jkrowling哈佛演讲

jkrowling哈佛演讲（通用6篇）

篇1：jkrowling哈佛演讲

J.K.Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.Text as delivered follows.Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.The first thing I would like to say is „thank you.‟ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight.A win-win situation!Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world‟s largest Gryffindor reunion.Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility;or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation.The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock.Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can‟t remember a single word she said.This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.You see? If all you remember in years to come is the „gay wizard‟ joke, I‟ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called „real life‟, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree;I wanted to study English Literature.A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.Hardly had my parents‟ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression;it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated;you have never known hardship or heartbreak.Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person‟s idea of success, so high have you already flown.Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected;I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone‟s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International‟s headquarters in London.There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them.I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends.I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country‟s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people‟s places.Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages;they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;they can refuse to know.I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do.Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people‟s lives simply by existing.But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people‟s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world‟s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children‟s godparents, the people to whom I‟ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.I wish you all very good lives.Thank you very much.

篇2：jkrowling哈佛演讲

冬去春来，转眼间就到了一年一度的毕业典礼。六月初的天气清冷的反常，人们不得不穿薄毛衣或夹克。今年波士顿的天气变化无常，4月份有一两天气温高达32摄氏度以上，人们热得要开空调。随后的一个多月又冷得至少要穿两件衣服，但天气并不妨碍一系列的庆祝活动。

校园里照例彩旗飘飘，成群结队，欢声笑语，赠送鲜花，合影留念。主要庆祝活动集中在6月2日校长对毕业生的告别讲演(baccalaureate address)，3日大学本科毕业生自己组织的告别活动(class day),和4日哈佛毕业生联谊会(harvard alumni association)组织的毕业典礼(mencement)。

这是哈佛大学 你们离开校园时正好是经济风暴席卷全球，改变这个国家和世界的时候。你们也目睹了哈佛的变化。你们在四年中经历了三位校长(萨默斯，代校长巴克(derek bok),和福斯特本人)，你们经历了旧的教学大纲(core curriculum)的退出和新的教学大纲的引入(general education)，和一些校舍的变化。福斯特然后列举了一些优秀毕业生取得的成绩(没有点名道姓)。

她说，很多过去四年的变化是四年前没有想到的：奥巴马入主白宫，经济危机席卷全球，流感蔓延等等，这些都使未来更加难以预测。‚我要和你们讲的不是如何追求优秀，在这方面你们已经知道怎么做了，而是要讲如何利用未来的不确定性(uncertainty)。‛

去年这个时候，有很多哈佛毕业生选择了去华尔街工作。其中一个学生说，他这样选择的原因是不想进入‚真实世界‛(real world)，而进入金融行业是最稳妥，最保守的选择。金融风暴对你们来说也是一件好事，因为你们没有最保守的选择了。你们当中的一个学生说，因为金融公司今年很少招人，他准备去教书，而教书才是他真正想做的，今年的就业形势让他没有理由不做自己热爱的事。当然，有一少部分毕业生仍然会去金融公司工作。这也是好事，因为你们还年轻，有弹性和韧性承受金融界的动荡。与其在你们45岁时经历中年危机-自问：我到底在做什么?我为什么做这些?-还不如在20多岁的时候就反思这些问题。有一位作家描述和她先生去巴黎旅游的原因：不是有人要求我们去，也不是我们认为应该去，而是我们从心底里想去，这样我们的旅途就有了一个好的起点。福斯特说，这就是发自内心的动力，这就是生活。

她说，博雅教育(liberal arts education)的目的不是要训练你们成为某一方面的专家，有一份特定的工作，而是要让你们在不确定的充满变化的情形下有应变能力，能够即兴表演(improvise)。‚即兴生活(improvised life)是激情与平静，构架与自由，理性与感觉魔术般的结合。我们不喜欢不确定性(uncertainty)，更喜欢安定，但正是不确定性 给我们的个人生活和事业带来机遇‛。

