Every year hundreds of college students complete their study programs, and their friends and family come to support that a special ceremony. Probably the most important part of the ceremony is a speech given by a well-known or important person to mark the event. But what makes any one of these speeches better than another?

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Graduation ceremonies are the emotional end of four very hard-working years for most students.

They will sit among hundreds of young, hopeful graduates, wearing long robes and square-shaped hats with a tassel that keeps getting in the way. Family and friends will sit behind, many of them emotional, too.

It’s graduation time. And most graduations are punctuated by a speech that hopefully sends graduates forth on the road of life.

Toastmasters International trains people in public speaking in about 145 countries. Dilip Abayasekara, a former president of Toastmasters International, says speeches have been an important part of graduation ceremonies in the United States and other countries for about 100 years or more.

Colleges and universities carefully choose who will speak at their ceremony. Schools often choose people who are well-known and successful, in fields like entertainment or business. They plan the ceremony to be one final lesson to the students, he says.

“Perhaps the public at large will get a glimpse into the forces that shaped this person,” Abayasekara said. “And they will also get a glimpse into what kind of message this person wants to leave in the hearts of the next generation of leaders.”

How to make a speech memorable

Some famous commencement speakers in 2016 were film director Steven Spielberg, who directed E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Men in Black, and Transformers, and businessman Peter Theil, who founded the online money-transfer service, PayPal.

Most speeches offer advice such as believing in oneself or never giving up when life becomes difficult. But what makes a commencement speech truly great and memorable?

John Gabrieli is a professor of neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies memory. Gabrieli says memories are created from moments when a person experiences a strong emotional reaction, like graduation.

Gabrieli says he has seen many commencement speeches, but admits he cannot remember any of them well. Most commencement speeches are too similar, often just celebrating the students and thanking the people who have supported them. This does not make for strong memories, he says.

“What we remember, besides emotion, is what is unexpected,” he said. “So a commencement speaker has a challenge, if it’s going to be memorable, to say something unexpected.”

Gabrieli notes that truly memorable speakers make challenging statements or change the way the speech is typically given.

For example, former First Lady Michelle Obama reminded graduates of the City College of New York in 2016 that every days she “wake[s] up in a house that was built by slaves.” She was referring to the White House.

Former VOA Director Geoffrey Cowan adds that a commencement speech can fail if they are too lofty. Cowan, a professor of communications at the University of Southern California, says speakers often forget that public speaking should build a connection with the audience.

“The worst thing to do is to talk down to the audience,” Cowan says, “and there’s often a tendency to do that, or to talk in a mechanical way.”

Another commencement-speech fail is when a speaker loses her or his place and the speech becomes incoherent.

What people can learn from a great speech

Cowan says the best commencement speeches center on a single idea, like a personal story from the speaker’s life. Apple founder Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates in 2005 about how he left college without completing a degree program. Jobs also spoke about dying of cancer and how that changed his worldview.

Cowan adds that the best speeches challenge students. In 2008, writer J.K. Rowling asked graduates at Harvard University not to fear failure but learn from it. And in 2005, writer David Foster Wallace asked graduates at Kenyon College to try and understand and value other people’s points of view.

If a commencement speech is truly great and memorable, it will not only serve to inform and inspire the graduates, says Cristina Negrut, who operates a website called Graduate Wisdom. Since 2006, her website has collected the best commencement speeches and advice on how to write them.

Before the internet, many of these speeches could easily disappear with the graduate’s memories, she says.

“Now, with social media, the speaker … ends up giving the speech not just to the university and the audience they have in the stadium,” she says, “but to the world.”

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Cedarville University in the U.S. state of Ohio says it’s got more than 140 international students representing 44 countries.

Here, the school interviews Jonathan Sutton, director of international student services. He talks about his job and the opportunities for international students on campus.

Read the full article here.

Morehouse College, a private, historically Black liberal arts college in the U.S. state of Georgia, offers a guide for international students interested in attending the school.

Among the tips to apply and thrive at Morehouse:

• Take advantage of the school’s orientation program
• Turn to the school’s Center for Academic Success for tutoring, support and more
• Immerse yourself in campus life via clubs and societies

Read the full article here.

WASHINGTON — 

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.

The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

It's part of President Donald Trump's promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.

In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department's power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of investigations, which stem from complaints.

Messages seeking comment were left with all five universities.
A statement from the Education Department criticized colleges for tolerating antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that followed. It also criticized the Biden administration for negotiating "toothless" resolutions that failed to hold schools accountable.

"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, the agency's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

The department didn't provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism. The hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia's Minouche Shafik.

An October report from House Republicans accused Columbia of failing to punish pro-Palestinian students who took over a campus building, and it called Northwestern's negotiations with student protesters a "stunning capitulation."

House Republicans applauded the new investigations. Representative Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said he was "glad that we finally have an administration who is taking action to protect Jewish students."

Trump's order also calls for a full review of antisemitism complaints filed with the Education Department since Oct. 7, 2023, including pending and resolved cases from the Biden administration. It encourages the Justice Department to take action to enforce civil rights laws.

Last week's order drew backlash from civil rights groups who said it violated First Amendment rights that protect political speech.

The new task force announced Monday includes the Justice and Education departments along with Health and Human Services.

"The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found," said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump's renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools."