Commencement 2011 - Words of Wisdom

Click Here to read the words of wisdom given at women’s college commencements

Sheryl Sandberg
Chief operating officer, Facebook
Barnard College

From the New York Times
June 11, 2011
For Life’s Next Stage, Gallows Humor and Sage Advice By LISA W. FODERARO

They spoke of courage in an uncertain economy, warned against technology overload and tried to redefine success for a new generation. They railed against fear, conformity, stasis and self-involvement. And they asked row upon row of young men and women to do nothing less than save the world.

They were this season’s commencement speakers — writers, politicians, executives, actors and, at the nontraditional Hampshire College, a cafeteria cashier — charged with sending newly minted college graduates into the world with parting words of wisdom. Each year, the speeches gauge the national mood, youthful obsessions, geopolitical flashpoints and planetary health.

The New York Times measured the frequency of key words in 40 of the hundreds of speeches delivered this spring. Perhaps as an indicator of the still-guarded condition of the national economy, the words "world," "country" "love" and "service" showed up far more often than "money," "happiness" and "success." The author Jonathan Franzen, at Kenyon College, rhapsodized about "love" and "passion," using the words some 40 times; Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, said "Facebook" more than anyone else.

In contrast to last year, a new resignation about the job market seemed to have settled in. A kind of gallows humor wended its way like a soup line through the speeches, with jokes about the parental basement as the cool new bachelor pad. "The games look better on their big screens anyway," Brad Ellsworth, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, told graduates at the University of Southern Indiana.

Speaking to the most plugged-in generation in history, the actor Tom Hanks told Yale’s class of 2011 to occasionally yank the plug, saying all the gadgets "translated into a perpetual distraction in our lives — in the bathroom, at the dinner table, in the back seat, at a wedding, at a bris, at a graduation day."

Similarly, Mr. Franzen spoke of the shallow pleasures of "liking" as defined by Facebook, urging instead the riskier, more rewarding venture of love. "Because the fundamental fact about all of us is that we’re alive for a while but will die before long," he said. "And you can either run from this fact or, by way of love, you can embrace it."

Also from The New York Times see Word usage in 40 speeches given at graduations this year.

Excerpt from one of this year’s commencement addresses at a women’s college:

Sheryl Sandberg
Chief operating officer, Facebook
Barnard College

Women almost never make one decision to leave the work force. It doesn’t happen that way. They make small little decisions along the way that eventually lead them there. Maybe it’s the last year of med school when they say, "I’ll take a slightly less interesting specialty because I’m going to want more balance one day." Maybe it’s the fifth year in a law firm when they say, "I’m not even sure I should go for partner, because I know I’m going to want kids eventually." These women don’t even have relationships, and already they’re finding balance, balance for responsibilities they don’t yet have. And from that moment, they start quietly leaning back.

So, my heartfelt message to all of you is, and start thinking about this now, do not leave before you leave. Do not lean back; lean in. Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision. That’s the only way, when that day comes, you’ll even have a decision to make.

NPR clip

Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR’s On Point, featured a clip of Sandberg’s commencement address, on a recent show, The “Mommy Track” Debate in Medicine. To listen, Click Here

Another excerpt delivered by a women's college alumna:

Anna Quindlen (Barnard College ’74)
Writer
Grinnell College

We’re now supposed to apologize to you because it seems that that’s no longer how it works, that you won’t inherit the S.U.V., which was way too big, or the McMansion that was way too big, or the corner office that was way too big.

But I suggest that this is a moment to consider what “doing better” really means. If you are part of the first generation of Americans who genuinely see race and ethnicity as attributes, not stereotypes, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the first generation of Americans with a clear understanding that gay men and lesbians are entitled to be full citizens of this country with all its rights, will you not have done better than we did? If you are part of the first generation of Americans who assume women merit full equality instead of grudging acceptance, will you not have done better than we did?