Help me write my art & design college commencement speech!

April 17, 2007 9:48 AM

What would you want to say to a community of brand new thinkers/changers/makers? Or what advice can you give me about commencement speeches in general?

I'm a graduating senior at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and would like to (and feel obligated to) give our commencement speech. Next week, interested students are supposed to present an outline of what we'd like to say, and the graduates will vote for the speaker/speech they'd like.

I've been thinking a lot about what I'd like to say, but was wondering if any Metafilter folks had ideas of ideas relevant for students entering the arts community, both fine & commercial.

I have some ideas already, but want to leave the question as open as I can!

Thanks!

posted by SoylentErin to Education (10 answers total)

i like to make people laugh as well as give them good advice, so i would tell them never to wear uncomfortable shoes.
posted by bruce at 9:56 AM on April 17, 2007

You might be able to get some ideas from the best commencement speech ever: "Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen" (originally an essay called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young."... Here's the Wikipedia page about its origins and here's the Baz Lurhmann song version (audio in English, subtitles in Portuguese).
posted by amyms at 10:19 AM on April 17, 2007

P.S. One of my favorite lines from "Sunscreen": Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life; the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
posted by amyms at 10:23 AM on April 17, 2007

I think David Foster Wallace's Kenyon commencement speech is one of the better things ever written about the purpose of education.
posted by backupjesus at 10:30 AM on April 17, 2007

I have absolutely no memory of my commencement speech. the speaker was Bill Bradley, but I have zero memory of a single word he said.

Acknowledge the fact that you are probably not going to change any lives. Everyone is thinking about the party afterwards and hanging out with family and friends and how uncomfortable their seat is.

So what should you say? I don't know, but try to steer clear of the "profound" and the "as you go forth into the world..." cliches. if you are not extremely comfortable with writing and performing comedy, don't try to be funny- it won't work. Try to be, for lack of a less trite term, real. Don't say what the teachers would want you to say. Take this opportunity to talk directly and honestly to your peers, in your own words. Don't force yourself into awkward formality that isn't you, just because of the occasion.
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:34 AM on April 17, 2007

I'm a graduating senior at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design

Since you're in a specific field and also addressing people going into that field, I'd try to tailor the message to that area, and not do too much of the general advice which could apply to graduates in any field.

Also, since you're addressing your peers, the "sage advice from the voice of experience" tone which outside, invited commencement speakers typically adopt probably won't work for you. In looking over other commencement speeches that are, or will be, linked in this thread, keep in mind who's giving a speech when you think about its tone.

I will say, though, I'm fond of Steve White's 2002 address to the College of Creative Studies at UCSB. I don't know if it's helpful to you or not, but there it is.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:55 AM on April 17, 2007

As an antidote to Baz Luhrmann, you might also want to check out Chris Rock.
posted by Jakey at 11:30 AM on April 17, 2007

On a more serious note, I've always thought that the sentiments of Bertrand Russell's In Praise of Idleness would make a fine basis for this kind of thing.
posted by Jakey at 11:33 AM on April 17, 2007

I actually used to work on a committee that selected the student commencement speakers for a university's graduation. I can't tell you what you should talk about, but I can point out a few tips that, if not followed, can really detract from a student speaker's presentation.

- Do not forget that you are on par with your audience. DevilsAdvocate is right that you should not adopt the "sage advice" tone; more specifically a good way to avoid this is by never addressing the students as "you", but rather as "we".

- If you are going to give some kind of advice, make sure it is not framed as coming from you, a student, but rather as a piece of advice that you received from someone more experienced, say one of your profs, that had an impact on you.

- Don't get political in a way that can alienate part of the audience. As a student in this context, no political arguments or facts you can bring to the table are going to have much impact on the audience, as they are your peers. At best, the students will fall asleep when they realize the speech no longer involves them. At worst, they'll resent you for having turned the celebration into a political platform.

- Make sure your address engages the other members of the audience, not just the students--presumably a large percentage of the people watching will be family members, for example, so it's a good idea to involve them somehow.

There may be more, but those are the most important ones I can think of off the top of my head.
posted by voltairemodern at 11:34 AM on April 17, 2007

Bill Cosby gave the commencement address for my sister's college graduation, and he spent most of the time scolding the students; it was similar in tone to this (although at a different college). I think it was supposed to be funny, but it came across as being really offensive---here were these students who had just achieved this cool accomplishment (graduating college!) and he was hassling them about all this stuff they hadn't done, or hadn't done right...so don't do that. (I'm still angry about it; it seemed so inappropriate!)
posted by leahwrenn at 6:18 PM on April 17, 2007