最能概括福斯特讲演内容宗旨的话应该是她引用一位著名爵士音乐家的话，‚透彻的掌握你的乐器，你的乐谱，然后全部把它们抛在脑后，尽情地弹琴。‛现在的世界需要那些优秀的即兴表演家。

重新思考我们的生活，重新投入进去不是每一代人都有的机会。福斯特回忆自己1968年的大学毕业典礼。当时我们意气风发，雄心勃勃，觉得巨大的社会变革迫在眉睫，我们要结束战争，消灭贫困和种族歧视。渐渐地这种无所不能的乐观和激情消逝了，我们逐渐地变成了‚大人，成年人‛，我们回到了自己的小天地，为自己个人的好生活而努力，那种追求更高目标的境界和对更美好的世界的憧憬没有了。

但是现在又回来了。我们目前面对很多挑战--金融动荡，传染病蔓延，对内政策，对外政策都是困难重重。这些挑战和奥巴马入主白宫不仅仅使新的思想，新的投入成为可能，而且是必须。

奥巴马总统把我们生活的这个时代定义为重新振作和重新创造的时节(a season of renewal and reinvention)。重新振作，重新创造需要新的思想，新的思维。我们一直坚持最好的教育是那种培养分析能力的，形成思考习惯的，能够把信息(information)变成理解(understanding)的教育。这就是教育为什么这么重要，受过教育的你们这些人为什么这么重要。

学生聚会

class day的活动是在校园中间的露天草场tercentenary theatre，没有毕业典礼那么正式，形式上比较轻松。毕业生代表的讲话有对四年大学生活的认真反思，也有自嘲自讽的幽默。他们对最近四年的课业过重(over worked)，睡眠不足(under slept)直言不讳，他们的脑海里只是被‚成就‛(achievement)这个词充斥着。‚为了重建哈佛形象，有必要提醒整个世界哈佛的毕业生是多么的了不起，他们处处趾高气扬，只往上看，不往下看，永远觉得高人一筹。‛

哈佛校长演讲稿范文

听说有这样一个故事：它发生在1987年，有75位诺贝尔奖获得者聚会法国巴黎。某报社记者问其中一位获得者：“您在哪所大学、哪个实验室学到了您认为最主要的东西?”这位白发苍苍的学者回答说：“是在幼儿园。在那里，我学到了把自己的东西分一半给小伙伴，不是自己的东西不要拿。东西放整齐，饭前要冼手，做错了事要道歉。饭后要休息，要仔细观察周围的大自然。从根本上说，我学到的全部东西就是这些。”这位老者的回答是出人意料的，也是令人深思的，他认为在学校学到的最主要的东西不是深厚扎实的才学，而是一个人最基本的习惯和素养，也许这就是他日后获得诺贝尔奖的根基所在。

这个故事告诉我们要养成好习惯,要从小时候养成好习惯,别老是想着等到做事时才开始想着好好表现,等到需要时再认真学好习惯.这个故事还告诉我们,要想做好大事,要从细微处入手,从我们生活习惯中的点滴入手.如果细看他的谈话,他告诉我们要学会合作,友爱,遵纪守法,追求完美,讲究卫生,眼里要有别,热爱大自然.哈佛大学一项研究表明，工作中能否做出成绩，态度占85%，知识和智力只占15%。“细节管理专家”汪中求有一个著名的2.18分理论：人的智商分为智力因素和非智力因素，他认为从对人的一生的作用来看，智力因素占40%的权重;在智力因素的知识和技能对比中，知识占40%的权重;知识又分为书本知识和社会知识，书本知识占40%的权重;书本知识能在生活中应用的又占40%的权重。由此便能得出这样一个分值：

如果你在学校的总分为85，在学校所打下的底子，不过是1*40%*40%*40%*40%*85=2.18分。那些自认为以往的学习没打好底子的学生，最终什么也没有做成，表面看来，似乎印证了自己的预言，其实正是这种先入为主的消极态度，把他们潜在的“人”的能量给封杀了。

