstacles. It’s about late-night study sessions, tough exams, and tight deadlines. But it’s through these challenges that we grow. It’s through these challenges that we become stronger.

Finally, let’s talk about growth. College is a time of transformation. You enter as a high school graduate and leave as a professional ready to take on the world. You learn, you grow, and you evolve. You become a better version of yourself.

In conclusion, college life is a beautiful journey. It’s a journey of freedom, friendships, learning, challenges, and growth. It’s a journey that shapes us and prepares us for the future. It’s a journey that we remember for the rest of our lives. So, let’s make the most of it. Let’s embrace the opportunities, overcome the challenges, and cherish the memories. After all, college life is not just about earning a degree, it’s about earning an experience. Thank you.

• Speech on College Get Together
• Speech on College Convocation
• Speech on College Anniversary

We also have speeches on more interesting topics that you may want to explore.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Talk to our experts

1800-120-456-456

• College Life Essay

Anticipated Experiences During Our College Life

College Life is one of the most remarkable and lovable times of an individual's life. Unlike School Life, College Life has a different experience, and a person needs to have this experience in his/her life. College Life exposes us to whole new experiences which we always dream of experiencing after our school life. Lucky are those who get the chance to enjoy their college life, as many people don't get this chance due to their circumstances or financial issues. For every person, College Life has a different meaning. While some people spend their college life partying with friends, others become more cautious about their careers and study hard. Whatever the way, every individual enjoys their college life and always wishes to relive that time once it is over.

College Life Experience: How is it different from School Life?

Both school life and college life is the most memorable time of a person's life, but both of them are quite different from each other. While in School life, we learn everything in a protected environment, College Life exposes us to a new environment where we have to learn new things and face new challenges by ourselves. We spend half of our young lives in school, and thus we get comfortable living in that environment. But College Life is for three years only, where every year introduces new challenges and lessons to us. While in school, our teachers and friends always protect and guard us, in college life we form a relationship with our mentors, and they don't protect us all the time as our school teachers did. 

Unlike school life, we don't have many limitations in college life, and it is up to us how we want to spend our college life. In college life, we see new faces and experience a unique environment in which we have to mingle ourselves. We make new friends there who stay with us for the rest of our lives. Also, we get a chance to shape our careers asking the right decisions and studying hard. College life is not only about the study but also about the overall development of an individual through various activities and challenges.

In College Life, one gets a chance to make their own decisions. In school life, students get an opportunity to be class monitors. In College Life, an individual gets a chance to nominate himself/herself for more prominent positions like College President, Vice President, Secretary, and Vice Secretary. Apart from deciding the course and stream, an individual gets a chance to build his/her confidence by being a part of various societies and events that take place all year.

Different from School Life, College Life has its importance in a person's life, and one should always enjoy his/her college life.

A Bridge Between Our Student and Adult Lives

College life is considered a bridge in our lives between our school days and our career. It prepares us with the finest academics and platform to generate dreams into realities. It acts as a transition to prepare us to be more independent. In school, we were dependent on our parents. However, we became independent in college regarding studying, traveling, decision-making, and financially independent after college. It is a valued and very smooth transition where we do not realize that we have become independent. 

Some Fun Memories from College Life

Firstly, some of the most fun memories of college are “college canteen”. The canteen is supposed to be where most of the students satisfy their hunger and hang out with their friends. 

Secondly, it’s the “annual fest” of the colleges. Fests always filled the student’s life with excitement and buzz. It gave new opportunities to explore, compare, compete and provide a platform to showcase their talent. It became a place where students take lots of pictures and record their experiences. 

Last but not the least, it’s the college trips. One of the best things in college life is field trips where they can go out and have quality time with their friends and teacher and learning experience. Field trips or just any other college trips are filled with stories and dramas. Every student has their own story to tell about their college trips. 

We should enjoy our college days as they cannot be brought back just like our school days. 

The Hardest Part of College Life

As a college student, the hardest part of college life was leaving college after graduation or post-graduation. The last days of college were the hardest, knowing that soon you will be departing your friends, the campus, teachers and completely leaving behind a part of life.  

My College Days Experience

Talking about my college life, I had enjoyed my college life to the fullest and had some of the best college days of my life. I was a student of one of the most reputed colleges of Delhi University and, i.e. Gargi College. I have completed my B.A. (Hons.) in Applied Psychology from there. Gargi College is one of the renowned and best colleges of Delhi University. Built in a larger area, it is a beautiful college with many courses in streams like Science, Commerce, Arts, and Humanities. With an outstanding academic record, it is a girls college.

When I took admission to this college, I was really afraid as all the people were new to me. But soon, I started enjoying my college life and made some fantastic friends. I loved everything about my college and participated in the events at my college. Even I joined the dance society of my college and participated in many dance competitions that occurred in different colleges of Delhi University. 

One of the best things about college life is that you get a new experience every day. In my college life, along with studying, I and my friends enjoyed a lot of other things. We traveled to lots of places, had new experiences, and learned many new things. Our college's canteen was a remarkable place in my college life as whenever we got time, we used to chill in the canteen. 

Another thing I loved about my college life is Annual Fests. Every year, every college of Delhi University organizes an annual fest that lasts for 2-3 days. In this annual fest, various competitions happen, and students from various colleges come to be a part of this annual fest. Every year, our college organizes a massive annual fest and all the students of our college participate in various events and enjoy a lot in this fest. These fests allow students to socialize with new people and showcase their talent to everyone which builds their confidence and helps them in their future. I have participated in my college's annual fest for all three years, and I have got the best exposure and experience of my life through this fest. I had the best time of my life in college, and my college life memories will always make me happy.

Life After College

One fine day, you will be silently smiling with wet eyes, looking at the pictures from your college and old friends, and remembering all the good times you had in your college days. That is the beauty of studying in a college. Despite climbing the ladders of success, you will cherish the memories of your college life.

College Life is a remarkable and essential time in a person's life, and everyone should enjoy it. College Life teaches us many things and builds our confidence to face the challenges and struggles in our future. Instead of just focussing on the study, a person must participate in other activities and socialize as much as possible in his/her college life as all these things help in the overall development of a person.

FAQs on College Life Essay

Q1. What is the difference between college life and school life?

When compared to each other, they both are completely different from each other. College life provides us with different opportunities to explore to nurture our confidence in the outside world. In school, the teacher acts as a monitor whereas, in college, they act like our friends, and not to forget, in college, we face more challenges than we had in our school.

Q2. Explain some of the common memories of college life.

Whenever you hear the word college, the first thing that comes to our mind is “college canteen”. The most beloved place for every student was to feed their empty stomach, spend time with friends, and create thousands of memories. Another most common memory is of the annual fest that bought buzz in every student’s life.

Q3. Why are colleges necessary?

When we go to school, they ensure that we have common educational knowledge. Whereas in college, we get specialization in a particular field we want to pursue as our career. That’s the reason our school friends get scattered in various colleges to make their dreams a reality and open better career options.

Q4. Which two things need to be focused on the most in college?

The two most important things in college are the Grade Point Average (GPA) and your participation in other co-curricular activities.

• CBSE Class 10th
• CBSE Class 12th
• UP Board 10th
• UP Board 12th
• Bihar Board 10th
• Bihar Board 12th
• Top Schools in India
• Top Schools in Delhi
• Top Schools in Mumbai
• Top Schools in Chennai
• Top Schools in Hyderabad
• Top Schools in Kolkata
• Top Schools in Pune
• Top Schools in Bangalore

Products & Resources

• JEE Main Knockout April
• Free Sample Papers
• Free Ebooks
• NCERT Notes
• NCERT Syllabus
• NCERT Books
• RD Sharma Solutions
• Navodaya Vidyalaya Admission 2024-25
• NCERT Solutions
• NCERT Solutions for Class 12
• NCERT Solutions for Class 11
• NCERT solutions for Class 10
• NCERT solutions for Class 9
• NCERT solutions for Class 8
• NCERT Solutions for Class 7
• JEE Main 2024
• MHT CET 2024
• JEE Advanced 2024
• BITSAT 2024
• View All Engineering Exams
• Colleges Accepting B.Tech Applications
• Top Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Engineering Colleges Accepting JEE Main
• Top IITs in India
• Top NITs in India
• Top IIITs in India
• JEE Main College Predictor
• JEE Main Rank Predictor
• MHT CET College Predictor
• AP EAMCET College Predictor
• GATE College Predictor
• KCET College Predictor
• JEE Advanced College Predictor
• View All College Predictors
• JEE Main Question Paper
• JEE Main Cutoff
• JEE Main Advanced Admit Card
• AP EAPCET Hall Ticket
• Download E-Books and Sample Papers
• Compare Colleges
• B.Tech College Applications
• KCET Result
• MAH MBA CET Exam
• View All Management Exams

Colleges & Courses

• MBA College Admissions
• MBA Colleges in India
• Top IIMs Colleges in India
• Top Online MBA Colleges in India
• MBA Colleges Accepting XAT Score
• BBA Colleges in India
• XAT College Predictor 2024
• SNAP College Predictor
• NMAT College Predictor
• MAT College Predictor 2024
• CMAT College Predictor 2024
• CAT Percentile Predictor 2023
• CAT 2023 College Predictor
• CMAT 2024 Admit Card
• TS ICET 2024 Hall Ticket
• CMAT Result 2024
• MAH MBA CET Cutoff 2024
• Download Helpful Ebooks
• List of Popular Branches
• QnA - Get answers to your doubts
• IIM Fees Structure
• AIIMS Nursing
• Top Medical Colleges in India
• Top Medical Colleges in India accepting NEET Score
• Medical Colleges accepting NEET
• List of Medical Colleges in India
• List of AIIMS Colleges In India
• Medical Colleges in Maharashtra
• Medical Colleges in India Accepting NEET PG
• NEET College Predictor
• NEET PG College Predictor
• NEET MDS College Predictor
• NEET Rank Predictor
• DNB PDCET College Predictor
• NEET Admit Card 2024
• NEET PG Application Form 2024
• NEET Cut off
• NEET Online Preparation
• Download Helpful E-books
• LSAT India 2024
• Colleges Accepting Admissions
• Top Law Colleges in India
• Law College Accepting CLAT Score
• List of Law Colleges in India
• Top Law Colleges in Delhi
• Top Law Collages in Indore
• Top Law Colleges in Chandigarh
• Top Law Collages in Lucknow

Predictors & E-Books

• CLAT College Predictor
• MHCET Law ( 5 Year L.L.B) College Predictor
• AILET College Predictor
• Sample Papers
• Compare Law Collages
• Careers360 Youtube Channel
• CLAT Syllabus 2025
• CLAT Previous Year Question Paper
• AIBE 18 Result 2023
• NID DAT Exam
• Pearl Academy Exam

Predictors & Articles

• NIFT College Predictor
• UCEED College Predictor
• NID DAT College Predictor
• NID DAT Syllabus 2025
• NID DAT 2025
• Design Colleges in India
• Fashion Design Colleges in India
• Top Interior Design Colleges in India
• Top Graphic Designing Colleges in India
• Fashion Design Colleges in Delhi
• Fashion Design Colleges in Mumbai
• Fashion Design Colleges in Bangalore
• Top Interior Design Colleges in Bangalore
• NIFT Result 2024
• NIFT Fees Structure
• NIFT Syllabus 2025
• Free Design E-books
• List of Branches
• Careers360 Youtube channel
• IPU CET BJMC
• JMI Mass Communication Entrance Exam
• IIMC Entrance Exam
• Media & Journalism colleges in Delhi
• Media & Journalism colleges in Bangalore
• Media & Journalism colleges in Mumbai
• List of Media & Journalism Colleges in India
• CA Intermediate
• CA Foundation
• CS Executive
• CS Professional
• Difference between CA and CS
• Difference between CA and CMA
• CA Full form
• CMA Full form
• CS Full form
• CA Salary In India

Top Courses & Careers

• Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com)
• Master of Commerce (M.Com)
• Company Secretary
• Cost Accountant
• Charted Accountant
• Credit Manager
• Financial Advisor
• Top Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Government Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Private Commerce Colleges in India
• Top M.Com Colleges in Mumbai
• Top B.Com Colleges in India
• IT Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• IT Colleges in Uttar Pradesh
• MCA Colleges in India
• BCA Colleges in India

Quick Links

• Information Technology Courses
• Programming Courses
• Web Development Courses
• Data Analytics Courses
• Big Data Analytics Courses
• RUHS Pharmacy Admission Test
• Top Pharmacy Colleges in India
• Pharmacy Colleges in Pune
• Pharmacy Colleges in Mumbai
• Colleges Accepting GPAT Score
• Pharmacy Colleges in Lucknow
• List of Pharmacy Colleges in Nagpur
• GPAT Result
• GPAT 2024 Admit Card
• GPAT Question Papers
• NCHMCT JEE 2024
• Mah BHMCT CET
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Delhi
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Hyderabad
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Mumbai
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Maharashtra
• B.Sc Hotel Management
• Hotel Management
• Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology

Diploma Colleges

• Top Diploma Colleges in Maharashtra
• UPSC IAS 2024
• SSC CGL 2024
• IBPS RRB 2024
• Previous Year Sample Papers
• Free Competition E-books
• Sarkari Result
• QnA- Get your doubts answered
• UPSC Previous Year Sample Papers
• CTET Previous Year Sample Papers
• SBI Clerk Previous Year Sample Papers
• NDA Previous Year Sample Papers

Upcoming Events

• NDA Application Form 2024
• UPSC IAS Application Form 2024
• CDS Application Form 2024
• CTET Admit card 2024
• HP TET Result 2023
• SSC GD Constable Admit Card 2024
• UPTET Notification 2024
• SBI Clerk Result 2024

Other Exams

• SSC CHSL 2024
• UP PCS 2024
• UGC NET 2024
• RRB NTPC 2024
• IBPS PO 2024
• IBPS Clerk 2024
• IBPS SO 2024
• Top University in USA
• Top University in Canada
• Top University in Ireland
• Top Universities in UK
• Top Universities in Australia
• Best MBA Colleges in Abroad
• Business Management Studies Colleges

Top Countries

• Study in USA
• Study in UK
• Study in Canada
• Study in Australia
• Study in Ireland
• Study in Germany
• Study in China
• Study in Europe

Student Visas

• Student Visa Canada
• Student Visa UK
• Student Visa USA
• Student Visa Australia
• Student Visa Germany
• Student Visa New Zealand
• Student Visa Ireland
• CUET PG 2024
• IGNOU B.Ed Admission 2024
• DU Admission 2024
• UP B.Ed JEE 2024
• LPU NEST 2024
• IIT JAM 2024
• IGNOU Online Admission 2024
• Universities in India
• Top Universities in India 2024
• Top Colleges in India
• Top Universities in Uttar Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Bihar
• Top Universities in Madhya Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Tamil Nadu 2024
• Central Universities in India
• CUET Exam City Intimation Slip 2024
• IGNOU Date Sheet
• CUET Mock Test 2024
• CUET Admit card 2024
• CUET PG Syllabus 2024
• CUET Participating Universities 2024
• CUET Previous Year Question Paper
• CUET Syllabus 2024 for Science Students
• E-Books and Sample Papers
• CUET Exam Pattern 2024
• CUET Exam Date 2024
• CUET Syllabus 2024
• IGNOU Exam Form 2024
• IGNOU Result
• CUET City Intimation Slip 2024 Live

Engineering Preparation

• Knockout JEE Main 2024
• Test Series JEE Main 2024
• JEE Main 2024 Rank Booster

Medical Preparation

• Knockout NEET 2024
• Test Series NEET 2024
• Rank Booster NEET 2024

Online Courses

• JEE Main One Month Course
• NEET One Month Course
• IBSAT Free Mock Tests
• IIT JEE Foundation Course
• Knockout BITSAT 2024
• Career Guidance Tool

Top Streams

• IT & Software Certification Courses
• Engineering and Architecture Certification Courses
• Programming And Development Certification Courses
• Business and Management Certification Courses
• Marketing Certification Courses
• Health and Fitness Certification Courses
• Design Certification Courses

Specializations

• Digital Marketing Certification Courses
• Cyber Security Certification Courses
• Artificial Intelligence Certification Courses
• Business Analytics Certification Courses
• Data Science Certification Courses
• Cloud Computing Certification Courses
• Machine Learning Certification Courses
• View All Certification Courses
• UG Degree Courses
• PG Degree Courses
• Short Term Courses
• Free Courses
• Online Degrees and Diplomas
• Compare Courses

Top Providers

• Coursera Courses
• Udemy Courses
• Edx Courses
• Swayam Courses
• upGrad Courses
• Simplilearn Courses
• Great Learning Courses

College Life Essay

One of the most memorable periods of one's life is considered to be their time in college. It's completely different from life at school. It involves a number of difficulties. Our lives are impacted by our college years—this is also the time of self-discovery and finding a career path for yourself. Here are a few sample essays from ‘College Life’.

100 Words Essay On College Life

200 words essay on college life, 500 words essay on college life.

One of the most memorable periods of a person's life is often their time in college. Compared to school life, it is completely different. We are exposed to new experiences and ideas during our time in college. Our schools were a secure environment where we had spent the majority of our time growing up. The move to college is so abrupt that you are no longer shielded by your teachers and schoolmates. Some people believe that college life entails living it up to the fullest and having a fun time. Others devote more time to their studies and take their careers seriously if they want a better future. From school life, college life is a significant adjustment.

College life will present you with numerous hurdles. You must make friends in this new environment where there are many unexpected faces. It teaches us how to interact with others and establish our own opinions. Students acquire their free will in college, which helps them grow more self-assured and collected. We were always dependent on our friends or teachers while we were in school. We learn to be independent in college. It strengthens us and teaches us how to face our own challenges. It also encourages us to take our careers seriously. We make decisions that will impact our future on our own, unlike when we were in school when our parents made those decisions for us.

The college experience for me was full of ups and downs. Even though I got admission to the college of my choice, the transition came as a complete shock to me. It was my first time travelling alone every day and meeting new people. I had a difficult time making new friends and getting familiar with the new professors. The newly found independence was exhilarating though. I could go anywhere I wanted, join any social activities, and become part of different programmes. It felt like there was nothing I couldn’t do in life.

Everyone should enjoy their time in college because it is a great and important period in their lives. We learn a lot from college life, and it also gives us more self-assurance to tackle difficulties later in life. A person should focus on other hobbies and socialise as much as they can during their college years rather than just studying because all of these things aid in a person's overall development.

There are many hurdles that come with being a college student. You're currently in a really strange environment where it would be difficult for you to mix with anyone. Students discover their strengths in college and how to persevere becoming more self-assured and composed.

My College Days Experience

Speaking of my time in college, I had a great time there and experienced some of the best days of my life. I attended Jesus and Mary College, one of Delhi University's most prestigious colleges. From there, I earned my B.A. (Hons.) in Political Science. One of Delhi University's most well-known and esteemed colleges is Gargi College. It is a stunning college with various courses in fields like science, commerce, the arts, and humanities that was constructed in a greater space. It is a girls' college with a stellar academic record.

I was quite nervous when I applied to this college because I didn't know any of the other students. However, I gradually got into college life and met some great friends. I took part in college events and enjoyed everything about my college. I joined the dance and quiz society at my college and took part in a number of dance and quiz competitions held at various Delhi University campuses.

The fact that every day is different is one of the finest aspects about college life. Along with studying, my friends and I enjoyed a variety of other activities in college. We visited different locations, witnessed unique experiences, and gained a great deal of fresh knowledge. In my undergraduate years, the canteen and the common room were special spots since we would hang out there anytime we had free time. Our garden was one of the most beautiful places in our college where we spent countless hours during wintertime. Sometimes, our professors would even take our lectures there when the weather was good.

Annual Fests were another aspect of college life that I cherished. Every year, each college at Delhi University puts on a festival that lasts two to three days. Several competitions take place at this annual festival, which attracts participants from different colleges. Our college hosts a sizable yearly festival every year, in which all of the students take part in numerous competitions and have a great time.

These events give students the chance to interact with new people and demonstrate their talents in front of everyone, boosting their confidence and assisting them in the future. I have taken part in my college's yearly festival for the past three years, and during this time, I have gained the most exposure and experience of my life. I had the time of my life in college, and I will always cherish my recollections of that time.

Download Careers360 App's

Regular exam updates, QnA, Predictors, College Applications & E-books now on your Mobile

Certifications

We Appeared in

College Life Essay for Students and Children

500 words essay on college life.

College life is known as one of the most memorable years of one’s life. It is entirely different from school life. College life exposes us to new experiences and things that we were not familiar with earlier. For some people, college life means enjoying life to the fullest and partying hard. While for others, it is time to get serious about their career and study thoroughly for a brighter future.

Nonetheless, college life remains a memorable time for all of us. Not everyone is lucky enough to experience college life. People do not get the chance to go to college due to various reasons. Sometimes they do not have a strong financial background to do so while other times they have other responsibilities to fulfill. The ones who have had a college life always wish to turn back time to live it all once again.

The Transition from School Life to College Life

College life is a big transition from school life. We go through a lot of changes when we enter college. Our schools were a safe place where we had grown up and spent half our lives. The transition to college is so sudden that you’re no longer protected by your teachers and friends of your school time.

College life poses a lot of challenges in front of you. You are now in a place full of unfamiliar faces where you need to mingle in. It teaches us to socialize and form opinions of our own. In college, students learn their free will and they go on to become more confident and composed.

In school life, we were always dependant on our friends or teachers. College life teaches us to be independent. It makes us stronger and teaches us to fight our own battles. It also makes us serious about our careers. We make decisions that will affect our future all by ourselves, as in school life our parents did it for us.

Additionally, in schools, we viewed our teachers as our mentors and sometimes even parents. We respected them and kept a distance. However, in college life, the teacher-student relationship becomes a bit informal. They become more or less like our friends and we share our troubles and happiness with them as we did with our friends.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

College Life Experience

College life experience is truly one of a kind. The most common memories people have of college life are definitely goofing around with friends. They remember how the group of friends walked around the college in style and playing silly pranks on each other.

Moreover, people always look back at the times spent in the college canteen. It was considered the hub of every student where they enjoyed eating and chatting away with their friends.

Another college life experience I have seen people cherish the most is the annual fest. The annual fest created so much excitement and buzz amongst the students. Everyone welcomed other colleges with open arms and also made friends there. All the competitions were carried out in a good spirit and the students dressed their best to represent their college well.

FAQs on College Life

Q.1 How is college life different from school life?

A.1 College life is completely different from school life. It gives us more exposure and also makes us more confident. Our teachers act more like friends in college, whereas in school they’re like our mentors. Most importantly, college life gives us various challenges than our school life.

Q.2 What are some memories of college life?

A.2 Those who have experienced college life have some common memories. People always remember their free time which they spent with friends goofing around. Everyone remembers the annual fest of the college which brought so much excitement and buzz in student’s lives. Furthermore, they remember the college canteen which always fed their empty stomachs.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Featured Topics

Featured series.

A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.

Explore the Gazette

Read the latest.

When your meet cute involves T.H. Chan

No business like show business — except the law

Turning ideas into impact

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Break down walls. Vanquish villains. Stand up and speak out. Facts and truth matter.

6 past harvard commencement speakers offer inspiring messages of justice, courage, resilience, empathy.

Harvard graduates this week will hear from two high-profile leaders, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Thursday and Sunday. Ahead of the ceremonies, we look back at Commencement addresses from recent years.

“My philosophy is very simple. When you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, stand up, say something, and speak out.”

U.S. Rep. John Lewis

2018 The Civil Rights icon delivers a powerful message on the importance of truth, justice, and equality at a time when those values have come under assault.

Thank you so much for those kind words of introduction. I must tell you that I’m delighted, very pleased and really happy to be here. You look good! The weather is good, rain stayed away. I’m happy. It’s good to see each and every one of you. Fellows of Harvard University, members of the Board of Overseers, members of the alumni board, distinguished deans, guests, faculty and all of the students, all of the wonderful graduates, and madam president, thank you. Thank you for your leadership, thank you for getting in good trouble! Necessary trouble. To lead this great University.

I want to take just a moment to honor the tenure of a great leader, who, through her courage and vision, worked to lead this historic university to even higher heights. Madam president, thank you for being a friend, but more importantly, thank you for using your office to move Harvard toward a more all-inclusive institution. Somewhere along the way, you realized that the brilliant mind is not confined to one discipline or one way of thinking.

In fact, true genius sees connections and relationships across barriers, to build a new understanding of the world around us. Creating one Harvard is much like the work I dedicated my life to. Ever since as a young girl you wrote a letter to President Eisenhower as a little girl, you have been responding to the cry for human dignity that rings out in our world. You used your vision and your talent, you used the great resources of this university to respond to that call, and I thank you. Thank you for your contribution to human unity in our world.

Today I say to each and every one of you who graduated from this University, you must lead. You’re never too young to lead, you’re never too old to lead! We need your leadership now more than ever before. We need it! We must save our country! We must save it! We must save our democracy. There are forces in America today and around the world trying to take us to some other place. Our foremothers and forefathers brought us to this place. Maybe our foremothers and our forefathers all came to this great land in different ships but as the late great A. Philip Randolph said “we are all in the same boat now” and we must look out for each other and care for each other. You’re never too young or too old to lead! To speak up! Speak out! And get in good trouble, necessary trouble. You cannot afford to stand on the sidelines.

Another generation of young people and people not so young are inspired to get in the way. Students from Harvard, Dr. Cole, who I have been knowing for many years came to Mississippi, came to the South and gave everything you had. During the 63 young men that I knew, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwermer, and James Chaney gave their very lives while they were helping people to register to vote. The vote is precious. It’s almost sacred. It is the most powerful, nonviolent instrument or tool we have in a democratic society and we must use t if we fail to use it, we will lose it.

So during this election year, I urge you, I plead with you to do what you can to save and rescue America. To do what you can to save the planet! Save this spaceship we call earth and leave it a little cleaner, a little greener, and a little more peaceful. For generations yet unborn. We have a mission and a mandate to go out there, play a role and play it so well as Dr. King would say, that no one else can play it any better. Some of you have heard me say from time to time that I grew up in rural Alabama on a farm, picking cotton, gathering peanuts, gathering corn. Sometimes I would be out there working and my mother would say, “boy, you’re falling behind! You need to catch up.” And I would say “this is hard work.” And she said “hard work never killed anybody.” And I said “well it’s about to kill me!” We need to work hard! There is work to be done. These smart graduates will lead us. High school students lead us, and guys, I say to you, if you’re not mindful, the women are going to lead us! It is my belief, it is my feeling as a traveler of America that the women and young. People, high school students, elementary school students and College students will lead us as part of a nonviolent revolution. We will create an America that is better, a little more humane and no one, but no one can deny us of that.

I just want to say one or two words to the graduates. Take a deep breath and take it all in. But tomorrow, I hope you roll up your sleeves, because the world is waiting for talented men and women to lead it to a better place. During the 60s, people literally put their bodies on the line! Many came from this University, came from Cambridge, from Boston, throughout the state and throughout America. Just think a few short years ago that Black people and white people couldn’t be seated together on a Greyhound business or trailway bus, leaving Washington, D.C., to travel through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. We were on our way to New Orleans to test a decision of the United States Supreme Court. We were beaten, arrested, and more than 400 of us were jailed. My seatmate was a young white gentleman from Connecticut. We arrived in a small town in South Carolina. We were beaten, left bloody. But many years later, and this was May 1961, same year that Barack Obama was born, but many years later, one of the guys that beat us came to my office in Washington. He got information from a local reporter. He was in his 70s, his son came with him in his 40s. He said, “Mr. Lewis, I’m one of the people that beat you. Beat your seatmate. I’ve been a member of the Klan.” He said “will you forgive me? I want to apologize. Will you accept my apology? Will you forgive me?” His son started crying, he started crying and I said, “I forgive you. I accept your apology.” They hugged me, I hugged them back, and I cried with them. It is the power of the way of peace, the power of love, it is the power of the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. We need to create a society where we can be reconciled and lay down the burden of hath for hate is too heavy of a burden to bear.

Fifty years ago the man that I admired, the man that was like a brother, Martin Luther King Jr., was taken from us. When we heard that Dr. King had been assassinated I was in Indianapolis, Indiana, campaigning with Bobby Kennedy. I cried. Stopped crying and I said to myself “we still have bobby.” Two months later Bobby Kennedy was gone. And I cried some more. Today we’ve got to get rid of our are tears and not be down. And not get lost in the sea of despair. We’ve got to be hopeful and keep the faith and turn the ship around. We can do it and we must do it!

Here at Harvard you’ve been well trained. You must lead. You must get out there and as Dr. King would say, be a headlight, not a taillight! It’s your time, it’s your calling. During the 60s I got arrested a few times, 40 times! And since I’ve been in Congress another five times! And I’m probably going to get arrested again! My philosophy is very simple, when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, stand up! Say something! Speak up and speak out!

When I was growing up as a young boy in rural Alabama, 50 miles from Montgomery, I had an aunt by the name of Seneva and my aunt lived in a shotgun house. Here at Harvard you never seen a shotgun house, you don’t even know what I’m talking about. One way in, one way out. What is a shotgun house? Old house, dirt yard. Sometimes my aunt Seneva would go out on the weekend, Friday or Saturday, and take a brush broom made from dogwood branches and sweep the yard very clean. One Saturday afternoon few of my brothers and sisters, cousins, about 15 of us young children were playing in her dirt yard. And an unbelievable storm came up. The wind started blowing, the thunder started rolling and the lightning started flashing and she told us to come in. We went in. The wind continued to blow, the thunder continued to roll, the lightning continued to flash, and the rain continued to beat on this old tin roof of the shotgun house. And we cried and cried. And in one corner of the old house appeared to be lifting up. And my aunt walked over to that side to hold the house down with her body. When the other corner appeared to be lifting she had us walk to that corner, we were children walking with the wind, but we never, ever left the house! I say to each of you, each and every one of us, the wind may blow, the thunder may roll, the lightning may flash, and the rain may beat down on an old house. Call it a house of Harvard, call it a house of Cambridge, call it a house of Boston, call it the house of Washington, or Alabama or Georgia, we all live in the same house. We all must hold our little house down. So I say to you: Walk with the wind. Let the spirit of history be your guide.

Thank you very much.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

J.K. Rowling

2008 Drawing from her own life story, the “Harry Potter” author urges graduates not to fear failure but to learn from it and emphasized the power of empathy and imagination.

Read the speech.

“If we break down the walls that hem us in, if we step out into the open and have the courage to embrace new beginnings, everything is possible.”

Angela Merkel

2019 Like the Berlin Wall, “anything that seems set in stone or inalterable can indeed change,” Germany’s first woman chancellor said.

Herman Hesse wrote, “In all beginnings dwells a magic force for guarding us and helping us to live.” These words by Herman Hesse inspired me when I completed my physics degree at the age of 24. That was back in 1978. The world was divided into east and west, and it was in the grips of the Cold War. I grew up in East Germany, in the GDR, the part of my country which was not free at that time, in a dictatorship. People were oppressed and under state surveillance. Political dissidents were persecuted. The East German government was afraid that the people would flee to freedom. And that’s why it built the Berlin Wall, a wall made of concrete and steel. Anyone caught trying to overcome it was arrested or shot dead. This wall, which cut Berlin in half, divided a people and it divided families. My family was also divided.My first job after college was as a physicist at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin. I lived near the Berlin Wall. I walked towards it every day on my way home from my institute. Behind it lay West Berlin, freedom. And every day, when I was very close to the wall, I had to turn away at the last minute in order to head towards my apartment. Every day, I had to turn away from freedom at the last minute. I don’t know how often I thought that I just couldn’t take it anymore. It was so frustrating.

Now, I was not a dissident. I didn’t run up and bang against the wall. Nor, however, did I deny its existence, for I didn’t want to lie to myself. The Berlin Wall limited my opportunities. It quite literally stood in my way. However, there was one thing which this wall couldn’t do during all those years. It couldn’t impose limits on my inner thoughts. My personality, my imagination, my dreams and desires, prohibitions or coercion couldn’t limit any of that. Then came 1989. A common desire for freedom unleashed incredible forces throughout Europe. In Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, as well as in East Germany, hundreds of thousands of people dared to take to the streets. The people demonstrated and brought down the wall. Something which many people, including myself, would not have believed possible became reality. Where there was once only a dark wall, a door suddenly opened. For me, too, the moment had come to walk through that door. I no longer had to turn away from freedom at the last minute. I was able to cross this border and venture out into the great wide open.

During these months, 30 years ago, I experienced firsthand that nothing has to stay the way it is. This experience, dear graduates, is the first thought I want to share with you today for your future. Anything that seems to be set in stone or inalterable can, indeed, change. In matters both large and small, it holds true that every change begins in the mind. My parents’ generation discovered this in a most painful way. My father and mother were born in 1926 and 1928.

When they weren’t as old as most of you here today, the betrayal of all civilized well values that was the Shoah and World War II had just ended. My country, Germany, had brought unimaginable suffering on Europe and the world. The victors and the defeated could easily have remained irreconcilable for many years, but instead, Europe overcame centuries old conflicts. A peaceful order based on common values rather than suppose at national strength emerged. Despite all the discussions and temporary setbacks, I firmly believe that we Europeans have United for the better. And the relationship between Germans and Americans, too, demonstrates how former wartime enemies can become friends.

It was George Marshall who gave a crucial contribution to this for the plan he announced at the commencement ceremonies in 1947 in this very place. The transatlantic partnership based on values, such as democracy and human rights, has given us an era of peace and prosperity of benefit to all sides, which has lasted for more than 70 years now. And today, it will not be long now before the politicians of my generation are no longer the subject of the exercising leadership program, and at most will be dealt with in leadership in history. Harvard class of 2019, your generation will be faced with the challenges of the 21st century in the coming decades. You are among those who will lead us into the future.

Protectionism and trade conflicts, jeopardize free international trade, and thus the very foundations of our prosperity. The digital transformation affects all facets of our lives, wars and terrorism lead to displacement and forced migration, climate change poses a threat to our planet’s natural resources, it and the resulting crises are caused by humans. Therefore, we can and must do everything humanly possible to truly master this challenge to humankind. It’s still possible. However, each and every one of us must play our part. And I say this with a measure of self criticism, get better. I will therefore do everything in my power to ensure that Germany, my country, will achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Changes for the better are possible if we tackle them together. If we were to go it alone, we could not achieve much. The second thought I want to share with you is therefore, more than ever our way of thinking and our actions have to be multilateral rather than unilateral, global rather than national, outward looking rather than isolationists. In short, we have to work together rather than alone.

You, dear graduates, will have quite different opportunities to do this in future than my generation did. After all, your smartphone probably has considerably more processing power than the copy of an IBM mainframe computer manufactured in the Soviet Union, which I was allowed to use for my dissertation in East Germany in 1986.

Today we use artificial intelligence, for example, to search through millions of images for symptoms of diseases.In order, among other things, to better diagnose cancer. In future, empathetic robots could help doctors and nurses to focus on the individual needs of patients. We cannot predict today which applications will be possible. However, the opportunities it brings are truly breathtaking.

Class of 2019, how we use these opportunities will be largely up to you as graduates. You are the ones who will be involved in deciding how our approach to how we work, communicate, get about, indeed, our entire way of life will develop. As federal chancellor, I often have to ask myself, “Am I doing the right thing?” “Am I doing something? Because it isn’t right? Or simply because it is possible.” That is something you two need to keep asking yourselves. And that is the third thought I wish to share with you today.

Are we laying down the rules for technology or is technology dictating how we interact? Do we prioritize people as individuals with their human dignity and all their many facets? Or do we see in them merely consumers, data sources, objects of surveyance. These are difficult questions.

I have learned that we can find good answers even to difficult questions if we always try to view the world through the eyes of others. If we respect other people’s history, traditions, religion, and identity. If we hold fast to our inalienable values and act in accordance with them. And if we don’t always act on our first impulses, even when there is pressure to make a snap decision.

But instead take a moment to stop. Be still. Think. Pause. Granted, that certainly takes courage. Above all it calls for truthfulness in our attitude towards others. And perhaps most importantly, it calls for us to be honest with ourselves.

What better place to begin to do so than here, in this place, where so many young people from all over the world come to learn, research, and discuss the issues of our time under the maxim of truth. That requires us not to describe lies as truth and truth as lies. It requires us not to accept shortcomings as our normality. Yet what, dear graduates, could stop you? What could stop us from doing that?

Once again, the answer is walls.

Walls in people’s minds. Walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They exist between family members, as well as between groups within the society, between people of different skin colors, nations, and religions. I would like us to break down these walls. Walls that keep preventing us from envisioning the world in which, together, we want to live.

Whether we manage to do that is up to us. That’s why my full thought for you, dear graduates, to consider is this. Nothing can be taken for granted. Our individual liberties are not givens. Democracy is not something we can take for granted. Neither is peace and neither is prosperity.

But if we break down… If we break down the walls that hem us in, if we step out into the open and have the courage to embrace new beginnings, everything is possible. Walls can collapse. Dictatorships can disappear. We can halt global warming. We can eradicate starvation. We can eliminate diseases. We can give people, especially girls, access to education. We can fight the causes of displacement and forced migration. We can do all of that. Let’s not start by asking what isn’t possible, or focusing on what has always been that way. Let’s start by asking what is possible and looking for things that have never been done like that before. This is exactly what I said to the Bundestag, the German Parliament, in 2005 in my first policy statement as newly elected Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and the first woman to hold this office. I want to use precisely these words to share with you my fifth thought. Let us surprise ourselves by showing what is possible. Let us surprise ourselves by showing what we are capable of. In my own life, it was the fall of the Berlin Wall that allowed me almost 30 years ago to step out into the open. At that point, I left my work as a scientist behind me and entered politics. That was an exciting and magical time, just as your lives will be exciting and magical.

I also experienced moments of doubt and worry, for at that time, we all knew what lay behind us, but not what might lie ahead. Perhaps that reflects a little how you, too, are feeling today, amidst all the joy of this occasion.

The six thought I also want to share with you is this. The moment when you step out into the open is also a moment of risk-taking. Letting go of the old is part of a new beginning. There is no beginning without an end, no day without night, no life without death. Our whole life consists of the difference, the space between beginning and ending.

It is what lies in between that we call life and experience. I believe at time and time again, we need to be prepared to keep bringing things to an end in order to feel the magic of new beginnings and to make the most of opportunities. That was what I learned as a student, and it is what I now in politics. Who knows what life will bring after my time as a politician? That, too, is completely open. Only one thing is clear. It will again be something different and something new.

That’s why I want to leave this wish with you. Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow mindedness for nothing has to stay as it is.

It’s six things. Take joint action in the interest of the moderate lateral global world. Keep asking yourselves, “Am I doing something because it is right, or simply because it’s possible?” Don’t forget that freedom is never something that can be taken for granted. Surprise yourself with what is possible. Remember that openness always involves risks. Letting go of the old is part of the new beginning. Above all, nothing can be taken for granted. Everything is possible. Thank you.

“In a two-hour movie, you get a handful of character-defining moments, but in real life, you face them every day. Life is one strong, long string of character-defining moments.”

Steven Spielberg

2016 Don’t shy away from the world’s pain, the filmmaker urged grads. Instead, examine it, challenge it and, while you’re at it, find “a villain to vanquish.”

Thank you, thank you, President Faust, and Paul Choi, thank you so much.

It’s an honor and a thrill to address this group of distinguished alumni and supportive friends and kvelling parents. We’ve all gathered to share in the joy of this day, so please join me in congratulating Harvard’s Class of 2016.

I can remember my own college graduation, which is easy, since it was only 14 years ago. How many of you took 37 years to graduate? Because, like most of you, I began college in my teens, but sophomore year, I was offered my dream job at Universal Studios, so I dropped out. I told my parents if my movie career didn’t go well, I’d re-enroll. It went all right.But eventually, I returned for one big reason. Most people go to college for an education, and some go for their parents, but I went for my kids. I’m the father of seven, and I kept insisting on the importance of going to college, but I hadn’t walked the walk. So, in my fifties, I re-enrolled at Cal State — Long Beach, and I earned my degree.I just have to add: It helped that they gave me course credit in paleontology for the work I did on Jurassic Park. That’s three units for Jurassic Park, thank you. Well I left college because I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and some of you know, too — but some of you don’t. Or maybe you thought you knew but are now questioning that choice. Maybe you’re sitting there trying to figure out how to tell your parents that you want to be a doctor and not a comedy writer.

Well, what you choose to do next is what we call in the movies the “character-defining moment.” Now, these are moments you’re very familiar with, like in the last “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” when Rey realizes the force is with her. Or Indiana Jones choosing mission over fear by jumping over a pile of snakes. Now in a two-hour movie, you get a handful of character-defining moments, but in real life, you face them every day. Life is one strong, long string of character-defining moments. And I was lucky that at 18 I knew what I exactly wanted to do. But I didn’t know who I was. How could I? And how could any of us? Because for the first 25 years of our lives, we are trained to listen to voices that are not our own. Parents and professors fill our heads with wisdom and information, and then employers and mentors take their place and explain how this world really works. And usually these voices of authority make sense, but sometimes, doubt starts to creep into our heads and into our hearts. And even when we think, “that’s not quite how I see the world,” it’s kind of easier to just to nod in agreement and go along, and for a while, I let that going along define my character. Because I was repressing my own point of view, because like in that Nilsson song, “Everybody was talkin’ at me, so I couldn’t hear the echoes of my mind.” And at first, the internal voice I needed to listen to was hardly audible, and it was hardly noticeable — kind of like me in high school.

