3 graduation speeches to recharge your journalism spirit

A few commencement words to inspire new and veteran journalists

Do you remember your college graduation? A student asked me last week about my graduation memories and I was embarrassed to say I couldn’t remember much about it. Maybe it’s age, maybe the ceremonies weren’t that interesting. Maybe a little of both. 

Most commencement speeches almost follow an official template: insert inspirational message here, fit in a relatable anecdote there and sprinkle some life advice in between. But the speakers have an unenviable job: inspire, inform and entertain the crowd  — and keep it short.

As graduation season kicks off across campuses, here are a few J-school commencement speech excerpts from the past few years that rose above the usual. Maybe they will inspire those graduates just starting out or re-energize those who’ve been at this thing called journalism for a while.