这段话告诉我们,在学习的过程中,知识是重要的,技能的培养,习惯的养成于成功来说也非常重要.要相信自己.七年级语文暑假作业上最后有一篇文章有有意义:一个在并没启动的冰库中被自己心里的冰点冻死了,他就是缺少自信,缺少积极乐观阳光的心态.“认真做事只是把事情做对

用心做事才能把事情做好”

或许最初提出这句话的并不是汪中求先生，但却没来由的喜欢着，只因它说到了人的心坎，清冽透彻。

一直以来，我都信奉着“踏踏实实做事，认认真真做人”的人生格言，从不怀疑。单纯地以为只要认真做好每件事情，就会心安理得，就无愧自己的工作，现在看来，我只是“认真”，而少了那份“用心”。就象我给我的学生说:

“记忆是学习之母

思考是学习的灵魂”

篇3：何江是怎样登上哈佛演讲台的?

在毕业典礼上演讲,相当于哈佛大学给予毕业生的最高荣誉。这不是他第一次获得一所大学毕业生的最高荣誉。何江曾经获得中国科学技术大学本科生最高荣誉奖——郭沫若奖学金,并作为获奖代表发言。

“现在乡村逐渐流行读书无用论,认为寒门很难再出贵子。这样的观点让我觉得挺无奈的。”何江表示,“教育能够改变一个人的生活轨迹,能够把一个人从一个世界带到另一个不同的世界。我希望我的成长经历,能给那些还在路上的农村学生一点鼓励,让他们看到坚持的希望。”

这个被誉为天才少年的中国学生,一路走来是如何成为现在人们眼中的“奇迹”的呢?

再苦再穷也不让儿子成为“留守儿童”

上世纪80年代的湖南农村,像当时中国所有的农村一样,以土坯房为主,孩子的零食以糖水为主。新中国成立以后的第一代“留守儿童”就在那时诞生,越来越多的农村父母到上海、广州等经济发达城市打工,老人照顾几个年幼在家的孩子。

1988年,湖南省长沙市宁乡县南田坪乡停钟村的一户农民家中,何江呱呱坠地。与村里其他农户不同的是,虽然家里经济条件一般,但何江的父母不想为了打工挣钱,而让儿子成为“留守儿童”。

何江印象最深的,是无论白天农活干得多累、多苦,何江的父亲都会在睡前给两个儿子讲故事。

几乎所有的故事, 都是一个主题——好好学习。何江上大学后,有一次问起父亲,父亲告诉他,很多故事都是自己瞎编的,目的只是想告诉孩子,只有读书才能有好的出路。

除了给儿子讲睡前故事,何江的父亲还严格要求两个孩子的学习。放学后,何家的两个儿子通常是被关在屋里“自习”,作业做完了,继续自习;而这个时候,大多数农村男孩都在田间地头玩耍。

“那时觉得爸爸很‘霸蛮’。但现在想想, 这是农村环境下的最佳选择。”何江后来考上了中国科学技术大学,又去哈佛大学硕博连读,而他的弟弟则成了电子科技大学的硕士毕业生,今年下半年就去上海工作了。

文化水平不高的母亲懂得鼓励孩子

在何江眼中,母亲是个温和派。父亲批评孩子学习不好时,母亲总会在一阵“狂风暴雨”后笑呵呵地跑过来,送上“和风细雨”。

在母亲那里,两个儿子总能找到自信。何江现在知道,母亲当年的做法,就和如今他所见到的美国人的做法一样——以鼓励孩子的方式,给予孩子最大的自信。

湖南农村的妇女,在农闲时通常喜欢聚集在一起唠家常。但何江的母亲更喜欢陪着两个儿子一起学习。

因为不识字,她总是要求两个儿子把课本里的故事念给自己听,遇到听不懂的地方,她还会跟两个儿子讨论。

何江记得,自己和弟弟都喜欢给母亲“上课”。母亲的循循善诱与何江如今正在接触的美国文化有着异曲同工之妙。“我刚来美国时很不习惯,不管提什么建议,导师都说可以试试看。”何江说,美国有一种“鼓励文化”,无论是诺贝尔奖得主,还是那些名字被印在教科书上的“牛人”,都会习惯性地给予学生鼓励。他们会在跟你一起啃汉堡、喝咖啡、泡酒吧时,时不时地鼓励你一番,让你觉得“前途不错”。