But then I started paying more attention, and my intuition kicked in. And I want to be clear that your intuition is different from your conscience. They work in tandem, but here’s the distinction: Your conscience shouts, “here’s what you should do,” while your intuition whispers, “here’s what you could do.” Listen to that voice that tells you what you could do. Nothing will define your character more than that. Because once I turned to my intuition, and I tuned into it, certain projects began to pull me into them, and others, I turned away from. And up until the 1980s, my movies were mostly, I guess what you could call “escapist.” And I don’t dismiss any of these movies — not even 1941. Not even that one. And many of these early films reflected the values that I cared deeply about, and I still do. But I was in a celluloid bubble, because I’d cut my education short, my worldview was limited to what I could dream up in my head, not what the world could teach me.

But then I directed “The Color Purple.” And this one film opened my eyes to experiences that I never could have imagined, and yet were all too real. This story was filled with deep pain and deeper truths, like when Shug Avery says, “Everything wants to be loved.” My gut, which was my intuition, told me that more people needed to meet these characters and experience these truths. And while making that film, I realized that a movie could also be a mission. I hope all of you find that sense of mission. Don’t turn away from what’s painful. Examine it. Challenge it. My job is to create a world that lasts two hours. Your job is to create a world that lasts forever. You are the future innovators, motivators, leaders and caretakers. And the way you create a better future is by studying the past.

“Jurassic Park” writer Michael Crichton, who graduated from both this college and this medical school, liked to quote a favorite professor of his who said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree. So history majors: Good choice, you’re in great shape…Not in the job market, but culturally. The rest of us have to make a little effort. Social media that we’re inundated and swarmed with is about the here and now. But I’ve been fighting and fighting inside my own family to get all my kids to look behind them, to look at what already has happened. Because to understand who they are is to understand who we were, and who their grandparents were, and then, what this country was like when they emigrated here. We are a nation of immigrants at least for now.

So to me, this means we all have to tell our own stories. We have so many stories to tell. Talk to your parents and your grandparents, if you can, and ask them about their stories. And I promise you, like I have promised my kids, you will not be bored. And that’s why I so often make movies based on real-life events. I look to history not to be didactic, cause that’s just a bonus, but I look because the past is filled with the greatest stories that have ever been told. Heroes and villains are not literary constructs, but they’re at the heart of all history.

And again, this is why it’s so important to listen to your internal whisper. It’s the same one that compelled Abraham Lincoln and Oskar Schindler to make the correct moral choices. In your defining moments, do not let your morals be swayed by convenience or expediency. Sticking to your character requires a lot of courage. And to be courageous, you’re going to need a lot of support.And if you’re lucky, you have parents like mine. I consider my mom my lucky charm. And when I was 12 years old, my father handed me a movie camera, the tool that allowed me to make sense of this world. And I am so grateful to him for that. And I am grateful that he’s here at Harvard, sitting right down there. My dad is 99 years old, which means he’s only one year younger than Widener Library. But unlike Widener, he’s had zero cosmetic work. And dad, there’s a lady behind you, also 99, and I’ll introduce you after this is over, okay? But look, if your family’s not always available, there’s backup. Near the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” — you remember that movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”? Clarence the Angel inscribes a book with this: “No man is a failure who has friends.” And I hope you hang on to the friendships you’ve made here at Harvard. And among your friends, I hope you find someone you want to share your life with.

I imagine some of you in this yard may be a tad cynical, but I want to be unapologetically sentimental. I spoke about the importance of intuition and how there’s no greater voice to follow. That is, until you meet the love of your life. And this is what happened when I met and married Kate, and that became the greatest character-defining moment of my life.Love, support, courage, intuition. All of these things are in your hero’s quiver, but still, a hero needs one more thing: A hero needs a villain to vanquish. And you’re all in luck. This world is full of monsters. And there’s racism, homophobia, ethnic hatred, class hatred, there’s political hatred, and there’s religious hatred.As a kid, I was bullied — for being Jewish. This was upsetting, but compared to what my parents and grandparents had faced, it felt tame. Because we truly believed that anti-Semitism was fading. And we were wrong. Over the last two years, nearly 20,000 Jews have left Europe to find higher ground. And earlier this year, I was at the Israeli embassy when President Obama stated the sad truth. He said: “We must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it.”

My own desire to confront that reality compelled me to start, in 1994, the Shoah Foundation. And since then, we’ve spoken to over 53,000 Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 63 countries and taken all their video testimonies. And we’re now gathering testimonies from genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia and Nanking. Because we must never forget that the inconceivable doesn’t happen — it happens frequently. Atrocities are happening right now. And so we wonder not just, “When will this hatred end?” but, “How did it begin?”

Now, I don’t have to tell a crowd of Red Sox fans that we are wired for tribalism. But beyond rooting for the home team, tribalism has a much darker side. Instinctively and maybe even genetically, we divide the world into “us” and “them.” So the burning question must be: How do all of us together find the “we?” How do we do that? There’s still so much work to be done, and sometimes I feel the work hasn’t even begun. And it’s not just anti-Semitism that’s surging — Islamophobia’s on the rise, too. Because there’s no difference between anyone who is discriminated against, whether it’s the Muslims, or the Jews, or minorities on the border states, or the LGBT community — it is all big one hate.

And to me, and, I think, to all of you, the only answer to more hate is more humanity. We gotta repair — we have to replace fear with curiosity. “Us” and “them” — we’ll find the “we” by connecting with each other. And by believing that we’re members of the same tribe. And by feeling empathy for every soul — even Yalies.

My son graduated from Yale, thank you …

But make sure this empathy isn’t just something that you feel. Make it something you act upon. That means vote. Peaceably protest. Speak up for those who can’t and speak up for those who may be shouting but aren’t being hard. Let your conscience shout as loud as it wants if you’re using it in the service of others.

And as an example of action in service of others, you need to look no further than this Hollywood-worthy backdrop of Memorial Church. Its south wall bears the names of Harvard alumni — like President Faust has already mentioned — students and faculty members, who gave their lives in World War II. All told, 697 souls, who once tread the ground where stand now, were lost. And at a service in this church in late 1945, Harvard President James Conant — which President Faust also mentioned — honored the brave and called upon the community to “reflect the radiance of their deeds.”

Seventy years later, this message still holds true. Because their sacrifice is not a debt that can be repaid in a single generation. It must be repaid with every generation. Just as we must never forget the atrocities, we must never forget those who fought for freedom. So as you leave this college and head out into the world, continue please to ‘reflect the radiance of their deeds,’ or as Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan would say, “Earn this.”

And please stay connected. Please never lose eye contact. This may not be a lesson you want to hear from a person who creates media, but we are spending more time looking down at our devices than we are looking in each other’s eyes. So, forgive me, but let’s start right now. Everyone here, please find someone’s eyes to look into. Students, and alumni and you too, President Faust, all of you, turn to someone you don’t know or don’t know very well. They may be standing behind you, or a couple of rows ahead. Just let your eyes meet. That’s it. That emotion you’re feeling is our shared humanity mixed in with a little social discomfort.

But, if you remember nothing else from today, I hope you remember this moment of human connection. And I hope you all had a lot of that over the past four years. Because today you start down the path of becoming the generation on which the next generation stands. And I’ve imagined many possible futures in my films, but you will determine the actual future. And I hope that it’s filled with justice and peace.

And finally, I wish you all a true, Hollywood-style happy ending. I hope you outrun the T. rex, catch the criminal and for your parents’ sake, maybe every now and then, just like E.T.: Go home. Thank you.

“Facts and truth are matters of life and death. Misinformation, disinformation, delusions, and deceit can kill.”

Martin Baron

2020 “Imperfect though [it] may be” an independent press is key to ensuring that facts are presented and truth defended in society,” the Washington Post executive editor said.

Good morning from my home. Like you, I wish we were together on campus.There is so much now we can no longer take for granted. The air we breathe is first among them. So, those of us who are healthy have ample reason to be grateful. I am also grateful to Harvard and to President Bacow for inviting me to be with you. To the Harvard Class of 2020, congratulations. And congratulations to the parents, professors, mentors and friends who helped you along the way. Joining you for graduation is a high honor.

For me, this is an opportunity – an opportunity to speak about subjects that I believe are of real urgency. Especially now during a worldwide health emergency.

I would like to discuss with you the need for a commitment to facts and to truth. Only a few months ago, I would have settled for emphasizing that our democracy depends on facts and truth. And it surely does. But now, as we can plainly see, it is more elemental than that.

Facts and truth are matters of life and death. Misinformation, disinformation, delusions and deceit can kill. Here is what can move us forward: Science and medicine. Study and knowledge. Expertise and reason. In other words, fact and truth. I want to tell you why free expression by all of us and an independent press, imperfect though we may be, is essential to getting at the truth. And why we must hold government to account. And hold other powerful interests to account as well.When I began thinking about these remarks, I expected, of course, to be on Harvard’s campus. And I thought: Not a bad place to talk about a free press. Not a bad place to talk about our often-testy relationship with official power.

It was in Boston, after all, where the first newspaper of the American colonies was founded. Its first edition was published September 25th, 1690. The very next day, the governor and council of Massachusetts shut it down. So, the press of this country has long known what it means to face a government that aims to silence it. Fortunately, there has been progress. With the First Amendment, James Madison championed the right of “freely examining public characters and measures.”

But it took a very long time before we as a nation fully absorbed what Madison was talking about. We took many ominous turns. We had the Alien and Sedition acts under John Adams, the Sedition and Espionage Acts under Woodrow Wilson, the McCarthy era. It was not always clear where we as a nation would end up.

Finally, witnessing the authoritarianism of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, we began to secure a free press in this country. The Supreme Court would forcefully emphasize the press’ role in guaranteeing a democracy. Justice Hugo Black said it well decades later: “The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” Not only the secrets of government, I would add. Our duty to inform the public does not stop there. Not by a long shot.

That was evident during my years as a journalist in Boston. Amid today’s crisis, it seems like another era. And I guess it is. But I want to tell you about it — because I think it remains instructive about what a strong, independent press must do.

I started as editor of the Boston Globe in the summer of 2001. One day prior to my start date, a Globe columnist wrote about a shocking case. A priest had been accused of abusing as many as 80 kids. A lawsuit alleged that the cardinal in Boston at the time knew about the serial abuse, didn’t do anything about it — and repeatedly reassigned this priest from parish to parish, warning no one, over decades. The Archdiocese called the accusations baseless and reckless. The Globe columnist wrote that the truth might never be known. Internal documents that might reveal it had been sealed by a judge. On my first day of work, we asked the question: How do we get at the truth? Because the public deserved to know.

That question led us to challenge the judge’s secrecy order. And our journalists launched an investigation of their own. In early 2002, we published what we had learned through reporting and by prevailing in court. We published the truth: The cardinal did know about the abuse by this priest. Yet he kept him in ministry, thus enabling further abuse. Dozens of clergy in the diocese had committed similar offenses. The cardinal had covered it all up.

And a bigger truth would emerge: Covering up such abuse had been practice and policy in the Church for decades. Only now the powerful were being held to account.

Late in 2002, after hundreds of stories on this subject, I received a letter from a Father Thomas P. Doyle. Father Doyle had struggled for years – in vain — to get the Church to confront the very issue we were writing about. He expressed deep gratitude for our work. “It is momentous,” he wrote, “and its good effects will reverberate for decades.” Father Doyle did not see journalists as the enemy. He saw us an ally when one was sorely needed. So did abuse survivors. I kept Father Doyle’s letter on my desk — a daily reminder of what journalists must do when we see evidence of wrongdoing.

Harvard’s commencement speaker two years ago, civil rights pioneer John Lewis, once said this: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” We as journalists have the capacity – along with the constitutional right — to say and do something. We also have the obligation. And we must have the will. So must you. Every one of you has a stake in this idea of free expression. You want to be free to express your views. You should be free to hear the views of others, the same or different. You want to be free to watch any movie. To read any book. To listen to any lyrics. You should be free to say what you know is true without threat of government reprisal.And you should acknowledge this if you value these freedoms that come with democracy: Democracy cannot exist without a free and independent press. It never has.

Leaders who crave more power for themselves always move quickly to crush an independent press. Next, they destroy free expression itself. Sadly, much of the world is on that worrisome path. And efforts in this country to demonize, delegitimize and dehumanize the press give license to other governments to do the same – and to do far worse.

By the end of last year, a near-record 250 journalists worldwide were sitting in prison. Thirty of them faced accusations of “false news,” a charge virtually unheard-of only seven years earlier.

Turkey has been trading places with China as No. 1 on the list of countries that jail the most journalists. The Turkish government has shut down more than 100 media outlets and charged many journalists as terrorists. Independent media have been largely extinguished. China, of course, imposes some of the world’s tightest censorship on what its citizens can see and hear.

In Hungary, the prime minister has waged war on independent media. Harvard Nieman fellow Andras Petho, who runs an investigative reporting center there, notes that the prime minister’s business allies are “taking over hundreds of outlets and turning them into propaganda machines.”

Like other heads of state, Hungary’s prime minister has exploited the pandemic to grab more power, suppress inconvenient facts, and escalate pressure on news outlets. A new law threatens up to five-year jail terms against those accused of spreading supposedly false information. Independent news outlets have questioned how the crisis was managed. And the fear now is that such accountability journalism will lead to harassment and arrests, as it has in other countries.

In the Philippines, the courageous Maria Ressa, who founded the country’s largest online-only news site, has been battling government harassment for years on other fronts. She now faces prosecution on bogus charges of violating foreign ownership laws. By the end of last year, she had posted bail eight times. Her real violation? She brought scrutiny to the president. In Myanmar, two Reuters journalists — Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – were imprisoned for more than 500 days for investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys. Finally, a year ago, they were released. In 2018, an opinion writer for The Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi, walked into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to get documents he needed to marry. He was murdered there at the hands of a team sent by highest-level Saudi officials. His offense? He had sharply criticized the Saudi government. In Mexico, murderous vengeance against journalists is common. Last year, at least five were killed, more than in any other country. I think also of the risks that American journalists have taken to inform the public. Among them are colleagues I can never forget.

One is Elizabeth Neuffer. Seventeen years ago this month, I stood before her friends at the Boston Globe to report that she had died covering the war in Iraq. Elizabeth was 46, an experienced foreign correspondent, a mentor to others; vivacious and brave. Her Iraqi driver was traveling at high speed because of the risk of abductions. He lost control. Elizabeth died instantly; her translator, too. Elizabeth had a record of fearlessness in investigating war crimes and human rights abuses. Her goal: Reveal the world as it is — because someone might then make things better.

Another colleague was Anthony Shadid. In 2002, I visited Anthony, then a reporter for the Globe, after he was shot and wounded in Ramallah. Lying in a hospital in Jerusalem, it was clear that he had narrowly escaped being paralyzed. Anthony recovered and went on to report from Iraq, where he won two Pulitzer Prizes for The Washington Post. From Egypt, where he was harassed by police. From Libya, where he and three New York Times colleagues were detained by pro-government militias and physically abused. He died in 2012, at age 43, while reporting in Syria, apparently of an asthma attack. Anthony told the stories of ordinary people. Without him, their voices would have gone unheard.

And now I think constantly of reporters, photographers and videographers who risk their own well-being to be with heroic frontline health workers — frontline workers of every sort – to share their stories. Anthony, Elizabeth and my present-day colleagues sought to be eyewitnesses. To see the facts for themselves. To discover the truth and tell it. As a profession, we maintain there is such a thing as fact, there is such a thing as truth.

At Harvard, where the school’s motto is “Veritas,” presumably you do, too. Truth, we know, is not a matter of who wields power or who speaks loudest. It has nothing to do with who benefits or what is most popular. And ever since the Enlightenment, modern society has rejected the idea that truth derives from any single authority on Earth.

To determine what is factual and true, we rely on certain building blocks. Start with education. Then there is expertise. And experience. And, above all, we rely on evidence. We see that acutely now when people’s health can be jeopardized by false claims, wishful thinking and invented realities. The public’s safety requires the honest truth. Yet education, expertise, experience and evidence are being devalued, dismissed and denied. The goal is clear: to undermine the very idea of objective fact, all in pursuit of political gain. Along with that is a systematic effort to disqualify traditional independent arbiters of fact. The press tops the list of targets. But others populate the list, too: courts, historians, even scientists and medical professionals – subject-matter experts of every type.

And so today the government’s leading scientists find their motives questioned, their qualifications mocked — despite a lifetime of dedication and achievement that has made us all safer. In any democracy, we want vigorous debate about our challenges and the correct policies. But what becomes of democracy if we cannot agree on a common set of facts, if we can’t agree on what even constitutes a fact? Are we headed for extreme tribalism, believing only what our ideological soulmates say? Or do we become so cynical that we think everyone always lies for selfish reasons? Or so nihilistic that we conclude no one can ever really know what is true or false; so, no use trying to find out? Regardless, we risk entering dangerous territory. Hannah Arendt, in 1951, wrote of this in her first major work, “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” There, she observed “the possibility that gigantic lies and monstrous falsehoods can eventually be established as unquestioned facts … that the difference between truth and falsehood may cease to be objective and may become a mere matter of power and cleverness, of pressure and infinite repetition.”

One hundred years ago – in 1920 – a renowned journalist and leading thinker, Walter Lippmann, harbored similar worries. Lippmann, once a writer for the Harvard Crimson, warned of a society where people “cease to respond to truths, and respond simply to opinions … what somebody asserts, not what actually is.” Lippmann wrote those words because of concerns about the press itself. He saw our defects and hoped we might fix them, thus improving how information got to the public.

Ours is a profession that still has many flaws. We make mistakes of fact, and we make mistakes of judgment. We are at times overly impressed with what we know when much remains for us to learn. In making mistakes, we are like people in every other profession. And we, too, must be held accountable. What frequently gets lost, though, is the contribution of a free and independent press to our communities and our country — and to the truth.

I think back to the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when the Miami Herald showed how lax zoning, inspection and building codes had contributed to the massive destruction. Homes and lives are safer today as a result. In 2016, the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia exposed how opioids had flooded the state’s depressed communities, contributing to the highest death rates in the country. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana’s newspapers were indispensable sources of reliable information for residents. The Washington Post in 2007 revealed the shameful neglect and mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. Corrective action was immediate. The Associated Press in 2015 documented a slave trade behind our seafood supply. Two thousand slaves were freed as a result. The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017 exposed sexual predators in elite boardrooms. A movement of accountability for abuses against women took root. The New York Times in 1971 was the first to publish the Pentagon Papers, revealing a pattern of official deceit in a war that killed more than 58,000 Americans and countless others. The Washington Post broke open the Watergate scandal in 1972. That led ultimately to the president’s resignation.Those news organizations searched for the truth and told it, undeterred by pushback or pressure or vilification.Facing the truth can cause extreme discomfort. But history shows that we as a nation become better for that reckoning. It is in the spirit of the preamble to our Constitution: “to form a more perfect union.” Toward that end, it is an act of patriotism.

W.E.B. Du Bois, the great scholar and African American activist — and the first African American to graduate with a PhD from Harvard – cautioned against the falsification of events in relating our nation’s history. In 1935, distressed at how deceitfully America’s Reconstruction period was being taught, Du Bois assailed the propaganda of the era. “Nations reel and stagger on their way,” he wrote. “They make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth be ascertainable?”

At this university, you answer that question with your motto — “Veritas.” You seek the truth — with scholarship, teaching and dialogue – knowing that it really matters.My profession shares with you that mission — the always arduous, often tortuous and yet essential pursuit of truth. It is the demand that democracy makes upon us. It is the work we must do. We will keep at it. You should, too. None of us should ever stop.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for honoring me. Good luck to you all. And please, stay well.

“While the legacy of enslavement, racism, discrimination, and exclusion still influences so much of contemporary attitudes, we must never conclude that it is too late to overcome such a legacy. For it is never too late to do justice.”

Ruth J. Simmons

2021 The president of Prairie View A&M University and former president of Brown University and Smith College exhorted graduates to fight inequality and foster diversity and inclusion.

Share this article

Good day and congratulations to the Harvard University Class of 2021.

It is a singular honor to be invited to address you on this important milestone occasion. To all completing their studies today, I offer my best wishes as you undertake the next exciting phase of your lives. That you have succeeded so well during such a time as this is commendable and augurs well for the years to come when the world will rely greatly on your knowledge, your discernment, and your empathy for those less fortunate than you.

