Online graduations bring stars to the virtual lectern
This year's college graduates won't get to take their triumphant walk across the stage. They won't get to toss their caps amid a sea of classmates. Instead, they have to settle for online ceremonies while their diplomas are mailed home.
But at least one aspect of the traditional graduation ceremony is being salvaged for the class of 2020: the celebrity keynote address. As scores of U.S. colleges host virtual graduation ceremonies amid the coronavirus pandemic, many are recruiting famous figures to give commencement speeches over their laptops instead of the lectern.
In the first weeks of graduation season, schools have landed speeches from big names including Tom Hanks, Pharrell Williams and Tom Brady. Others are promising appearances from comedians, authors, civil rights leaders and politicians.
At the same time, a growing number of companies are stepping in with their own star-studded events celebrating college graduates across the nation. On Friday, Facebook is hosting a “Graduation 2020” event with commencement speeches from Oprah Winfrey, Awkwafina, Lil Nas X and Simone Biles, among others.
YouTube is offering a “Dear Class of 2020” celebration headlined by Barack and Michelle Obama, with additional speeches from Lady Gaga, Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and the K-Pop supergroup BTS. A separate online event will celebrate graduates at historically black colleges, with speeches from Barack Obama and a host of other stars. It's all meant to take the sting out of losing such a memorable moment.
Schools across the U.S. started canceling or postponing traditional ceremonies in March, to the dismay of graduates who had hoped to celebrate years of hard work.
In their addresses, some speakers have used the moment to offer a lesson on life's curve balls and the need to adapt.
In a video message for Texas A&M University's l aw school, actor Rainn Wilson told graduates he was sorry t hey couldn't share “big group hugs and high fives and kisses on the cheek.”
But he also said students can learn from that disappointment. “It may also teach a very valuable life lesson not to take anything for granted. To know that things can and will change all the time,” Wilson said.
“The world out there can be incredibly difficult and fraught, and plans change all the time.”
Tom Hanks, who survived C OVID -19, told graduates at Wright State University that their lives will forever be divided into time before and after the coronavirus pandemic, in the same way that past generations had their lives marked by wars. “You have finished Wright State during the great reset, the great reboot,” Hanks said in a video message.
“You chosen ones are going to form the new structures and define the new realities, and make the new world — the world after all that we have been through.”