就连这次申请哈佛典礼演讲,何江也是在美国教授Diana Eck的鼓励下进行的。“教授告诉我,你只要觉得可以,就去试试,没什么好丢脸的。”

圆梦哈佛,师承小威

虽然生于农村,长于农村,但何江却一直怀揣着一个出国梦。这很大程度上受到了他的学姐庄小威的影响。凭借着优异的学习成绩,加上学校导师和香港理工大学校长潘宗光的推荐信,何江顺利地申请到了哈佛生物系的博士学位,并获得了全额奖学金。大学毕业前,何江就立志要去哈佛找小威学姐。所以他主动地联系了这位之前只是在报纸和新闻上频繁出现的学姐。庄小威也非常器重和照顾自己的中科大学弟,两人从此建立了师徒关系,何江也有幸在曾出过四五位诺贝尔奖、享誉世界的哈佛化学系庄小威实验室做博士研究,而这一做就是5年。

问及在这位世界闻名的科学家身上学到最多的是什么时,何江毫不犹豫地说:“对科研的热情与专业!”“她是我的role model,她能教会我最前沿的科学该怎么做! 她也可以告诉我‘What is the next big thing!’”

博士生活多姿多彩

何江坦言,哈佛最吸引他的地方是文理结合,充满创新的氛围。在这里,你能接触到世界上各行业最精英的人才。因此,在他入学的第一年,他就主动申请做本科生辅导员,因为他知道哈佛本科生是世界上最牛的本科生,他想去学习他们的领导力、创新力和表达能力并从中获得鼓舞。他也想知道像扎克伯格这样的人才是怎么去思考和学习的,同时这对他的英文能力也是一个提升的机会。他说这个工作让他最大的收获就是结交了很多思维开拓、充满创新意识的年轻人。

何江很早就意识到,只搞科研不注重实践很难有出路,所以他经常去哈佛商学院听关于经济和商业的讲座。像在中科大一样,他还是一如既往地去拓展自己的人脉,向自己圈外的人学习。一次偶然的机会,他去参加了世界著名经济史学家尼尔弗格森的一个关于《经济全球化》的讲座。听完讲座后,何江大胆地去和他分享了自己对于全球化以及中国农村发展的看法。尼尔弗格森对这位与自己完全不在一个领域,却对经济全球化如此热情和有见地的学生产生了兴趣。当场,这位世界级的大忙人就问:“你这周三有时间吗?我想请你出来喝杯咖啡,我们好好聊聊这个话题。”让何江没想到的是,吃饭当天,弗格森教授带来了好几位重量级教授,结果他们畅聊了4个小时。最后弗格森建议,你把你的故事写成一本书吧:从中国农村的变化来反应中国近30年的发展变化,因为你自己就是一个鲜活的例子。何江听完激动地答应了。

这一个承诺,让他整整付出了两年的努力,也几乎夺走了他的所有周末。何江坦言,写这本书对他来说是一个很大的挑战,因为毕竟英语不是自己的母语。但幸好他之前带的许多本科学生都乐意帮他修改语法和语式问题。如今这本书已经写完并在哈佛商学院教授的联系下,已经与出版社达成共识,最快在今年就能出版。

如今何江依然奋斗在科研的第一线,从哈佛博士毕业后,何江顺利进入了自己喜爱的MIT做博后工作。这也与他“科研一定要注重实践”的理想相一致。他现在研究的课题是“人体的3D打印与应用”,方向是3D打印人体肝脏,进行疾病模拟,研究肝炎病毒、疟疾以及癌症早期检测。这是一个属于盖茨基金会的项目,也是生物界最前沿的项目之一。目的是为了对抗危害人类的疾病研究。