When first approached about delivering this Commencement address, I was, frankly, taken aback. I did not immediately feel up to the task. Recalling occasions when I sat in Tercentenary Theatre looking across the expanse of graduates to the steps of Widener Library, I could not picture myself confidently delivering remarks from a dais where so many more eminent figures had stood and, indeed, made history. Growing up on a constant Jim Crow diet that offered assertions of my inferiority, I’m always that same little Black girl trying to believe in and demonstrate her worthiness. Further, I thought about the challenge of what I might impart in such a pivotal national moment when social gains seem more like losses, when clarity gives way so easily to confusion, and when much heralded progress recedes like a trompe l’oeil that was never real.

I extend greetings from the faculty, administration and students of our 145 year old institution, Prairie View A&M University. And, though I have not been anointed to do so, I also bring greetings from the collection of Historically Black and Minority Serving institutions that have the weight and privilege of advancing access, equity and opportunity for so many communities across the world. Our university, like many others HBCUs, was founded at the end of Reconstruction when Blacks were thought to be unable to perform the highest level academic study. I speak to you, in fact, from the Prairie View campus whose 1500 acres were once the site of the Alta Vista Plantation. That plantation, before being sold to the State of Texas, was the site where 400 human beings were held in slavery. Thus, our very steps as they daily tread upon vestiges of the suffering of our ancestors, call to us constantly to do our duty as full citizens. Painful as such memories are, they are a powerful force that calls us to action when challenges arise.

During the 145 years following our 1876 founding, it would take many years for most universities in our nation to grant access to Blacks. So, universities like Prairie View, designed with limited resources, served the state and nation by admitting students to whom full access to the fruits of liberty was intentionally blocked. We are therefore proud of our legacy of endurance and even prouder of the fact that we converted an assertion of the inferiority of African Americans into a triumph of human capacity. Like other HBCUs, we made a place to empower rather than disparage, to open minds rather than imprison them, to create pathways to promise rather than to stifle opportunity.

Such is the task of every true university. Those of you graduating today can well attest to that. When you first arrived at Harvard as undergraduate or post-graduate students, you most likely could not have imagined the many ways that your ability would be tested, your insights sharpened and expanded, and your prospects in life improved by studying at the University. I certainly didn’t expect such results when I arrived at Harvard and yet I know now that it is likely primarily because I studied at Harvard that I have had the deeply rich and satisfying career that I’ve enjoyed for so many years.

A product of a segregated upbringing in Houston and undergraduate study at an HBCU, I am ashamed to say that in my youth, I secretly bought into the prevailing racial assumptions of the day: that someone like me would be ill-prepared to benefit from and contribute to study at a university of Harvard’s stature. I expected to be flatfooted if not oafish in the company of well-heeled and urbane students who had the advantage of the best education and a wealth of experiences. While not outwardly immobilized by fear of failing the biggest test of my life, I was inwardly terrified that I would fail to measure up. Uncertainty and malaise governed my early days at the university.

Harvard was, you see, a place steeped in other peoples’ traditions—traditions that I could not easily access. My reaction was very much akin to the French expression denoting window shopping: “lécher les vitrines.” Those of us who are outsiders are often as mere observers looking through windows, salivating and wondering how we might ever be able to attain a sense of inclusion, acceptance and respect. Just as when, as a child, I was banned from white establishments, I identified as the outsider looking enviously at others who not only had full access to Harvard’s history and traditions but who also could so easily see themselves reflected in them. Few things that I could see at Harvard at the time represented me. Perhaps it is the memory of that feeling that moved me to remain in university life to make that experience easier for others who felt excluded.

The need to make universities more aware of how first generation and underserved communities reacted to the stultified tradition in many universities shaped my conviction about the importance of individuals feeling fully embraced and respected as learners, erasing vestiges of disparagement that inevitably accrue in an unequal society. Having been profiled and racially isolated and having carried within me for so many years the weight of that sentence, I understood that to change our country, we had to insist that everyone’s humanity, everyone’s traditions and history, everyone’s identity contributes to our learning about the world we must live in together. I came to believe what Harvard expressed in its admission philosophy: that such human differences, intentionally engaged in the educational context, are as much a resource to our intellectual growth as the magnificent tomes that we build libraries to protect and the state of the art equipment proudly arrayed in our laboratories. The encounter with difference rocks!

I believe that each of us has a solemn duty to learn about and embrace that difference. That undertaking takes not a month or a year but a lifetime of concerted action to ensure that we are equipped to play a role in caring for and improving the world we inhabit together. This responsibility should encourage us to commit to our individual as well as professional role in advancing access, equality and mutual respect.

Thus, I believe that the task of a great university is not merely to test the mettle and stamina of brilliant minds but to guide them toward enlightenment, enabling thereby the most fruitful and holistic use of their students’ intelligence and humanity. That enlightenment suggests the need for improving upon students’ self-knowledge but it also means helping them judge others fairly, using the full measure of their empathy and intelligence to do so. In an environment rich in differences of background, experience and perspectives, learning is turbo charged and intensified by the juxtaposition of these differences. Those open minded enough to benefit fully from the power of this learning opportunity are bound for leadership in this time of confusion and division. The Harvard model intentionally and successfully provides to students a head start in understanding how to mediate difference in an ever more complex reality in which some exploit those differences for corrupt purposes.

Today, irrational hatred of targeted groups is seemingly on the rise, stoked by opportunists seeking advantage for themselves and their profits. What stands between such malefactors and the destruction of our common purpose are people like you who, having experienced learning through difference, courageously stand up for the rights of those who are targeted. Your Harvard education, if you were paying close attention here, should have encouraged you to commit willingly to playing such a role. If you follow through on this commitment, in addition to anything else you accomplish in life, you will be saving lives, stanching the flow of hatred and the dissolution of our national bond. You will be serving the mighty cause of justice. If we are to thrive on this orb that we share, our schools and universities must contribute deliberately to increasing our understanding of the ways to interact meaningfully with others.

Harvard is, in some ways, the most powerful university bully pulpit in the nation. It did not achieve that status merely through its age and wealth; it attained that status principally through the efforts of its faculty and graduates’ scholarly and professional output. Through its gates have come generations of scholars with immense intelligence and passionate purpose to whom fate bequeathed the laurels of success. But it is important that universities model in their own values and actions the high purpose that they hope to see in the actions of their scholars.

In that vein, Harvard has a special responsibility as both a prod and steward of the national conscience. It could sit on the hill and congratulate itself on its prowess but it could also use its immense stature to address the widening gaps in how different groups experience freedom and justice. I spoke earlier about the heroic work of HBCUs and minority serving institutions that keep our country open and advancing the cause of equality and access. Yet, many of them have been starved for much of their history by the legacy of underfunding and isolation from the mainstream of higher education.

I call on universities like Harvard to acknowledge the limitations imposed on these institutions over the past decades. While universities like Harvard had the wind at their back, flourishing from endowments, strong enrollments, constant curricular expansion, massive infrastructure improvements, and significant endowment growth, HBCUs often had gale force winds impeding their development. Our nation is finally coming to terms with the consequences of the underfunding of HBCUs but we are far from where we need to be if we are to be assured continued progress in the fight for equal educational benefits.

I ask the university that did so much for me to add to its luster by embracing the opportunity to stand alongside these historic and other minority serving institutions to build stronger partnerships, advocate for greater funding, and elevate the fight for parity and justice to the level it deserves. Let us not complain in a hundred years that those historically excluded from access and opportunity continue to ask how much longer it will take to gain the respect, inclusion and support that their service to the nation deserves.

Many minority serving institutions accept students from impoverished underserved communities where educational preparation often lacks the pre-requisites needed for certain careers. Children in those communities may experience the same or a worse fate than I and my peers did during the pre-Civil Rights era. Consigned to underfunded schools and alienating curricula, they must wonder as I did what will befall them in life. ublic schools saved me and they have the burden still of saving millions of children across this land. In so very many cases, these institutions are the only hope for many children and their families. Support for public education in this moment is as important as it was in the early days of the country when Horace Mann first called for universal education. For Mann, it was a matter of what our young country would need; it still is today as Mann’s emphasis on civic virtue continues to ring true.

Further, in such a moment, universities and all of you must play a leadership role in reversing the designation of the teaching profession as less intellectually worthy, less glamorous, and less important than the high-flying careers of financiers and technologists. Attention to and investment in K-12 teacher preparation and curricular content remains one of the most important ways for universities and the average citizen to contribute to the civic good.

None of us is exempt from responsibility for the future we give our children. Harvard has its role and so do all of you. I have come to ask you who graduate today what you are prepared to do to acknowledge and address the historic biases and inequities that so many continue to experience. Will your actions point us in a more uplifting direction? For, just as we recount the moral bankruptcy of those who cruelly enslaved others, we also tell the story of those who were equally guilty because they refused to challenge the practice of slavery. In the future, the history of these times will reveal both what we do and what we fail to do to address the unjust treatment of marginalized groups. Among all that you will have learned at Harvard, I hope that the consciousness of your responsibility in the struggle for equality remains with you. While the legacy of enslavement, racism, discrimination and exclusion still influences so much of contemporary attitudes, we must never conclude that it is too late to overcome such a legacy. For it is never too late to do justice.

Today, I call on all of you to declare that you will not give sanction to discriminatory actions that hold some groups back to the advantage of others. I call on you to be a force for inclusion by not choosing enclaves of wealth, privilege and tribalism such that you abandon the lessons you learned from your Harvard experience of diversity. I call on you to do your part to ensure that generations to come will no longer be standing on the outside fighting for fairness, respect and inclusion.

Today, after decades in the academy, my path has taken me back to a place where students are waging the same battles that were so hard fought when I was a teenager: safe passage in the face of bigotry, the right to vote, and equal access to educational and professional opportunities. Sandra Bland, a Prairie View alumna, was stopped for a minor traffic offense at the entrance to our campus. Jailed for this offense, she was found deceased in her cell three days later. Must every generation add more tragic evidence of the racial hatred that has troubled the world? Our work is not done as long as there are young people growing up with the thought that they matter less than others. As long as they have fewer and narrower educational opportunities. As long as they must fear for their safety every moment of every day of their lives. As long as their full participation in society is circumscribed by policies that willfully chip away at or block their rights.

Just as I ask Harvard to use its voice on behalf of minority institutions that have been unfairly treated across time, I ask you to add your voice to the cause of justice wherever you go. Help the children of need wherever they are: in underfunded public schools, in neighborhoods bereft of resources, in search of a way to belong. If they do not hear your voices advocating for them and their worth, what must they conclude about their place in the world?

If you take up the cause of these children, you are taking up the greatest cause—that of justice. Today, you earn your laurels as a scholar. Taking up the cause of justice, you will earn your laurels as a human being.

Congratulations, once again, and God speed.

You might like

She worked for Pfizer in Turkey; he was neurosurgery resident in Canada. And graduation and wedding are not far off.

Nicholas Gonzalez was a child star who felt curiously at home in front of a jury box

Startup founders inspire global audience at 2024 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge Awards ceremony

How old is too old to run?

No such thing, specialist says — but when your body is trying to tell you something, listen

Alcohol is dangerous. So is ‘alcoholic.’

Researcher explains the human toll of language that makes addiction feel worse

Cease-fire will fail as long as Hamas exists, journalist says

Times opinion writer Bret Stephens also weighs in on campus unrest in final Middle East Dialogues event

100 Speech Topics For College Students

College won’t be complete without having to deliver a speech in front of the class. From social issues to current events, there are many topics to choose from when it comes to speech topics for college students. With the right topic, you can create an engaging and memorable speech.

Here are some speech topics for college students that can help you get started with your next presentation:

• The Importance of Mental Health and Self-Care on College Campuses
• How to Make the Most of Your College Experience
• Finding Your Passions and Pursuing Your Dreams in College
• The Benefits of Joining a Student Organization
• Networking for Success: Making Connections in College
• Overcoming the Fear of Failure in College
• Balancing Academics, Social Life, and Extracurricular Activities
• Time Management Strategies for College Students
• Exploring Options for Off-Campus Living
• Learning How to Budget and Manage Finances in College
• Self-Care Tips for College Students
• The Benefits of Studying Abroad
• Developing Healthy Study Habits
• Navigating the College Social Scene
• Preparing for Life after College
• Impact of Social Media on Communication and Relationships
• Role of Technology in Education and Its Potential to Revolutionize the Way We Learn
• Importance of Volunteering and Community Service for Personal and Professional Development
• Impact of Globalization on Cultural Identity
• Importance of Diversity and Inclusion on College Campuses
• Challenges and Rewards of Studying Abroad
• The Role of Activism in Creating Social Change
• The Impact of Climate Change and What Individuals Can Do to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint
• The Importance of Financial Literacy and Managing Money in College and Beyond
• Climate Change and Its Consequences
• The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the College Setting
• The Challenges and Benefits of Studying Abroad
• Importance of a College Education
• The Benefits of Building a Professional Network
• The Impact of Social Media on College Life
• How to Balance Education and Social Life on Campus
• Finding the Right Career Path for You
• The Benefits of Internships and Apprenticeships
• Exploring Your Personal Values and Beliefs
• Mindfulness and Mental Health
• The Pros and Cons of Student Loans
• The Impact of Student Debt on Future Generations
• Dealing With Stress and Anxiety in College
• Exploring Different Study Strategies and Techniques
• Exploring Different Career Paths After College
• The Benefits of Time Management and Organization
• Navigating the Job Market After Graduation
• The Benefits of Extracurricular Activities
• Preparing for Graduate School and Beyond
• Exploring Different Campus Resources
• The Impact of Globalization on Education
• Should College Be Free? Pros and Cons
• Different Types of Leadership Styles
• The Benefits of Networking and Mentoring
• The Challenges of Being a Student Leader
• Being A Top Student: Tips and Strategies
• How to Balance Your Social Life With Your Studies
• The Value of Quality Family Time
• The Benefits of Having a Supportive Family
• The Impact of Working Parents on Their Children’s Education
• Role of Family in Encouraging Academic Achievement
• How to Cope with Family Pressure During College Years
• Benefits of Having a Mentor in Your Family
• Role of Technology in Family Communication
• Impact of Financial Stress on Family Relationships
• Changing Dynamics of Family Roles in Society
• The Benefits of Having a Positive Relationship With Your Siblings
• The Challenges of Being a First-Generation College Student
• How to Minimize College Debt
• The Impact of College Debt on Your Future
• Managing College Debt: Strategies for Success
• Student Loans: How to Make the Best Use of Them
• Is College Debt Worth It?
• Understanding the Options for Repaying College Debt
• Overcoming Depression and Low Self-Esteem
• The Role of Positive Thinking in Mental Health
• The Benefits of Therapy for Students
• How to Recognize the Signs of Mental Illness
• The Role of a Support System for Mental Health
• The Impact of Stress on Mental Health
• How to Balance Academics with Social Life in College
• The Pros and Cons of Living on Campus
• How to Select a Major that is Right for You
• Understanding College-Level Expectations and Study Habits
• Living with Roommates: Tips for Peaceful Coexistence
• The Transition from High School to College
• How to Manage Time as a Busy College Student
• Navigating the College Financial Aid System
• How to Stay Safe on Campus
• Getting Involved in Campus Organizations
• The Advantages of Taking Online Courses
• Having Fun and Staying Healthy in College
• Making Friends and Developing Social Networks
• Adjusting to Life After Graduating from College
• Coping with Loneliness and Homesickness
• Dealing with Student Burnout
• Managing Time and Prioritizing Tasks
• Building Resilience and Handling Rejection
• Overcoming Procrastination
• Creating a Support System
• Having Difficult Conversations
• Making Healthy Choices
• Developing Self-Confidence
• Learning to Balance Work and Play
• Taking Responsibility for Your Education

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, college students have a wide variety of speech topics to choose from. Whether it’s a persuasive speech about a current event, an informative speech about a historical figure, or a humorous speech about an interesting topic, there is something for every student’s tastes. These speech topics give college students the opportunity to explore their interests, challenge their beliefs, and develop their communication skills.

Related Posts:

16 Best Graduation Speeches That Leave a Lasting Impression

By Kristi Kellogg and Noor Brara

Some of the most impactful and inspiring sentiments are shared during graduation speeches delivered by the leaders we look up to. Graduation speeches from celebrities , entrepreneurs, authors and other influential thinkers are motivational, inspiring, thought-provoking and just might make you reach for the nearest tissue. After four years of hard work, stress, and exhausting self-discovery, lucky graduates are privy to a life-changing speech to top it all off.

Here, we rounded up up 16 of the best graduation speeches of all time, including words of wisdom from Natalie Portman, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and more.

1. Steve Jobs: Stanford, 2005

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

2. Michelle Obama: Tuskegee University, 2015

"I've found that this journey has been incredibly freeing. Because no matter what happened, I had the piece of mind knowing that all of the chatter, the name-calling, the doubting...all of it was just noise. It did not define me, it didn't change who I was, and most importantly, it couldn't hold me back."

3. Natalie Portman: Harvard, 2015

"I just directed my first film. I was completely unprepared, but my own ignorance to my own limitations looked like confidence and got me into the director's chair. Once there, I had to figure it all out, and my belief that I could handle these things, contrary to all evidence of my ability to do so was half the battle. The other half was very hard work. The experience was the deepest and most meaningful one of my career."

4. Amy Poehler: Harvard University, 2011

By Donya Momenian

By Ilana Kaplan

By Ashleigh Carter

"What I have discovered is this: You can't do it alone … Listen. Say 'yes.' Live in the moment. Make sure you play with people who have your back. Make big choices early and often."

5. Meryl Streep: Barnard College, 2010

"This is your time and it feels normal to you but really there is no normal. There's only change, and resistance to it and then more change."

6. David Foster Wallace: Kenyon College, 2005

"Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master."

7. Barack Obama: Howard University, 2016

"You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I’ll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes."

8. Kerry Washington: George Washington University, 2013

"You and you alone are the only person who can live the life that can write the story that you were meant to tell."

9. Conan O'Brien: Dartmouth College, 2011

"There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. Today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality … Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen."

10. J.K. Rowling: Harvard, 2008

"I stopped pretending to be anything than what I was. My greatest fear had been realized. I had an old typewriter and a big idea. Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

11. Oprah Winfrey: Harvard University, 2013

"Learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are. And then figure out what is the next right move. And the key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S. that can tell you which way to go."

12. Joss Whedon: Wesleyan University, 2013

"You have, which is a rare thing, that ability and the responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself, to at least give it the floor, because it is the key—not only to consciousness–but to real growth. To accept duality is to earn identity. And identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is not just who you are. It is a process that you must be active in. It's not just parroting your parents or the thoughts of your learned teachers. It is now more than ever about understanding yourself so you can become yourself."

13. George Saunders: Syracuse University, 2013

"Do all the other things, the ambitious things … Travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop)—but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness."

14. Nora Ephron: Wellesley College, 1996

"Be the heroine of your life, not the victim."

15. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Wellesley College, 2015

"As you graduate, as you deal with your excitement and your doubts today, I urge you to try and create the world you want to live in. Minister to the world in a way that can change it. Minister radically in a real, active, practical, get your hands dirty way."

16. Admiral William H. McRaven: University of Texas at Austin, 2014

"If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right."

• The 8 Best Movie Graduations of All Time
• The Six Products You Need to Look Great in Your Graduation Pics
• 27 Movies You Need to See Before Graduation—No Excuses

By Emma Sarran Webster

By Lisa Stardust

My Speech Class

Public Speaking Tips & Speech Topics

212 Speech Topics For College Students [Persuasive, Informative, Impromptu]

Jim Peterson has over 20 years experience on speech writing. He wrote over 300 free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at My Speech Class.

In this article:

Informative

For higher education, thesis statement examples.

