PUBLIC SERVICE IS WRITTEN into Harvard Kennedy School’s DNA, Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China and a former HKS professor, told the crowd of graduating HKS students and their families in May as the speaker for the HKS Graduation Address. He urged graduates to confront the “seemingly overwhelming challenges” of the world they are heading out into and “find the collective vision, the collective faith, the collective courage to do something about it.” “The world needs change,” Burns said. “The world needs your help. Change the world, change it for the better, make it more humane, make it more just, make it more prosperous, make it more peaceful.” Burns, who taught at the Kennedy School for 13 years before returning to public service in 2021, spoke to an audience of 659 graduating students from 35 U.S. states and 87 countries, calling them “our planet in microcosm.” The student body is 56% international, one of the most cosmopolitan classes in the School’s history. Alluding to President Kennedy’s famous challenge to Americans—words that the Kennedy School has made its own—Burns reminded the graduates that their obligation is not to themselves but to humanity. “It’s, ‘Ask what you can do.’ It’s not, ‘What will I gain?’ It’s not, ‘What will I profit from?’ It’s not, ‘What’s in it for me?’ It’s, ‘Ask what you can do to make this a better world.’ The Kennedy School asks that you not just be involved in the world but to be great in the world.”
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“In our country today, we are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society.”
“For many politicians today, the word ‘shame’ does not register.”
“We don’t have to compete in the ‘oppression Olympics’ to see who is suffering more.”
“History will be kind to me.”
“We don’t know all that much, and we may not even know what we think we know.”
“How much do you feel you can say, ‘We’ve moved past a lot of the mistakes that were made in policing at the time?’”
You can watch the events featuring these speakers through the videos below:
- Koh: Race, Police, and the Media in America
- Baron: Objective Journalism in America: A Conversation with Marty Baron
- McCarthy: The 2024 Election, Trump, and the Future of American Democracy
- DuVernay: A Conversation with Ava DuVernay: Resistance, Storytelling, and Film
- Totenberg: The 2024 Goldsmith Awards Ceremony
- Sanders: A Conversation with Senator Bernie Sanders | 2024: Where Do We Go From Here?
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Banner photograph by Kayla Szymczak; Headshots by Martha Stewart.