The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/convocation/page/2/)
Ava DuVernay, the first black female director to have her movie nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, will address Cornell’s Class of 2018 during Convocation on May 26 as the keynote speaker.
Former Vice President Joe Biden told thousands of Cornell graduating seniors and their families that Cornell is “one of the great, great universities in the world” and implored graduates to “wake up,” be tolerant and make their mark on the world.
Cornell Dairy is working to to name an ice cream flavor after former Vice President Joe Biden, who will speak at this year’s convocation on May 27.
“You are the best our country has to offer, so please go out and be generous and be good,” he said to the Class of 2016.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that no one remembers their commencement speaker’s speech,” Franco said in a Huffington Post article.
A good convocation speaker should have “a story to tell,” and Franco’s “creativity and life experiences” satisfy this criterion, Salvagno said.
Benfanti said this year’s speaker selection committee was determined to select a speaker whose background and experiences would “resonate with the widest audience possible.”
David Plouffe, campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, will be this year’s convocation speaker, the Convocation Committee announced at yesterday’s Student Assembly meeting.
Plouffe, whom Obama has referred to as “the unsung hero” of “the best political campaign in the history of the United States of America,” will address this year’s graduating class.
“Our committee sought an individual who has had a profound impact on the society that our class has been prepared to enter,” C.J. Slicklen ’09 stated in an e-mail yesterday. Slicklen is chair of the Convocation Committee and a Sun columnist.
Saturday morning saw one of the rare events that filled Barton Hall. But President David J. Skorton was a bit more family friendly than Ludacris and (slightly) less funny than Jon Stewart when he delivered his first official public address as head of the University to thousands of incoming freshman and their families.