List of Speech Topics For College Students

• How Schools Should Improve the Quality of Teaching.
• Why You Should Apply For International Exchange Programs.
• What to Do About Low Self-esteem?
• What You Can Do to Cut Poverty Rates.
• Refurbish your old computer PC!
• Seat belts in school buses increase passenger safety.
• Qualitative consumer market research give fundamental insight.
• Professors should never be allowed to crush a student’s dream.
• It is important for students to find organisations to get involved in.
• Students should take time to go visit their family and friends back home.
• Setting goals is important.
• Students must not be afraid to ask questions.
• Students shouldn’t be afraid to challenge a professor if they disagree with something.
• A study now and party later attitude should be adapted.
• Contrary to popular belief college kids do want their parents to fuss.
• Every college student needs a mentor.
• College students should start applying for jobs before they leave college.
• Students should spend more time enjoying their campus.
• It is important to be able to cook and do washing before starting college.
• Students need to make dorm check lists.
• Students should form study groups.
• Students should do extra credit.
• Students shouldn’t drink or smoke just because they want to fit in.
• Every student sharing a dorm or apartment should get themselves earplugs.
• Changing a major isn’t the end of the world.
• Students should make time to work out.
• Getting a job on campus is beneficial to a student.
• Students should write down questions that they need to ask the college tour guide.
• To get a true sense of what a college is really like students should visit while it’s in session.
• It is important to have study time scheduled into your day. Study time should be scheduled into a students day.
• A student’s syllabus is a wonderful tool that should be used to its full potential.
• Students should not be embarrassed to go see a tutor if they are struggling.
• Rewriting notes is a good way of reviewing study material.
• Students need to take breaks to do things other than just studying.
• Students should treat themselves to something they like at the end of very demanding weeks.
• Students should make use of student discounts.
• Being well organise will help students to avoid stress.
• The internet is full of great resources that are beneficial to students.
• Students can volunteer their way into scholarship money.
• Students should attend all the orientations available to them.
• Finding an ideal place to study is important.
• Academic advisers are key resources for students.
• When students don’t get along with their advisers they should request another.
• It is important that students have a balanced life.
• Never make hasty decisions on what to major in.
• Students should not procrastinate.
• Homesickness will affect even the students who could not wait to leave home.
• Students need to set up a budget and stick to it.
• Professors want students who want to learn, participate and show commitment to learning.
• Having a conversation with a classmate during class is an insult to the professor.
• Students should dress appropriately to class.
• Students should never turn in work that doesn’t follow their professors guidelines.
• It’s a good move to sit towards the front of the classroom.
• There should be a system in place to minimise students from dropping out of college.
• To save money students should make use of campus amenities.
• College students will need flip-flops in the bathroom.
• Students should visit their college counselling centre at least once a week.
• Students should take advantage of all the free activities on campus.
• Getting caught doing illegal things will be very bad for any college record.
• Students should register for classes as early as possible.
• Getting a job during the first semester isn’t a good idea.
• Study groups should be kept small.
• Students living in dorms should wash their hands often.
• College demands 100% effort.
• Parents shouldn’t yell at kids who no longer get straight A’s like they did before attending college.
• Students need to carry condoms with them at all times.
• Pregnancy shouldn’t be the end of a student’s college dream.
• Students need to realise that most people’s social media posts are exaggerated.
• High levels of pressure can lead to suicide.
• Students should never be told they are failures, even when they have failed.
• Virtual classroom will take over in future.
• Students who were raised by over controlling parents will have a hard time dealing with all the changes once they start college.
• Convincing a student to stay in college is very important.
• Long distant relationships do not work.
• Students should marry someone with the same level of education.
• Believing that everyone will mature in college is a myth.
• Students should always back up their files.
• Roommates need to have a good talk when they are having issues.
• Applying for a summer orientation position for incoming students will be good for a student.
• There is no need for a car in campus.
• Keeping a journal is a great idea.
• Going to career fairs is a smart move.
• Students should not over commit themselves just to look good on their resumes.
• It is important that students check their emails often.
• Becoming a Resident Assistant is a good idea.
• Libraries are a cool place to study.
• Freshman 15 is a real thing.
• Students should be careful about whom they borrow things to.
• Credit cards are not a good idea for college students.
• Shy students should attend a public speaking class.
• Students should take small classes with professors that write recommendations.
• A student should write a thesis even if they don’t need to.
• Opportunities to study abroad should always be accepted.
• College students should not go home every weekend.
• Internships are overrated.
• Students should take advantage of free tutoring.
• Most college friendships are temporary.
• Undergraduation does not mean you are not qualified for a succesful career.
• The majority of graduate students struggle with emotional fatigue.
• Legalizing prostitution will avoid campus date rape incidents.
• It is important for college students to take a Sabbatical.
• Every graduation student should obtain foreign experience.
• An online spell checker isn’t enough for your research paper essay.
• Censorship is needed in college and high school drama productions.
• Why you must sign the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence.
• Persuade the government to pay the basic healthcare of students.
• Do undercover FBI agents belong on campus?

College speech topics to attain indirect clues about themes intended to apply in higher learning presentations by little or less effort on the road to a successful presentation.

• Award or graduation ceremonies revealed from the backstage.
• How to become a cheerleader and transcend yourself to indispensability.
• Chemistry experiments and scientific breaktroughs.
• Horse racing and betting procedures – compare odds bookmakers.
• My plans for the future after I have completed this year:
• How spy sunglasses and airport bodyscans can see through clothes.
• Diving expeditions to shipwrecks that are buried on the ocean sand floor.
• Famous painters and paintings from the Golden Century.
• Favourite movie characters which are voiced by actors.
• Why meet and greet Asian people politely.
• Dining etiquette you must know for all occasions.
• Digital multitrack music recording works to compose top hits.
• Impress people at first sight – the psychology behind that adagium.
• What would you do if you should have an unexpected week off?
• What would you like to know more about.
• What is your favourite career field, something that make all the difference?
• Clothing styles and name brands for prom nights.
• Famous fashion or sports apparel designers – as seen on tennis tv shows.
• Your worst campus activities in the days your are off.
• Mountain biking is fun and earth-friendly they say, it is risky too.
• How I earn money with … (fill in a not ordinary student job)
• Enhance campus life in dorm rooms by nice pranks.
• Fashion trends this spring and summer, autumn and winter.
• Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle revealed.
• The hip-hop lifestyle is a no-life style.
• Dangers of a cyber relationship on shady late night moments.
• Start your own internet broadcast program in three steps.
• How to impress people at first sight.
• Ways to enhance campus life.
• The causes of the American civil war.
• How i prepared my trip to Europe.
• The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
• The Wonders of the Medieval World.
• The Natural Wonders of the World.
• The Wonders of the Modern Word.
• The Vikings Boats – The fighting fleet of prehistoric Scandinavia.
• The Samurai Warriors – Story of the Japanese military nobility.
• Bermuda Triangle – The haunted southeastern Atlantic coast area.
• Harry Houdini – The Great Illusionist and Magician.
• The most famous cities of the Maya culture.
• What are bar and bat Mitzvah.
• The travels of Marco Polo.
• What is an ISBN number and how it works.
• What is an eclipse.
• The secrets of crop circles.
• Yoga for beginners.
• 5 dangers of cyber relationships.
• The world’s time zones.
• How photosynthesis works in plants.
• Special tricks to remain focused during lectures.
• Sanction for students that are caught cheating around the world.
• Summer jobs for students.
• How our graduate system compares to other countries.
• Check list for leadership of student council members
• Graduation party ideas to impress your guests.

College speech topic inventory of logical action sequences for higher education students. All are broad and should be narrowed for a classroom speech. For example, Safe Sunbathing can be narrowed to persuasion on your personal tips on how to enjoy the sun safely on holidays.

Another sample: Homesickness. E.g. describe what it is, how it feels, what forms exist and what you can do about it yourself or with help from professionals.

Most and for all, read the higher education assignment rules and requirements very, very carefully. Do not take issues everyone will consider as overused.

Choose the one you like. When in doubt: ask friends or your public speaking professor.

Can We Write Your Speech?

Get your audience blown away with help from a professional speechwriter. Free proofreading and copy-editing included.

• College education years are absolute not the best years of our life
• Coping with anxiety in life
• Dealing with loss and mourning grief
• Honesty in college really matters
• How to communicate effectively at our campus
• How to cope with an autistic person
• The international diplomatic circus
• My motto: Learn from the past, prepare the future, and live present
• Limiting the promotion of alcohol diminishes traffic casualties
• My goals for the student council election
• The pros or cons of organ donating
• Safe sunbathing is a must in sunshine states
• Sports football vs. soccer, or other sports for another college speech topic
• Studying alone or studying with a group of college students?
• Why skipping classes can isolate a student socially.
• Ten rules for achieving successes
• Cheesy pickup lines you should not stick on your vehicle
• Funny awards and their meanings
• High Tech industry job opportunities
• Homesickness is not pose
• How to boost confidence in public speaking
• Handling your drunken roommate
• How to stay in touch with old college mates
• Money problems – this is a very hot college speech idea 🙂
• Problem drinkers and the problems that occur
• Human services in health care
• The Free Speech Movement
• Time management skills are no luxury these days
• What I will do when I retire
• Why movies are popular, or take one special movie that’s in and make a presentation of it.

The inventory can be expanded to many more. Here are three methods for developing:

• Look in the education resources you have access to for surprising new bare facts and background data sheets.
• And categorize the information in easy to do step by step instructions and logical educational action sequences.
• Ask college classmates and peers for their opinions, thoughts, ideas and needs on the chochosenllege speech topic.

These informative speech topics for college students are not only nice for preparing the best public speaking speech, but also for essay writing, I have noticed.

Some students who provide me feedback and additional tips, wrote that they have successfully adapted these five samples for writing and essay or paper.

The suggested sub-points are given to spark your imagination,; expand or focus them till they fit the requirements of the educational assignment.

Impromptu speech topics for college in case your are required to speak in front of everyone out of the blue about specific issues ad-libbing as public speaking training:

Second, use my basic outline template. Print it and learn the simple structure by heart. No worries, it is really that simple 🙂

Do keep it simple. Especially when you have to speak for let’s say a minute of three to five. To put it roughly: one minute per main point often will do the trick! Rehearse your first line.

Rehearse your last line; that is your relevant call to action. See more of my basic checks for speaking off the cuff when you are invited to do so.

• Show the essence of a college sports scholarship.
• Present the reasons why international climate change mitigation strategies will fall short. Tip: each of those reasons could be good by themselves.
• Decide the value of a BA or Master degree.
• Show similarities and differences of good college essays.
• Distinguish the economic differences between the North and South.
• Give a judgment of the positive and negative effects of video games on kids.
• Make clear what the word quality means under certain circumstances.
• Provide the detailed features of your new iPhone. Or take an alternative gadget for similar impromptu speech topics for college.
• List and judge the for and against of anti-doping programs in sports.
• List the steps to help making an informed decision about a future professional career.
• The usefulness of your public speaking training abilities.
• Make clear how and why people get a burnout.
• What is a final salary scheme in calculating retirement pensions?
• The value of information provided through school libraries.
• Why intelligence services must apply forms of domestic spying.
• The effects of industrialization after the invention of the steam engine.
• Teen girls are getting very liberal with sexual favors, no that’s a false understatement.
• Be a critic of impromptu speech topics for college of your public speaking instructor suggests.
• Wrap up the last meeting of your campus community board; any decisions taken for example about sports scholarships improvements?
• The interesting process of genetic reproductive cloning, by which an animal is created with the same DNA as an existing animal.

Speech topics for college students formulated as ready to go public speaking education thesis statements.

Just alter the sentences in the way you like it and there you are: you have your own personal slides and sheets writings for stirring the fire up somewhat and start a function or action based on the classic rhetorica essentials and oral hints for a higher education auditor.

Safety considerations related to school buses which operate under the supervision of the transportation authority boards.

Methods family genealogists use to research history and how they interpret data in an annotative critical perseverance way.

These are also very usable for starting up the thinking process for example essay writing and researching projects

• Mass vaccination is a good public health strategy for protecting people in potential disaster regions against cholera. Or of course choose other diseases to get stringent in content speech topics if you study for gaining a degree in a specific area.
• The concerns raised by the refurbishing of old computer PCs and recycling other consumer electronics.
• Sedation could be a humanitarian solution for transporting acutely or critically ill patients and diminish safety risk issues on the way to hospital.
• How a financial planner can identify those estate planning issues that are most forthcoming to you, and how you can solve many of the financial problems encountered.
• I have also grouped and explained the famous travels of Marco Polo in three periods for vocal expressions if you like to orate on a great adventurer of centuries ago.
• Consumer market research is an inevitable instrument to collect exact or valuable haphazard speech topics for college students data before you sell any goods.
• How the seventeenth century judicial system of Checks and Balances is constituated in the US Constitution based on the hypothesis and theories of the father of the modern state structures, the honorable French politician Charles de Montesquieu.
• Persons who are following a 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grades course and who are gifted and talented should be provided with special education funds for high-achieving pupils, like the tropicana program for public speaking education.
• Common emotional problems with wills and trusts and ways to handle them adequately.
• There should be one uniform standard set of higher learning edu challenges in closing commencement rates with the same characteristics for similar bookworm populations.
• Employees have the responsibility to prevent sexual harassment, to response appropriate, and participate in misconduct investigations.
• The importance for college students, teachers, and instructors of improving social studies knowledge of controversial civic issues.
• You can distillate many college persuasive speech topics out of this topic for public speaking. Map out the food gap between developing and rich countries; the trends over time and how the United Nations Millenium Goal policy could cut poverty rates.
• The labor force population explained. The employed, unemployed and self-employed put into the context of the labor policy of our government. The problems, causes and possible solutions.
• How emerging India has become a serious international space competitive in the past years, and future topics related to India’s space race in the next decade.
• Why bilingual language education divides us Americans. Some persuasive speech topics for school to consider for public speaking students are: why every new citizen should learn both English and Spanish, or just another universal foreign language.
• Five ways to help the partially sighted or blind; visually impaired people in ordinairy life. Motivate your public speaking audience to act immediately!
• The National holidays other countries around the world celebrate with various names, traditions and cultures. Why do we have so much national holidays. Take some discutable ones and translate them into college persuasive speech topics.
• Husbands and wives should have the right to decide freely to have as many children as they can properly raise. The one-child policy in the People’s Republic of China is not acceptable for us in the Western Hemisphere? Or is it the only way to stop overpopulation?
• The goals of the science of Paleontology – what do students want to achieve with the studying of prehistoric life, olds stines and fossils. Are they sufficiently enough?
• Why we should help to prevent and to improve therapeutic treatment methods and extensive educational programs on stuttering. Do the existing methods work?
• The basics of risk management explained in detail – the determination, the prevention, and the control of dangers.
• Human body language is the one and only Cupido guide to success in dating; it reveals everything about her or him and of course about yourself.
• How to cut the expensive costs of dorm fees, books, food and transportation and have a good and relaxed campus life as well. Wow, these are real speech topics for college – it paves the path to many more supplements.
• Why a professional business and management liability insurance is not a luxury, but an essential need for each and every company.
• What every employee should know about earn gratuities and the related regulations and obligations under the Income Tax Act.
• Why we should buy an IPhone and why not – the pros and cons of the Apple invention explained for mobile phone dummies.
• Why so-called Pro Bono Lawyers are not philanthropically legal aid attorneys for charity. How they work on deductive premises – bring home the steps in the legal process – is an alternative option to work out.
• Human Papillomavirus and Chlamydia are the most common bacterial sexually transmitted diseases at college campuses and therefore actual public speaking speech topics for college students to deliver in class.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning or the silent assassin that can build up to dangerous levels while you are sleeping – describe the causes, the problems, the treatment and how it can be prevented.
• Stop the state and federal budget cuts to the deaf access programs and services for persons with a hearing disability. Or take other disability programs to make a personal and political statement.

10 Oratory Speech Topics + Template

104 Environmental Speech Topics [Persuasive, Informative]

Leave a Comment

I accept the Privacy Policy

Reach out to us for sponsorship opportunities

Vivamus integer non suscipit taciti mus etiam at primis tempor sagittis euismod libero facilisi.

© 2024 My Speech Class

College Life Essay

500+ words essay on college life.

College life is a beautiful stage for a student. It’s the time when students get serious about their career and study thoroughly to make their future bright. It’s also a time when we make lifelong friends and spend valuable time with them. College life is entirely different from school life, and this life is quite an enjoyable experience. It is said to be the most memorable years of one’s life. We make good friends, decide our future and work on our leadership skills during our college years. Teenagers are exposed to new experiences and things we weren’t familiar with earlier. College life is a mixed-phase of practical learning and enjoying with friends.

For a student, college life is the beginning of adulthood. In our college life, along with academics, we indulge ourselves in recreational activities. Students also participate in various group activities that will help them learn about themselves and their peers. After graduation, students are prepared to face the real world. In today’s scenario, the job market is quite challenging, but still, you can make your college life an exciting time in your life.

Every individual or student is not lucky to get the chance to experience college life. Due to various reasons, they are not able to attend college. Some might have financial problems, while others have responsibilities to fulfil. College life always remains memorable for all of us. The ones who have had a college life always wish to turn back time to live it all once again.

We all learn the most significant lessons of our life during our college times. In our college life, we develop brotherhood, friendship and a spirit of unity. We also get a sense of duty and responsibility and learn good manners. One crucial lesson students should learn in college is not to misuse liberty.

A student’s future is determined by utilising their college time productively to become successful in life. Students should not ignore their studies at their college because it can turn their dreams into reality.

The Transition from School Life to College Life

When we get into college, it is entirely different from school life. We go through a lot of changes during our college life. Life in our school is protected, where we have spent half of our lives. Even the sudden transition from school to college is quite challenging as we no longer have teachers and friends from our school.

As we step into our college life, we face many hurdles in a place with unfamiliar faces. Students become more composed and confident in college life as they socialise with others and express their opinions.

When we are at school, we are entirely dependent on our teachers and friends. Life at college makes us independent and stronger and teaches us to fight our own battles. In our college life, we become more independent and capable of deciding for the future.

Compared to school life, the bond between teachers and students becomes informal in college life. They become friends and share their problems and troubles with their teachers as we do with friends.

College Life Experience

When we enter college, we encounter a significant transition from school life. When we are at school, we make several friends and get good teachers and a good environment, but suddenly in college life, we enter a new place where we know none.

College life is the golden period of life because it makes one more potent, profound and independent. Compared to school life, college life is short-lived. College is only for 4-5 years, but we spend half of our academic career at school.

College students enjoy their freedom as they grow up and become mature. They become able to decide between good and bad. College life teaches them many things and builds confidence to face challenges and struggles.

College students cherish the annual fest organised by the college every year the most. Among the students, the college fest creates excitement and buzz. Everyone enjoys the fest and welcomes each other with open arms. The programs and competitions are carried out in good spirits, and students dress their best to represent their college well. Students participate in various skits, dances, debates, sports etc.; it gives them a competitive attitude and the ability to welcome victories and failures with grace and good-hearted energy.

Frequently Asked Questions on college life Essay

How can students cope with the transition from school to college.

Students should be encouraged to face the new environment in college with confidence. Parents and teachers play an important role in this.

What does a student usually expect out of their college life?

A student expects their college life to be educational, fun and career-boosting. Extracurricular activities, tournaments, cultural programmes, etc., must be organised in colleges.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Request OTP on Voice Call

Post My Comment

• Share Share

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

Counselling

• +1 (519)-670-9769
• [email protected]
• Privacy Policy

My Edu Corner

Make Education Better

College Life: Essay, Short Note, Farewell Speech

Introduction (essay on college life).

“Quoting last words to every bunch leaving this place has always been the toughest job of my life. When you all came, all I could see was a raw lot, walking on the anonymous paths with no clue of their twirling tails. Today, I can see a sparkle in your eyes with which the world will be burning soon. Today, I can see every one of you, standing at some point, achieving all the success you deserve and becoming the person you indeed have always wished to. All I want to say to you is every day brings a new start and every end comes with a new beginning, so never lose hopes and keep working!” The last words which I heard from my college principal yet echo in my brain. Farewell speeches are basically the entire flashback in a minute. Hearing one, a mixture of emotions- happiness of sharing the bond of togetherness, sorrow for not meeting the bundle again, the excitement of new life which is yet to be explored- all in once drowns upon a person.

Going down the lane

Tears in the eyes, smile on the face, hands embracing their partner’s, chanting their rhymes for the last time, and that’s how everyone leaves their phase and enters into the one which we left. But the sad part about life is that it moves on, and thus we moved on. Moments fleet in time but the memories we create is something which we can cherish over and over again. Memories, in which we relive the moments again and remember until our last breath. And those days yet brighten our face, the college days!

The first day of college, stepping into the world of unknowns, being conscious about your presentation and thinking multiple times before you blurt, that’s how the journey of surprises begins.

College encountered everything from bunking lectures, deceiving teachers, cheating in the exams, gossiping about seniors, ragging juniors to feeding them in the canteen, breaking records of being late, passing comments, judging people with friends and hovering in corridors. College was for everything but studies. It is all about friends, fests, committees, associations, annual meets, those days ranging from rose day, chocolate day to traditional day, retro day and group day.

It is perplexing how people who you found it hard to introduce yourself became the best of your friends during the journey. You question yourself for bullying those who actually cared for you. The euphoria of moments gives you goosebumps. Remembering your names carved on the benches gives you the nostalgia. The memories suddenly become your kingdom and you turn out to be the king. You think about those books which you actually never touched.

College is that milestone in our journey which teaches us the way to lead life. Students step in as a kid and leave as a man. These are the days of fun where one learns the life lessons unknowingly. As we step out of those doors, we realize the worth of time, money, words and people. Standing at the stage where you have achieved all you wanted to in life, and when you look back to the time which you had spent nourishing yourself to be at the stage where you currently are could be mesmerizing as you see yourself growing. Those silly arguments which you picked earlier, now seem pointless. Those unwanted outbursts could no longer be justified. Those cranky conversations which made no sense are heard no more. Those imbecile demands turn out to be worthless today. This is what college life is all about. We make mistakes, look back in time, laugh upon them and move forward.

Conclusion and Farewell speech for College Life

College teaches every individual a lesson which he/she never forgets. Whatever may happen in life, may the worst come to you, you should never stop. People change and so do time. You shall always look forward and do your part the best and karma will pay you back. The farewell day was a day of realization for every being that it’s the time to grow up and become mature. It was the day of saying a goodbye.

“I bid a warming bye, With swollen eyes, Packing my case with sigh, Where the secrets of college lie.”

And that’s how it ended, the farewell speech and the college days.

Sherlock has Detected Adblocker In Your Browser

Search Icon

Events See all →

Puebla: the story of cinco de mayo.

1:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St.

Literature to Life

Alumni Weekend 2024

Various locations

268th Commencement

Franklin Field

Campus & Community

The importance of free speech on college campuses

Running penn’s committee on open expression has given sigal ben-porath an up-close look at free speech on campus—and even inspired her to write a book on the topic..

Sigal Ben-Porath , a professor at the Graduate School of Education , has been chair of Penn ’s Committee on Open Expression since the 2015-16 academic year, a position that has given her an up-close and personal view of the complications and challenges surrounding free speech, especially in the current, hyper-partisan environment.

Consisting of faculty, staff, and students , the Committee follows Penn’s longstanding Guidelines on Open Expression , which were developed in the 1960s and updated a number of times in subsequent years. Members of the Committee are tasked with upholding the Guidelines and mediating related concerns that are brought before them.

Since the 2015-16 academic year, Sigal Ben-Porath has been chair of Penn’s Committee on Open Expression.

Devotion to an open-minded atmosphere on college campuses has been embraced, by and large, by students and faculty for generations, says Ben-Porath, who both believe freedom of expression is imperative for constructive learning and research. Nonetheless, she says students with diverging ideological leanings differ on how free freedom of speech actually is. Certain students believe the right is nearly absolute; others seek to limit debate or the expression of views on topics they believe fall outside the bounds of reasonable discussion.

Ben-Porath’s work on the Open Expression committee moved her to write the book “Free Speech on Campus.” Published last year by the University of Pennsylvania Press , the manuscript examines the current state of the arguments about free speech on college campuses, using real-world examples to explore the contexts in which conflicts and tensions erupt.

In response to her book, Ben-Porath has been invited to give talks about free speech at a variety of higher education institutions, including community colleges, Ivy League universities, and public institutions, some of whom have set up committees to draft or update guidelines on open expression.

“Free Speech on Campus” was published last year by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

“I think a lot of places are just now waking up to the concern that even if you’re a small place, even if you don’t necessarily see yourself as that visible or your students as necessarily organized in this way, it’s still your problem as well,” she says. “Even if you’re not interested in free speech, free speech is interested in you.”

Administrative awakenings in relation to free speech on college campuses are the result of student activism, and also the fact that universities are a primary target in the current culture wars, Ben-Porath says. University leaders have trepidations about how the higher education sector is perceived. She says where a person stands on the issue of free speech on college campuses is now a marker for a general ideological stance that partisans can use to signal their overall position, similar to how people used to speak about marriage equality.

The most vocal critics accuse universities of being too elitist, lacking ideological diversity, and prioritizing progressive and liberal views.

Commentators and critics point to instances in which conservative speakers have been heckled or prevented from speaking as proof that students at so-called “liberal” universities are too fragile for ideological debate, fail to understand democratic commitments, and are attempting to stifle free speech.

Surveys have shown a more limited support for free speech or First Amendment protections on college campuses, but Ben-Porath says students attempting to limit speech support free speech, but object to free speech being used to harm, denigrate, or devalue another human being.

“This is not being a snowflake, this is being an activist,” she says. “What they are expressing is not oversensitivity that they can’t handle the truth. They are expressing a commitment to the values that we are teaching them and we are not always practicing, like equal dignity to all persons. That doesn’t show fragility, in my view. It actually shows a commitment to democratic values, and we need to listen to that.”

Even if you’re not interested in free speech, free speech is interested in you.

Sigal Ben-Porath, a professor in the Graduate School of Education

Ben-Porath does not support speech codes or the shutting down of speakers—even those who speak hate. Universities as an institution should not invite such speakers, but if a student or a student group is interested in inviting the person to campus, she does not think the school should intervene.

Aside from individuals calling for violence, Ben-Porath says there are very few people who should be prevented from speaking.

“From where I stand, it’s going to be a pretty small marginal group of people, and I won’t expand it, even when there are people who I see and a lot of people see as quite hateful,” she says. “I don’t necessarily want to prevent them from coming to campus because I think that they are, sadly, a part of our current political debate. I regret that, but I would like to support my students in engaging with that.”

Student activists have a large toolkit for responding to speakers they disagree with if they look historically and in present practice, Ben-Porath says. And these tools are much more effective than shutting speakers down. She says students can use humor, as has been done when responding to the anti-gay preachers on Locust Walk. To protest the preachers’ hateful signs, students created their own humorous signs and collected donations for the Attic, an LGBT youth center, while the preachers spoke.

“The Black Graduate and Professional Student Assembly here on campus staged an excellent protest earlier this fall in response to a speaker speaking against the Black Lives Matter movement,” Ben-Porath says. “Excellent in the sense that it was nonviolent, but a very effective protest.” The students dressed in similar fashion, brought signs expressing their opposition, asked the speaker hard questions, and protested outside the venue.

“They engaged with the content and rejected it effectively,” she says. “They engaged with the actual invitation by their presence, by their visible appearance with their clothes and their signs. I thought that was great because they were able to express their opposition, and to express their valid perspective in opposition to her views way more effectively than if they shouted her down.”

Photo: Ben-Porath’s research focuses on citizenship education, normative aspects of educational and social policy, and the social and educational effects of war.

Class of 2025 relishes time together at Hey Day

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Picturing artistic pursuits

Hundreds of undergraduates take classes in the fine arts each semester, among them painting and drawing, ceramics and sculpture, printmaking and animation, photography and videography. The courses, through the School of Arts & Sciences and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, give students the opportunity to immerse themselves in an art form in a collaborative way.

Penn celebrates operation and benefits of largest solar power project in Pennsylvania

Solar production has begun at the Great Cove I and II facilities in central Pennsylvania, the equivalent of powering 70% of the electricity demand from Penn’s academic campus and health system in the Philadelphia area.

Education, Business, & Law

Investing in future teachers and educational leaders

The Empowerment Through Education Scholarship Program at Penn’s Graduate School of Education is helping to prepare and retain teachers and educational leaders.

‘The Illuminated Body’ fuses color, light, and sound

A new Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition of work by artist Barbara Earl Thomas features cut-paper portraits reminiscent of stained glass and an immersive installation constructed with intricately cut material lit from behind.

Speech Examples for College Students

Have you ever heard a speech from a famous Hollywood stars like Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres or Viola Davis that gave you chills on the back of your neck and made you rethink your life choices? Have you ever gave a standing ovation for a wonderfully given speech? Have you ever thought of giving a speech that would give others a life-changing quotation that will be their forever quotable quotes? Don’t worry, you can always deliver your own version of a hair-raising and life-defining speech.

• Speech Templates and Examples
• Speech Examples in Doc

Research papers , thesis, essay writing and excuses are always part of your college routine but every now and then, you have to deliver a speech. Here are some college speech highlights to remember and different examples that would help you improve your speech.

1. Catch-phrase

Your catch-phrase or your opening line is one of the most crucial part of your speech because it could either catch the attention of your audience or make their heads turn around (or roll their eyes or make them not want to listen at all). Always start your speech with words that are relatable and “catchy”. There was once a speech given by a college student that started with a word “s ex ” and that got the class’ attention (and your attention) but the thing is that word is not at all related to the topic but you get to achieve your first goal anyways.

Always remember that this opening line would serve as their first impression, so you might as well let them remember you in a good way.

2. Always remember that your audience are college students

According to study, college students usually lose their focus when listening to a 20 minute-talk in a forum or speech. Set the time limit on whatever your speech would be. Make a short but precise and direct speech that could be heard and be remembered by the students. Also try throwing jokes every now and then.

3. Pause or Pausing

Let us all go back to the catch-phrase, “s ex ” — after the speaker said this, there was a few seconds of pause to let the audience process the word or to at least let them think again about the said line. “ And that ladies and gentlemen got your attention ” as the speaker continues.

Always remember when to pause. Do not pause for a very long time and do not pause in between the intensity of your speech as this is the part where they would actually want to listen and you don’t want to lose their attention. Also, do not pause in the part that where you will be finishing your speech as the listeners would want to hear the conclusion of it.

4. Intonation

Intonation is what we call the rise and fall of the voice when speaking and this is the part where you could put emphasis or emotions to words. Take time to practice when to raise your voice and when to put emphasis. Another trick would be raising your voice when you think and feel that your audience is losing contact.

Good intonation would actually help you and your audience to focus on your speech. Good intonation would include putting emphasis in the right “yous” in the speech. For example when Ashley Graham gave a speech to Glamour’s International Day of the Girl, she tackled the importance of knowing the beauty beyond size. She also had said in her speech, “ YOU is fine ” and was going on with the speech emphasizing the word “you”. “ You is fine ” is short but effective.

5. Hand Gesture

When your voice is rising and falling every now and then, why not add some actions and do some hand gesture? Hand gesture is a good way of showing your audience that this speech is not a joke and you want your audience to listen and look at you, and even take down notes. In relation to intonation, you could use hand gestures like pointing to the audience when saying “you!” to be more convincing. You can also use hand gestures like showing your three fingers while saying “take note of this 3 points, first…” while also snapping the fingers once in awhile just to keep the crowd awake.

The tricky part of hand gesture is sometimes using it in a wrong way. Some hand gestures can be offensive and the best way to avoid it is always know your crowd. Know that with the right amount of hand movement, you can hide the shaking of your hands from the audience.

6. Body Posture

Slouching is the one of the many bad habits we can’t just get rid off but slouching isn’t something you would do when reciting a speech. The moment you decided to slouch is the moment you are giving your audience a chance to think that you are no longer in control.

A good body posture indicates professionalism and in giving speech, you want to show your audience a high level of professionalism.

7. Structure

A good speech comes from a good structure. Structure includes the connection or the relation of the different parts or aspects of something complex. You must create a structure for your speech and surely, the rest would follow. Structure would cover your opening line, your topic, the body of the speech , conclusion and closing remarks. A structure could also serve as an outline for your speech since this is where you try to connect everything at once. You also need to look at the transition as your structure must include when and how to transition the speech from A to Z.

8. Right Location

When you are too nervous or lost, finding a right location in the classroom or stage would help. Look for a spot where the audience could see you and where you can see everyone in the audience. Also, find a spot where you could easily do a hand gesture free of objects, decorations and other display materials.

Have you ever wondered how a good public speaker does his thing confidently? Have you ever noticed them breathing in/out and changing position before they start? That is because they were standing in the right spot.

9. C hoose a topic that you know

There is a numerous list of topics you can find on the internet but always remember to choose a topic that is familiar to you as well as the audience, and also a topic which interests you personally.

Here are few topics:

• Poverty. This is an easy topic since poverty is still prevalent around the globe. You may also want touch on subjects like debts since this causes poverty and college students have school loans/debts to pay. On the other hand, you can use poverty as a topic use to scare your audience if that they don’t finish their studies or they don’t work, they will end up broke (not unless they’re Bill Gates or Steve Jobs).
• Effects of US’ Foreign Policy: “Pivot to Asia”. This is a smart topic but would require time for research. This is also a topic that will touch on economy, culture, and the effects of western policies to the east, and vice versa.
• The Means of Social Media. This is an easy topic since almost everyone is on social media. This is like an every dose for college student — a means of escape. You can actually start your speech by taking a selfie and posting it online then announcing “ I just posted a selfie on Facebook but what difference does it make? ” This topic is very much relatable to the younger generation who are more adept and exposed to social media.

• Accessibility to Education.  This topic would include online education or satellite campuses wherein you can go to school anywhere and anytime you want. You could actually want to open your with lines like “Have you ever wanted to a class on top of the mountain?” Everyone just wants to go here and there and do everything all at once. Why not open a topic that would give interest to both faculty and students. These people always claimed to be busy all the time, give them a topic that would give them their imagination come to words.

There are other topics you could find on the internet but these are just a few you can choose.

Don’t forget to relax and remember the tips when doing a speech mentioned above. If ever you have to do it over again, it will be much easier and probably be less nerve wracking.

Speech Generator for College Students

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Create a speech for college students about managing stress

Help me write a speech for college students on the importance of networking

Farewell Speech for College Students

Farewell is a very common event that takes place in almost every school and college in every city big or small and farewell speech is one of the important aspects of the entire celebration as it not only holds the entire audience, it also helps in building confidence in the outgoing students.

We have shared some samples of farewell speech for college students that can help you deliver a highly impressive speech at your college. Our short speech on farewell for college students can help you inspire and motivate the school and college students. The language used in the speech is very lucid and effective on the basis of which you can prepare your own farewell speech depending upon the event or occasion. You can also use our long speech on farewell for college students in case you have been given sufficient time to deliver the speech.

Long and Short Speech on Farewell for College Students

Farewell speech for college students by teacher – speech 1.

Good Afternoon to Respected Principal Sir, Vice Principal (VP) Sir, Dear Colleagues, Dear Students and to all the Visitors! Thank you for assembling here on this grand day of our college. As you know, we have gathered here to give the farewell party to our college students and I feel honoured to have been given the opportunity to deliver speech on this special day.

While the students might have been waiting for this day to arrive for a long time, we have equally been into actions to nurture them and prepare them for the outside world. I would like to thank our respected principal Sir and all my fellow colleagues from the core of my heart for always supporting me and guiding me.

To the students, I would like to say that the world outside is quite different. Here in the college, while we always attempted to give you a good exposure and congenial environment, we also provided a strong shield to safeguard you, did we make any mistake. Having said that, I don’t mean to scare you, all I want to say, we have prepared you all in such a manner that no matter, how forceful or critical the challenges are, always encounter those with full strength and vigour.

As you know, our college is famous for nurturing each student and for building a concrete base for their next level; I am proud to say that you have achieved this significant milestone under the guidance of the Principal and the VP Sir and each teacher who taught you important lesson of your life.

Today, I take immense pride in saying that we are highly proud of your achievements and accomplishments that you have established over these years. Our students enjoy good fame across the city as they are good not only in studies but also in sports and the majority of the credit goes to the Principal and the VP Sir who always support the students and encourage and appreciate the teachers for introducing innovation and novelty.

Though we have also been strict sometimes while delivering our duties towards you, it was only because we wanted to prepare you for all types of situations in the future. Life may not always be smooth; hence you must also know how to overcome challenges and disputes.

My advice to all my dear students is that you must be determined in your life and never look back. Past must always be considered a lesson not a deterrent. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and don’t lament your mistakes, instead, get up, learn from your mistakes and move ahead. Always look ahead and be optimistic while taking up new projects, assignments or challenges in your personal or professional life.  You are certainly going to succeed in your life just remember the lessons learnt at this college.

I would also like to say, while you must do well in your professional life, don’t restrict yourself to the office’s boundaries, nurture some hobby as well; take out time for family and live your life to the fullest. Use your knowledge and power for making others happy and successful.

On this note, I would like to plead to all the students on behalf of the entire college that they should be prepared forever to tackle the challenges and present self as an excellent representative of the college. Be selfless and kind to others and always be focused on achieving your goal despite the hard tests that life throws on you.

Wish you all the very best for your future!

Farewell Speech for Engineering College Students by Teacher – Speech 2

Honourable Chief Guest Respected Principal Sir, Vice Principal (VP) Sir, Respected Teachers, Dear Students and Dear Visitors! Welcome to this great event. As you all know, we have assembled here to bid farewell to the engineering students of our college and I feel greatly honoured for having received this opportunity of delivering the farewell speech on this great day.

I want to begin my speech by congratulating all of you for having scored great grades in your final engineering exams. While I believe, these 4 years have been the most crucial years for all of you; some of you have actually made the most out of it. I, being the class teacher of the final year engineering students have witnessed most of my students being really nervous and anxious about the final exams; however, it used to make me very happy to see that all of you had been sincere and determined in achieving great scores, which you all have after we have received the scores.

At the same time, the college was also honest and sincere in providing you with the best facilities, amenities, best teachers, counsellor, and the education standard required by you to explore your knowledge to the fullest.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my fellow professors, teachers, VP Sir, and most importantly the Principal Sir. We all were determined to transform all of you to a highly skilled and knowledgeable professional who can easily mend any machine anytime, anywhere.

Dear students, here, I would like to add something; life is a journey and you may come across various situations that may seem to you erroneous and flawed. Don’t surrender in such situations and always remember, God has the capacity of mending everything on our life and our patience and the time are our two friends that help us tackle any situation.

While many of you might have plans to join big companies, some of you may prefer exploring your career abroad, many of you may also be considering starting your own business. I can’t resist myself sharing with you some motivational lines quoted by the great Swami Vivekananda; he said we must adopt one idea and make that particular idea our life by thinking of it, dreaming of it and living on that particular idea. Ultimately, the muscles, brain, nerves and each part of our body get filled with that idea. He shared this secret mantra of success with the youth like you and I would also urge you all to follow this and be successful in every sphere of your life.

While we are highly satisfied and extremely happy that you all have passed the final engineering exams and are graduates now, the feeling makes us sad that you all will leave the institute now. All the students have had shared a good relationship with the teachers and you all have been very well behaved; and we urge you all to behave in a professional manner in the world outside and bring good repute and fame to our college.

When one chapter of life gets over, the other starts; so does your journey! You all are certified graduates now and the next chapter of your life will bring another set of challenges and perks in the next stage of your lives. I am very sure that you would be successful there too, as you have been successful here.

On this note I am going to end my speech and just would want to add that you must always remain sincere in whatever you attempt to do next and always stay positive to be able to let success follow you.

All the best!

Farewell Speech for Outgoing College Students by Principal – Speech 3

Honourable Chief Guest, Respected Teachers, Dear Students and all the lovely visitors, a very Good Afternoon to you all, hope you have been enjoying your day so far.

We have assembled here to celebrate a very important day of our students’ lives and of course our college too, i.e. the farewell party. Like every year, this year too, all our students have successfully graduated keeping the fame of our college in high spirit. This day is important for both the students as well as for our college because this day is the turning point in their life as they would now get apart for making their respective careers. College life is a very remarkable bridge between a person’s adolescence i.e. school life and maturity i.e. professional life.

On this grand event, I would take the honour of delivering few lines for my students and make it a memorable day for them and myself. Today, 15th of August, is a day of great joy, especially for the students who are graduating this year and their respective parents.

My dear students, in spite of some hard work, unhappiness, depression and sadness encountered by you during your study course, you all have successfully completed this journey of your college life with remarkable grades along with a lot of enjoyable memories.

The teachers might have been little strict at times with you all, this is because our college holds very good reputation outside as you know; we didn’t want that image to be brought down by any act of our students or teachers. However, being strict with you sometimes didn’t mean that we do not love you all; it was only a way for preparing you for the greater challenges that lie ahead of your life.

I, along with all the fellow colleagues, wish to congratulate you all for the exceptional passion you have shown towards your course and studies and your relationship building with your teachers, fellow students, staffs, management and the junior students. This relationship management will help you a lot in your professional and personal life.

While I am discussing the good parts of our college, I would also like to highlight some dark side of our college, which are ragging and bullying. When I had joined as the Principal 5 years ago, the college had got bad repute in regards to ragging and some students had been expelled on the same ground. However, in the past 3 years, not even a single such incident has been recorded. I would like to especially thank you all for maintaining the decorum and of the college and for contributing towards image building of our prestigious college.

My dear students, God bless you and one more thing I want to say that after leaving this college surely, some big or small challenges await you, but I am sure that the skill and knowledge you get from here and the manner you managed yourselves definitely help you to overcome them.

Before I rest my speech, I would like to say that be nice and kind to every single person you meet in your professional and personal life irrespective of their post or position. Always listen to your heart, believe in yourself and tackle the challenges you come up in your life. Life is not beautiful unless we make it.

In the end, I would like to appeal to my dear students to project themselves as good ambassadors of this college and never let self-centred motives malign the honesty and ethics you have acquired here over the years.

Hence, on behalf of the entire college and the management, I wish you all the best for your life. May the almighty always guide you on your path and bless you!

Farewell Speech for College Students by Vice Principal – Speech 4

A warm good morning to the staff members and my dear students!

Today is a very special day for all of us as one batch of our undergraduate students is leaving us after three years. We have gathered here today to celebrate and bid them goodbye. This was their first experience of freedom, independence and responsibility. After spending years in school and working under the scrutiny of teachers, this college was their first chance to become their own masters. Looking back to the day they had entered this college, it feels great that they have made the most of this place and have become better human beings. They transformed from teenagers to mature people and we have witnessed of their growth. They have performed well both in academics and extracurricular activities. They have brought many accolades to the school. They have learned from us and in return, they have taught us many things.

On your farewell day, I want to tell you that your contribution to this college is valuable. This college has prepared you for your next flight. The world needs enthusiastic and creative people like you. It is your time to earn your name, make your career and make your parents and mentors proud.  As your Principal, I feel very proud that despite the notoriety and mischief, you were able to make your place in our hearts. You never brought bad name to this institution and showed us that you belong from a good family. You have taken stand for the right things and fought against the wrong. You are everything that should keep your dreams alive. Some of you will head towards jobs and some will pursue further studies.

Many challenges await you, but one thing you should always keep in mind is that you must remain humble. I am sure your poised character will earn you accolades.

Dear students, this college was yours more than it was mine. You made it yours and nothing; it makes me happier to see your love and admiration towards the institution. We undertook your suggestions to make this college better and at par with the top universities. We may have not said it often but your batch indeed produced the most innovative ideas and helped us implementing those ideas effectively.

So, as you all leave this place today, I, on behalf of the faculty and administration, would like to remind you that you have been a wonderful batch and you will be missed. You are always welcomed to visit us and clarify your queries. We will definitely invite you all as alumina as we value every individual who was once a part of this institution. I wish you all the very best for your future and I have faith in your abilities. Take right decisions in life, work hard, stay optimistic in life and follow your dreams.

Good luck. Goodbye. Enjoy your farewell party.

Thank you very much!

Farewell Speech for College Students by Professor – Speech 5

Good morning my dear students and others present here!

It’s your farewell function today and I am glad to be a part of it. Today is the day when we and your professors, formally bid you good bye with a heavy heart but also with uncountable wishes. You all have been great students (well, most of the times) and as your professor, I feel immensely proud that I have taught you. Students, you may think that you are not ready to take a flight after your college but trust me, you are. After college, one is left wondering about the next step. You must be feeling perplexed about what you will do after college and how you will reach your desired college or job but you have to believe in the fact that you in fact are ready to take the leap. It may appear to be difficult. But have faith in yourself. You have to make yourself believe that you are ready to go ahead in life and reach the zenith of success. Therefore, do not let anything stop you, not even yourself.

You people are young, energetic and enthusiastic in life and so, push yourself towards the good in life. Fresh and intellectual minds like yours are capable of achieving a lot in life. You have brilliant and revolutionary ideas. Do not let them go in vain. If you have decided about the next level, work harder towards it and if you haven’t, then do not worry. Take some time off and discover your area of interest, research about the options available and go for it. Students, always remember that it is never too late to make a future in what you love to do. So, there is no rush in life as it is not a race.

My dear students a piece of advice from my side is that do not let anything scare you. No exam is difficult enough not to pass and you have been prepared well to appear for all sorts of exams. Be fierce. Study hard. Dream big and stay humble. My good wishes and blessings are with each one of you and leaving this space does not mean leaving behind the people. So, stay in touch. Keep telling us about your accolades and achievements in life. Let us all continue to be a part of a one big family that we have been all this time. You can always ask to us if you have any queries in future and we all would be happy to offer our help.

I wish you best of luck for your future endeavours and sincerely hope that each one of you achieve success wherever you go. It has been a great time teaching you, learning from you and working together as a team. I will surely miss the going batch.

Good luck and good bye.

Thank you all for having me here and making me part of this wonderful union!

Farewell Speech for College Students by juniors – Speech 6

Hello, seniors aka friends aka quick mentors aka saviours!

Today is your last day at the college and we, your juniors, are certainly going to miss you a lot. We have had the pleasure of studying with you, learning from your experiences and bonding with you. In a bunch of seniors, we made some lovely friends. This is our chance to tell you that you have been very helpful and approachable. We were novice when we first came to this college but it was just because of you people that we opened up and started participating in the discussions. You did not bully, instead you have been extremely supportive these years. You made efforts to make all of us comfortable from the day we entered college and made sure we did not feel alienated. So this farewell party is a small token of respect for the seniors from their juniors. We have interesting games and activities lined up for you. We hope you have an amazing time today.

Before we move on to the fun part of the day, we would like to thank you for certain things and confess that you all were an important part of our college lives. Your batch was different from the other batches and even our professors agree to this. You have been our motivation so many times that not finding you by our side will definitely be a change we will have difficulty in adapting to. We have learned a great deal from you and have considered your suggestions before venturing into new fields. We all have curated many events together in these past two/three years and have put up successful shows in the college. Working together on projects was a great experience and it is true that we will cherish the moments spent in each other’s company. We would invite you to our literary events and will keep meeting you every now and then.

Bidding you farewell does not feel great but it is how life works; it keeps moving ahead. This is just a formality because we would remain friends even after this. We wish you all the very best in all your future journey and hope that you get all you desire for. We would like to thank you for everything you have done for us and we hope that we will stay in touch in future as well. We assure you that we would keep pestering you with our queries and problems and will not let you forget us. Now that you will not be seen on campus every day, we would miss the time spent with you in the classrooms, corridors, playgrounds and canteen. So, as I end this speech, I, on everyone else’s behalf, remind you that you have been amazing seniors and we wish the best for each one of you.

We hope you have the most memorable day here since it’s your last day.

Related Information:

How to Write and Deliver a Farewell Speech

Farewell Speech for Boss

Farewell speech for seniors, farewell speech for teacher.

Farewell Speech in Office

Farewell Speech for Colleague

Farewell Speech for Students

Farewell Speech on Retirement

Farewell Speech for Friends

Farewell Speech by Students on Farewell Party

Farewell Speech by Teacher on Farewell Party

Related Posts

Best farewell speech for outgoing students, gandhi jayanti speech.

Speech About Life of A Student

Student life is all about studying and learning different subjects and skills that ensure a good future. From morning to night, a student’s life has a busy schedule but this schedule is quite interesting as it also comprises sports, games, hobbies, fun and joy.

Speech About Life of A Student | 4 Minutes

Good Morning Everyone, First of all, I want to wish you all the best for the day. I am here to say a few words about Student Life . I am very glad to have this tremendous opportunity.

A student’s life includes the preparation to reach school or college, studying, completing assignments, enjoying sports, having fun with friends and many more things. Doing so many things broaden our thinking. We learn the skill of time management and efficient performance. We also get to know the importance of discipline, devotion, motivation, fear, friendship etc.

Student life involves fewer struggles and more joy. Students do a lot of naughty activities during their student life. But they also learn moral values that make them a gentleman by providing them with a distinct identity in society. Your future totally depends on how has your student life been.

student life & Your Future

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it”. Yes, you can create your future that is decided by your actions. But actions need to be performed in the right direction. Then a question arises how will we know whether a direction is right or wrong?

Education is the medium that helps us differentiate between the two. That is why education holds a very crucial value in human life. We begin gaining education in schools which are the first place where our student life takes off from.

Importance of student life

Student life is considered very important. Why? There are various reasons. Student life influences a person’s character very deeply. Their character and personality are designed for their student life. Apart from this, student life offers guidance which is very important to achieving goals.

Student life is also vital for a country because students are the future generations of a nation. So, they are regarded as the foundation of the future of a country. If you need to make a building stand, you must make a strong foundation otherwise it will collapse.

Teachers’ Role in student life

Have you ever think how a teacher is important in student life? Have you ever listened to Ekalavya’s Story? Eklavya learned extraordinary archery by just standing in front of an idol of his teacher. That’s how stories and cultures explain to us the importance of a teacher.

This story tells us that It is not necessary that a teacher always belongs to schools or colleges or a teacher is always a person. Everyone and everything that guides you are a teacher. Student life is incomplete without teachers. Teachers are like lamps in the darkness. They clear our doubts and show us the right path.

The Importance of Sport in student life

Health is an important part of life. Without good health, everything goes in vain. That is why it is also not advised for a student to be a bookworm who always indulges himself in his studies rather he should also pay attention to health and spend some time daily in some sports and games.

Sports and games can improve your physical and mental health. You feel energetic and active all the time which makes you more productive in your academic performance too.

At last, I want to say that one must make the best use of one’s student’s life because it never comes back once gone.

Thank you all for your valuable attention.

Short Speech Example

Good morning and welcome to all the people present here. I am here to present a speech on student life. Before starting my speech I want to thank you all for your precious presence.

Education carries an important role in human life. One needs to go to schools and colleges to get an education. As a learner or scholar, one’s student life takes off. As a student, we study a lot of books, explore numerous subjects, play different sports and games, and do other extracurricular activities.

A student’s life includes the preparation to reach school or college, studying, completing assignments, enjoying sports, having fun with friends etc. Doing so many things broaden our thinking. We learn the skill of time management and efficient performance. We also get to know the importance of discipline, devotion, motivation, fear, friendship etc.

This is what I wanted to say. Thank you for listening to my words. I hope you liked my speech.

Other Speeches

Importance of time management speech [1,2,3 minutes], speech on ethics and etiquette [1,2,3 minutes], speech about mahatma gandhi jayanti 2023.

• 1 Minute Speech On Health Is Wealth
• 2 Minute Speech On Child Labour
• 1 Minute Speech On Child Labour
• Speech On Nature [ 1-2 minutes ]
• 2 Minute Speech on Importance Of Education
• 1 Minute Speech on Pollution
• 2 Minute Speech on Population Explosion

Related Posts

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser .

T4Tutorials.com

Speech about life of a student[1,2,3,5 minutes] short, 1 minute speech about the life of a student, speech#1 life of a student.

College life is full of stress and pressure. Students are constantly juggling their work, academics, social life, and relationships. It can be difficult to find time to study or exercise.

The routine of a Student in school: The routine of a student in school can be both enjoyable and stressful at the same time. It can be difficult to find the right balance between studying, socializing, and sleep.

The routine of a Student After school Time: After school time is a period of time when students are free from school and parents are not around to supervise them. It is a time for students to unwind and relax.

Students often have different routines for after-school activities. Some might go on a walk, others might watch TV, and some might go on social media. After-school activities can vary from week to week and may depend on the student’s age, interests, etc.

Quotes for Speech about Life of a Student

• “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” – Oprah Winfrey
• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
• “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” – B.B. King
• “Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead.” – Nora Ephron
• “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
• “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese Proverb
• “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.” – William Butler Yeats
• “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
• “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
• “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes
• “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
• “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey
• “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” – Roy T. Bennett
• “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” – Helen Hayes
• “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” – Allen Saunders

Speech#2 Life of a Student

The life of a student is not easy. It has its ups and downs, but this is what makes it interesting.

Being a student involves a lot of responsibilities students have to take care of themselves. This includes making sure they are on time for school, taking notes in class, and doing their homework.

To make the most out of the time they have in their college years, students should find ways to maximize their efficiency. They should be able to complete tasks quickly and efficiently with the help of technology that can assist them with this process.

The routine of a Student in school: The routine of a student in school can be categorized into three different parts: morning, afternoon, and evening. The morning includes waking up, getting ready for school, having breakfast, and going to school. The afternoon includes doing homework at home or at school, eating lunch, and going out for recess or studying after recess. The evening includes dinner time, bedtime routines, and finishing up homework before going to sleep.

The routine of a Student After school Time: When students come home from school, they usually have a routine that they follow. This routine is normally focused on homework and studying.

There are many different ways to get a student’s attention in the evening. It is important to find out what works best for your family and find a way to make it more enjoyable.

Many parents worry about their children spending too much time on screen time or doing homework while watching TV or playing video games. With these concerns in mind, we have created this article with ideas for a more enjoyable after-school routine for your child.

Speech#3 Life of a Student

The life of a student is full of stress, anxiety, and worries. They have to juggle their time between school, work, and other activities. There are many things that can make the life of a student difficult.

The routine of a Student in school:

The student’s days typically start with a morning assembly, followed by their first-period class. They then have lunch and after-school activities such as sports or clubs. After this, they would finish up with homework and end their day with dinner and family time.

Speech#4 Life of a Student

The life of a student is filled with many challenges, and the one that students face most often is the struggle of balancing school and work.

For students who struggle to balance their time between school and work, it can be challenging to find time for sleep or rest. However, there are ways to manage this issue. One thing that can help is finding a roommate who shares the same schedule as you do. You can also try setting alarms on your phone or computer to remind you when it’s time for bed. Another option is outsourcing your homework so you have more time to focus on other things like socializing with friends or getting some exercise.

Students should also make sure they are eating well and getting enough sleep in order to stay healthy during their college years.

2 Minutes Speech about the Life of a Student

The early morning routine of a Student:

The morning routine of a student is quite different from that of other people. It starts with waking up early in the morning and getting ready for school or work.

The most important part of the morning routine for a student is writing their homework or studying for an exam. This can be a tedious task, especially when you have to do it before you go to school.

Some students prefer to wake up early in order to write their essays, while others prefer to sleep in later and then write their essays after they wake up. This depends on the individual’s preference and also what they need more – time or energy.

The school routine is a very important part of a student’s life. It sets the tone for their day and how they feel about themselves during this period of their life. They get up early in the morning and do things that are necessary for them to get ready for school – such as brushing their teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast, etc. Then they go to school in order to learn new things or just have fun with friends. After school hours are over, students either go home or stay at school until it’s time for dinner time or bedtime depending on what time it is in their country/state/city, etc. Finally, before going to bed at night students will do some homework or study more about something that interests them in order to prepare for tomorrow’s classes.

The routine of a Student After School Time:

A student’s routine after school time can be a crucial part of their day. It is important to make it productive and fulfilling while also giving them some free time.

After-school routines vary from person to person. Some students may have homework, while others might want to relax and play games or watch TV. There are many ways that students can make their after-school routine productive and fulfilling, but there are also many ways that they can waste their time as well.

The key is finding a balance between the two so that students are not just sitting around doing nothing all day.

3 Minutes Speech about the Life of a Student

Early morning is a time when students have to wake up early and prepare themselves for the day. However, they can make the process easier by following an early morning routine that helps them get into a good mood and energize their day.

Some of these include:

-Exercising in the morning

-Drinking water before breakfast

-Meditation

-Reading a book before breakfast

The routine of a student in school is very different from the routine of a student at home. Students need to study, attend classes, and complete assignments in school. Some students may also have extracurricular activities that they need to do outside of school hours.

Students may also have family obligations such as taking care of younger siblings or helping out with homework. They also have other responsibilities such as attending church or other religious activities, going to sports practice, or volunteering for community service projects.

There are many aspects of a student’s life that change after school. Some students might choose to stay in their room and do homework while others might go out with friends or play video games.

The routine of a student after school time is not as simple as it seems. It is made up of many different factors including the amount of homework they have, how they feel about their grades, and how much time they want to spend on extracurricular activities.

Afternoon routines are typically more relaxed than morning routines because students don’t have to wake up early for school and there aren’t any classes scheduled for that time.

5 Minutes Speech about the Life of a Student

Early morning is the time when most students have to wake up and start their day. They have to do their homework, study for exams, or go to work. It’s a busy time for students and they need help managing their schedules.

Early morning routines are a key part of any student’s life. They help them get organized and keep them on track with academics, extracurricular activities, and personal goals.

Early morning routines require planning ahead of time because they are often done before going to bed which means that the student has little time to do it right after waking up. They need a plan that is easy enough for them to implement in their daily lives but challenging enough so that they don’t feel like they’re wasting time by doing it every day.

The routine of a student in school is usually full of activities such as classes, homework, and extracurricular activities. These students might have to set aside time for studying or completing their work.

The student has to make sure that they have enough time for all these activities and can also manage their social life.

A typical student routine starts with waking up and having breakfast then some school-related tasks like reading, math homework, and other classes before lunch. The student will then go to extracurricular activities or study after lunch until they get home in the evening.

The routine of a student after school time is usually very different from what it would be if they had school. In some cases, students may have homework to do or sports practice. Other students might want to spend more time with their parents or siblings.

After school, students might want to go on a walk, play video games, or watch TV. Some students might spend time doing homework while others may spend time playing outside with friends. The routine of a student after school time is very different from what it would be if they had school!

Examples of sentences that can be used in starting of this speech

Examples of sentences that can be used in closing of this speech, speeches in english.

• Speech on women’s empowerment
• Speech on social media
• Speech on environment
• Speech on gender equality
• Speech on poverty
• Speech on Global Warming
• Speech on Environmental Pollution
• Speech on Earth Day
• Speech on Discipline
• Speech on Human Rights
• Speech on Education
• Motivational speech for students
• 2-minute Self-introduction speech examples
• Speech on Mahatma Gandhi
• Speech on freedom fighters
• Speech on APJ Abdul Kalam
• Speech about friendship
• Speech about Technology
• Speech on Parents
• Speech on Health
• Speech on Health and Fitness
• Speech on Health and Hygiene
• Speech on Mental health
• Speech on Yoga
• Speech on Doctor
• Speech about Life
• Speech on sports
• Speech on Racism
• Speech on Population
• Speech on Overcoming Fear
• Speech about Family
• Speech on Mobile Phones
• Speech on water conservation
• Speech on Honesty
• Speech on Culture
• Speech on Unity in diversity
• Speech on Peace
• Speech on Time
• Speech on Success
• Speech on Leadership
• Speech on Nature
• Speech on Career
• Speech about Music
• Speech on Democracy
• Speech on Noise Pollution
• Speech on Air Pollution
• Speech on Gratitude
• Speech on Time management
• Speech on Dance
• Speech on Climate Change
• Speech on Artificial Intelligence
• Speech on Cyber security
• Speech on Teamwork
• Speech on Goal Setting
• Speech on Plastic Waste Management
• Speech on Feminism
• Speech on Bhagat Singh
• Speech on Books
• Speech on Laughter is the Best Medicine
• Speech on Swami Vivekananda
• Speech on Road Safety
• Speech on Cyber Crime
• Speech on Energy Conservation
• Speech on Online Education
• Speech on Quaid-e-Azam
• Speech on Allama Iqbal
• Speech about Rainy Day
• Speech about Teachers’ day
• Speech about Graduation
• Speech about Love
• Speech about Football
• Speech about Money
• Speech about Anxiety
• Speech about Politics
• Speech about Nelson Mandela
• Speech about Kindness
• Speech about Cleanliness
• Speech about Deforestation
• Speech about Agriculture
• speech about Cricket
• Speech about Unemployment
• Speech about Birthday
• Speech about Patience
• Speech about the Value of Time
• Speech about Positive Thinking
• Speech about Knowledge is Power
• Speech about Games
• Speech about Indian Culture
• Speech about Appreciation
• Speech about Farming
• Speech about Debut
• Speech about Purpose
• Speech about Hardwork
• Speech about Thank you / Thankfulness / being thankful
• Speeches about Communication
• Speech about Dreams and ambitions 
• Speech about Confidence
• Speech about traveling and Tourism
• Speech about Corruption
• Speech about the millennial generation
• Speech about Success and Failure
• Speech about Environmental Awareness
• Speech about Life Goals
• Speech about Stress
• Speech about the Life of a Student
• Speech about Social Issues
• Speech about Mom
• Speech about God
• Speech about Plants
• Speech about Fashion
• Speech about Basketball
• Speech about Business

Related Posts:

• Speech about pen [1,2,3 Minutes short Speech]
• Speech about Life [1,2,3,4,5 Minutes]
• Speech about Life Goals [1,2,3,5 Minutes]
• Speech about Happy Life [1,2,3,5 Minutes]
• Short Speech about Electricity [1,2,3,5 Minutes]
• Short Speech about My Pet [1,2,3, Minutes]

Mobile Menu Overlay

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden on Recent Events on College   Campuses

Roosevelt Room

11:07 A.M. EDT   THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning.   Q    Good morning.   THE PRESIDENT:  Before I head to North Carolina, I wanted to speak a few moments about what’s going on on our college campuses here. 

We’ve all seen the images.  And they put to the test two fundamental American principles. 

Excuse me.  (Coughs.)   The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard.  The second is the rule of law.  Both must be upheld.    We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent.  The American people are heard.  In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues.    But — but neither are we a lawless country.  We are a civil society, and order must prevail.    Throughout our history, we’ve often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse, free-thinking, and freedom-loving nation.    In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points.  But this isn’t a moment for politics.  It’s a moment for clarity.    So, let me be clear.  Peaceful protest in America — violent protest is not protected; peaceful protest is.  It’s against the law when violence occurs.    Destroying property is not a peaceful protest.  It’s against the law.   Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations — none of this is a peaceful protest.    Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest.  It’s against the law.   Dissent is essential to democracy.  But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education.   Look, it’s basically a matter of fairness.  It’s a matter of what’s right.  There’s the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.   People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.   But let’s be clear about this as well.  There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students.  There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.   It’s simply wrong.  There is no place for racism in America.  It’s all wrong.  It’s un-American.    I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions.  In America, we respect the right and protect the right for them to express that.  But it doesn’t mean anything goes.  It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate, and within the law.   You know, make no mistake: As President, I will always defend free speech.  And I will always be just as strong in standing up for the rule of law.   That’s my responsibility to you, the American people, and my obligation to the Constitution.   Thank you very much.   Q    Mr. President, have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?   THE PRESIDENT:  No. 

Thank you.   Q    Mr. President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?   THE PRESIDENT:  No.   11:11 A.M. EDT

Stay Connected

We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.

Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden.

UChicago Says Free Speech Is Sacred. Some Students See Hypocrisy.

The president has allowed protest encampments. But they have also disrupted campus life, and he wants the tents down.

Students constructed wood barriers around a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of the University of Chicago to protect it from a possible law enforcement forced removal. Credit...

Supported by

• Share full article

By Jeremy W. Peters

Photographs by Jamie Kelter Davis

Jeremy Peters reported this story from the University of Chicago.

• May 6, 2024 Updated 2:47 p.m. ET

The University of Chicago has built a brand around the idea that its students should be unafraid to encounter ideas or opinions they disagree with.

To drum that in, the school provides incoming students with copies of its 2015 free-speech declaration , known as the Chicago statement, which states that freedom of expression is an “essential element” of its culture.

And the university has long adhered to a policy of institutional neutrality, which strongly discourages it from divesting from companies for political reasons, or from making statements aligning it with a social cause. That neutrality, the university argues, allows for a robust, unencumbered exchange of ideas.

Many professors swell with pride talking about how the school’s commitment to these principles has endured through two world wars, Vietnam and, more recently, the tumult of the Trump administration. And more than 100 institutions have adopted or endorsed similar principles.

But the University of Chicago’s image as the citadel of free speech is being tested again — this time over an encampment on the central quad, which protesters of Israel’s war in Gaza have refused to leave for more than a week.

The university has allowed dozens of tents to stay up, even though they violate a policy against erecting structures in public spaces. The school had wanted to show “the greatest leeway possible for free expression,” said Paul Alivisatos, the university president.

Now, citing the disruption to student life and a degradation of civility on campus, the university wants the encampment gone.

So far, negotiations between the two sides have gone nowhere. The university said in a statement on Sunday night that the talks had been suspended.

Student protesters view the administration’s demand as hypocritical.

“The university continuously batters this point about free speech,” said Youssef Hasweh, a fourth-year political science major, during a rally on the quad on Saturday.

He said the school tells the protesters, “‘we are giving you your First Amendment rights, and we’re one of the only universities to do that, so we’re the good guys.’”

But, as he sees it, the Chicago speech principles are a fig leaf. “They’re kind of just using that to shut us down.”

Across the country, the encampments have forced administrators and students to grapple with the outer limits of free speech. The tents, students argue, are a form of speech, but to administrators, they violate rules about physical space and campus disruption.

Should academic institutions ignore their own policies against disruptive activity for the sake of speech, even if many Jewish students feel their very identity is under attack? When does a protest dominate a campus so much that it drowns out opposing views? And what if encampments overwhelm student life, with drums and chants affecting the ability to study for finals?

Some schools have reached agreements with protesters that have lowered the temperature, at least temporarily. And students have dismantled their encampments.

But as Chicago’s leaders look for a way to bring the tents down, they may not find many palatable options. Calling in the police risks the kind of mayhem that no school president wants occurring on their watch. And a quad full of tents as families arrive for graduation isn’t ideal either.

But in some ways, the argument over encampments is as much about the culture of debate and disagreement as it is about free speech. Students who came of age learning about concepts like safe spaces are now accusing universities of silencing them for conduct that has been called antisemitic.

Geoffrey Stone, a law professor at the university, oversaw the 2015 Chicago statement, and said that some nuance has been lost. While the First Amendment protects the right for people to “say things that scare other people,” Mr. Stone said, “what you want to tell students and citizens is: You should try not to do that. You should communicate your message in a civil and respectful manner.”

Tents, Music, Disruption

The quad at the University of Chicago pulsed all weekend with the din of protest. The encampment, a mini-village of more than 100 tents, is just a few steps away from the building that houses the president’s office.

At any given time, the area teemed with dozens of students, who seemed to be enjoying unseasonably warm spring weather. Bob Dylan blasted from loudspeakers. Chants that many Jews consider a call to wipe out the state of Israel — “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — rang out. Chalked slogans covered the sidewalks: “Staying invested is a political statement, not neutrality” and “Chinese Queer Feminists for Palestine.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson even paid a visit.

Tension was evident, however, with some students wearing masks or kaffiyehs to cover their faces. Protesters held up blankets to prevent photographers from taking pictures. Some Jewish students walked through the quad on their way home from services, passing signs that read “Globalize the Intifada” and “Jews Say Ceasefire Now.”

When student protesters first set up the encampment on April 29, the university president, Dr. Alivisatos, sent a clear message to the demonstrators that his leniency was not indefinite.

But students say they will stay on the quad until their demands are met, which span a range of issues that are both related to and tangential to the Palestinian cause. These include pulling out of investments that fund military operations in Israel; stating that a genocide and “scholasticide,” the destruction of Palestinian universities, are taking place in Gaza; disbanding the campus police; and ending construction of new buildings in the surrounding neighborhood, as a way to stop gentrification.

Those appear to be nonstarters with the administration because of Chicago’s neutrality policy. It has resisted such pressure before. As other prominent universities heeded students’ demands in the 1980s to divest from companies that did business in South Africa, the University of Chicago was a notable exception.

But the university has also been inconsistent, said Mr. Hasweh, the student protester, pointing to its statement of support for those affected by the invasion of Ukraine.

For some protesters, Chicago’s vaunted free speech doctrine seems like a dusty relic, irrelevant to what is happening in the world, especially when it comes to the war in Gaza, which for them, amounts to genocide.

Speech principles are relatable to many students and faculty in “the way that the value statements of Procter & Gamble are related to the employees of Procter & Gamble,” said Anton Ford, an associate professor of philosophy who was at the encampment. “We didn’t vote on them. The students didn’t vote on them. Nobody asked us about our opinion on them.”

Callie Maidhof, who teaches global studies with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is advising protesters as they negotiate with the administration. She said the university was “strategically using” its stance on neutrality as a way to clamp down on the demonstrations.

“I hear people saying, ‘I like free speech, but this has gone too far,’” Dr. Maidhof said. “But where is the line when you’re talking about 40,000 people killed? What could be considered too far?”

And Now, Impasse

On Friday, four days after the encampment started, the university sent a sobering message to the demonstrators.

“The encampment cannot continue,” Dr. Alivisatos wrote in a statement. It had created a “systematic disruption of campus,” he continued. “Protesters are monopolizing areas of the Main Quad at the expense of other members of our community. Clear violations of policies have only increased.”

He added, “The encampment protesters have flouted our policies rather than working within them.”

The university has accused student demonstrators of engaging in the kind of activity that flies in the face of Chicago’s culture — including shouting down counter demonstrators and destroying an installation of Israeli flags. The student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, reported that at one point over the weekend, demonstrators used a projector to display a profane insult to Dr. Alivisatos on the main administration building.

The tent village was a sprawling and humbling reminder that even an institution dedicated to nurturing a culture of agreeable disagreement cannot quell the outrage that has led to raucous demonstrations, occupations of buildings, graduation disruptions and arrests at colleges across the country.

“If someone were to design a stress test to reveal all the of fault lines and unresolved issues in higher education among student activism, this is it,” said Jamie Kalven, a journalist who has extensively studied the University of Chicago’s history with free speech and protest.

Mr. Kalven’s father, Harry Kalven, chaired the committee that established the university’s position on political neutrality in 1967. The impasse today, the son said, reflects how many students — on Chicago’s ivy-draped campus and beyond — do not share the school’s values when it comes to political expression.

“It’s really remarkable the degree to which young people are alienated from what I think of as the First Amendment tradition,” he said.

And the stalemate reflects the extent to which today’s combative political climate has also infected academia.

“The default setting is confrontation,” said Eboo Patel, president of Interfaith America, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes cooperation across religious faiths.

“What was the symbol of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee?” Mr. Patel asked, referring to one of the most active civil rights groups of the 1960s. “It was two hands clasped together.”

And today what is the symbol that many groups seeking social and political change use? Mr. Patel answered: “The fist.”

The ability to engage productively with people who share different political views is something that Olivia Gross, a fourth-year undergraduate, wishes young people would learn to do more naturally.

“I came here to hear views that are different than mine,” she said in an interview. “That’s the point of coming to the University of Chicago. I want to know what you think and why you think it.”

But she said the current climate made that difficult sometimes.

Students at the encampment, she noted, had set up tents for a variety of different purposes — for welcoming protesters, for medical needs and for food.

“How nice would it be,” she mused, “to have a tent that invited dialogue across differences?”

Bob Chiarito contributed reporting.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the date of the Chicago statement on free speech. It was released in 2015, not 2014.

How we handle corrections

Jeremy W. Peters is a Times reporter who covers debates over free expression and how they impact higher education and other vital American institutions. More about Jeremy W. Peters

Our Coverage of the U.S. Campus Protests

News and Analysis

Columbia : After weeks of student protests, Columbia University announced that it would be canceling its main commencement ceremony .

UChicago : The University of Chicago, which says that free speech is sacred, has allowed protest encampments. But they have also disrupted campus life, and the school’s leaders want the tents down .

U.S.C.:  The Los Angeles Police Department and campus police removed a pro-Palestinian encampment for the second time  at the University of Southern California.

Outside Agitators:  Officials in New York City have blamed “external actors” for escalating demonstrations at Columbia, but student protesters reject the claim .

Clashes at U.C.L.A.: A New York Times examination of more than 100 videos from clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles, shows how counterprotesters provoked the violence .

Reactions Abroad:  The world is watching what is happening on American campuses with shock, pride, relish and alarm. Here is a selection of views from outside the United States .

A Spotlight on Student Journalists:  Columbia’s radio station and other student-led news outlets have provided some of the most detailed coverage  of the turmoil engulfing campuses.

Advertisement

• Skip to Navigation
• Skip to Main Content
• Skip to Related Content
• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard
• Scores/Schedules
• Wemby Watch
• Fantasy Basketball
• In-Season Tournament
• All-Star Game
• Power Rankings
• Fantasy Baseball
• Draft Grades
• Scores/Schedule
• Fantasy Football
• Free Agency
• Fantasy Hockey
• UFC Schedule
• Yahoo Sports AM
• Leaderboard
• PGA Championship
• Masters Tournament
• Tournament Schedule
• French Open
• Australian Open
• Playoff and Bowl Games
• March Madness
• Caitlin Clark Scoring Record
• College Sports
• Fantasy Sports
• Sports Betting 101
• Bet Calculator
• Legalization Tracker
• Casino Games
• Paris Games Home
• Kentucky Derby
• Preakness Stakes
• Belmont Stakes
• Ball Don't Lie
• Yahoo Fantasy Football Show
• College Football Enquirer
• Baseball Bar-B-Cast
• Wolves rout Nuggets in Game 2
• Wemby unanimously wins ROY
• Brunson leads Knicks past Pacers
• Bruins pound Panthers in Game 1
• Tom Brady roast highlights

Riley Gaines urges 'courage, faith and freedom' during Adrian College commencement speech

ADRIAN — Shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, Adrian College ’s bell tower rang 24 consecutive times to honor the 2024 graduating class. Then the tassels were turned, and the mortarboards were flung into the air.

AC’s spring commencement, held outdoors on the college Mall directly in the heart of campus, saw 258 students earn undergraduate degrees; 31 students earn graduate degrees; and 12 students graduate as part of the college’s Honors Program.

The commencement address was delivered by keynote speaker Riley Gaines, who has been at the center of outrage and disappointment by many for being selected as the commencement speaker. There also have been those who applauded the college’s choice for welcoming Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky with five Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles, to campus.

Gaines now advocates against transgender women competing in women's sports. Her criticism of transgender women being allowed to compete in women’s sports began in March 2022 after she tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship.

In those same championships, Thomas became the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA Division I national championship when she won the 500-yard freestyle.

With her sights set on attending dental school after college, Gaines’ life changed, Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking said, when she found out she would be competing against a biological male — Thomas — at the women’s swimming championship “that created an unfair advantage.”

From March 2024: Critic of transgender women in women's sports to be Adrian College commencement speaker

Since that day, Docking continued in his introduction, Gaines has made it her mission to advocate for upholding competitive fairness for women in sports, and to preserve the spirit of Title IX. The comment received applause from many in attendance.

Gaines also “serves as a role model for courageously speaking out against an issue that could forever change women’s sports in America,” Docking concluded.

As she approached the podium, Gaines received applause and cheers. She delivered a speech that lasted just under 15 minutes titled, “Daring to Speak Up: Finding Your Voice and Standing Your Ground.”

Courage, faith and freedom

Three topics made up Gaines’ commencement address: courage, faith and freedom, specifically the freedom of speech.

Gaines, who dedicated 18 years of her life to the sport of swimming, said she is using her platform and her campaign against transgender women in women’s sports as a means for defending sex-based protections both in a Biblical and objective sense.

She is the SEC record holder in the 200-yard butterfly making her one of the fastest swimming Americans of all time; a two-time Olympic trial qualifier; and the SEC Community Service Leader of the Year. Her success is because of a lifelong journey, she said.

“I didn’t want to be seen as disrespectful. I wanted to be liked. I thought twice before I spoke to an issue that was deemed controversial,” she said. “...But I chose to be courageous. Courage is a virtue that’s often misunderstood, commonly being conflated with fearlessness. But make no mistake, these words are not synonymous, and they are not interchangeable. Being fearless means you lack fear. But being courageous is quite the opposite. Having courage means you are willing to do the right, fair, just and moral thing despite the fears that you face. It is the strength to confront adversity and to pursue your dreams with unwavering determination.”

Faith, the second point of her speech, is central to all that she does, Gaines said.

“Above anything else, I want to live a Christ-like life,” she said. “As I toured campus today, I was delighted to see (Herrick) Chapel in the center (of campus) exactly where it should be as a beacon of hope and eternal love for everyone.”

At the beginning of her advocacy journey, she said she often asked God, “Why me? I’m not equipped for this.”

“I came to understand, pretty quickly, actually, that I was wrong in my thinking, that God calls those who are already equipped" she said. "Our God equips the called."

When it comes to freedom and freedom of speech, it is important, she said, for people to speak freely but also to listen to another person’s point of view.

Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news, and high school and college sports content.

“By opening our lives to those we disagree with, we grow, and we learn, and we evolve, and we refine our arguments for and against our points of view," she said. "By speaking freely and listening to others, we can also find much common ground, which allows us to reconcile some of our differences or accept them and live together."

During her advocacy journey, Gaines said she has faced and endured resistance, censorship and violence by those wanting to silence her.

Law enforcement presence

It was evident that Adrian College was prepared for any sort of disruption that may have taken place during the ceremonies.

Law enforcement with Adrian College Campus Security, the Adrian Police Department, the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police patrolled the campus before and during the graduation exercises.

Gaines said she has been verbally and physically attacked by those who do not agree with her advocacy against transgender women in women’s sports. There were no such signs of unrest or major protests throughout Adrian College’s campus that put a pause into the ceremony.

When visiting San Francisco State University last year to speak about her campaign, demonstrators both inside and outside the room in which she was speaking protested her message. After she finished speaking, Gaines was escorted by law enforcement officials to shelter in a classroom where she stayed for hours while protesters continued to demonstrate.

As part of Sunday’s speech, Gaines made note of an online petition urging Adrian College to disinvite her from being the 2024 spring commencement speaker. The petition , started on March 12 by Safe Place , Adrian College’s student organization advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community, has surpassed 2,000 total signatures as of Sunday night.

“I ask you who oppose my presence, ‘What are you so afraid of?’” she said. “Having your perspectives challenged? Being encouraged to engage in independent thought? The freedom of thought and expression should be cherished by all in a world where ideas are increasingly polarized, and dissent is often met with hostility. Never underestimate the power of your voice to spark change and challenge the status quo.”

— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at  [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly Twitter:  www.twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman .

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Riley Gaines urges courage, faith and freedom during graduation address

Recommended Stories

Former jaguars rb fred taylor got his florida degree 26 years after leaving for nfl.

Fred Taylor made a promise to his grandmother.

Angel Reese, Serena Williams stun at 2024 Met Gala, while Ben Simmons' clock briefcase inspired jokes

Ben Simmons brought a clock briefcase to the "Garden of Time" themed Met Gala, and people had jokes.

Formula 1: Miami Grand Prix won by Lando Norris sets United States viewership record

Over 3 million people watched Norris get the first F1 win of his career.

'Find a way': New York's state of mind powers Knicks past Pacers amid controversial ending

The Knicks came away with a Game 1 victory behind Donte DiVincenzo clutch bombs, Josh Hart lightning strikes and another historic performance by Jalen Brunson.

Upstart Timberwolves have the Nuggets looking like anything but champions

Minnesota has made Denver look powerless in taking a dominant 2-0 lead as the series now shifts to the Target Center.

Heat's Pat Riley unhappy with Jimmy Butler's remarks on Celtics and Knicks, implies he needs to play more

Miami Heat president Pat Riley rebuked comments Jimmy Butler made about the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, while also implying that his star needs to play more.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch calls Jamal Murray's heat-pack toss on court 'inexcusable and dangerous'

Murray made a bad night on the court worse during a moment of frustration on the bench.

NBA playoffs: Timberwolves swarm Nuggets to take commanding 2-0 series lead over champs

The way things are going, the reigning champion Nuggets may not play another game at home this season.

2024 NBA offseason previews: Team needs, free agents, draft picks, cap space and more

The 2023-024 NBA season isn't yet over. A number of teams are still dreaming of championship glory. But for those that have been bounced from the playoffs, it's time to reassess and re-evaluate for next season.

Victor Wembanyama wins NBA Rookie of the Year via unanimous vote after delivering on unprecedented hype

Victor Wembanyama did everything for the Spurs as a rookie.

Colorado's social media squabble, athlete compensation models and fried chicken battery

On today's pod Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger, and SI's Pat Forde recount Colorado's latest social media drama, potential athlete compensation models, and a man who was arrested for throwing fried chicken at his sister.

Texans: Tank Dell 'will make a full recovery' after being shot, but his status for Week 1 isn't clear

Details of Dell's injury remain unclear, and his status for the start of the 2024 season is uncertain.

LIV's Talor Gooch announces an invitation to play in PGA Championship

Despite not qualifying through traditional channels, LIV's Talor Gooch apparently will be playing in Valhalla.

The Scorecard: Andy Pages looks set to go down as one of the best fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups of 2024

Fantasy baseball analyst Dalton Del Don delivers his latest batch of hot takes as we enter Week 6 of the season.

New Orleans Pelicans 2024 NBA offseason preview: Can they ever get healthy?

Zion Williamson's health will determine any success the Pels have.

5 things to know from the weekend in MLB: Dodgers trounce Braves, Phillies' Trea Turner injured and more

Here's what you might've missed from this weekend's action across the league.

Kyle Larson beats Chris Buescher at Kansas in closest finish in NASCAR history

Larson won by 0.001 seconds.

Twins' 12-game win streak ends with 9–2 loss to Red Sox

The Minnesota Twins' 12-game winning streak ended on Sunday with a 9–2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Target Field.

Bulls' Lonzo Ball picks up $21.4 million option for 2024-25 season amid knee concerns

Ball hasn't played since the 2021-22 season.

NBA Playoffs: Magic vs. Cavaliers Game 7 updates, score, highlights, analysis

The Magic and Cavs are giving us the only Game 7 of the playoffs so far.