何江的“奇迹”还在继续,未来对于这个中国小伙子还有无限的可能和挑战,真诚期待何江在科研界有更多的建树,继续创造属于他的、也属于我们的历史。

何江哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(译文):

《蜘蛛咬伤轶事》

在我读初中的时候,有一次,一只毒蜘蛛咬伤了我的右手。我问我妈妈该怎么处理,我妈妈并没有带我去看医生,而是决定用火疗的方法治疗我的伤口。

她在我的手上包了好几层棉花,棉花上喷洒了白酒,在我的嘴里放了一双筷子,然后打火点燃了棉花。热量逐渐渗透过棉花,开始炙烤我的右手。灼烧的疼痛让我忍不住想喊叫,可嘴里的筷子却让我发不出声来。我只能看着我的手被火烧着,一分钟,两分钟,直到妈妈熄灭了火苗。

你看,我在中国的农村长大,在那个时候,我的村庄还是一个类似前工业时代的传统村落。在我出生的时候,我的村子里面没有汽车,没有电话,没有电,甚至也没有自来水。我们自然不能轻易地获得先进的现代医疗资源。那个时候也没有一个合适的医生可以来帮我处理蜘蛛咬伤的伤口。

在座的如果有生物背景的人,你们或许已经理解到了我妈妈使用的这个简单的治疗手段的基本原理:高热可以让蛋白质变性,而蜘蛛的毒液也是一种蛋白质。这样一种传统的土方法实际上有它一定的理论依据,想来也是挺有意思的。但是,作为哈佛大学生物化学的博士,我现在知道在我初中那个时候,已经有更好的,没有那么痛苦的,也没有那么有风险的治疗方法了。于是我便忍不住会问自己,为什么我在当时没有能够享用到这些更为先进的治疗方法呢?

蜘蛛咬伤的事故已经过去大概15年了。我非常高兴地向在座的各位报告一下,我的手还是完好的。但是,我刚刚提到的这个问题这些年来一直停在我的脑海中,而我也时不时会因为先进科技知识在世界上不同地区的不平等分布而困扰。现如今,我们人类已经学会怎么进行人类基因编辑了,也研究清楚了很多个癌症发生发展的原因。我们甚至可以利用一束光来控制我们大脑内神经元的活动。每年生物医学的研究都会给我们带来不一样的突破和进步,其中有不少令人振奋,也极具革命颠覆性的成果。

然而,尽管我们人类已经在科研上有了无数的建树,但在怎样把这些最前沿的科学研究带到世界最需要该技术的地区这件事情上,我们有时做的差强人意。世界银行的数据显示,世界上大约有12%的人口每天的生活水平仍然低于2美元。营养不良每年导致三百万儿童死亡。将近3亿人口仍然受到疟疾的干扰。在世界各地,我们经常看到类似的由贫穷、疾病和自然匮乏导致的科学知识传播的受阻。现代社会里习以为常的那些救生常识在这些欠发达或不发达地区往往未能普及。于是,在世界上仍有很多地区,人们只能依赖于用火疗这一简单粗暴的方式来治疗蜘蛛咬伤事故。

在哈佛读书期间,我切身体会到先进的科技知识能够既简单又深远地帮助到社会上很多的人。本世纪初的时候,禽流感在亚洲多个国家肆虐。那个时候,村庄里的农民听到禽流感就像听到恶魔施咒一样,对其特别的恐惧。乡村的土医疗方法对这样一个疾病也是束手无策。农民对于普通感冒和流感的区别并不是很清楚,他们并不懂得流感比普通感冒可能更加致命。而且,大部分人对于科学家所发现的流感病毒能够跨不同物种传播这一事实并不清楚。

于是,在我意识到这些知识背景,及简单的将受感染的不同物种隔离开来就能减缓疾病传播,并决定将这些知识传递到我的村庄时,我的心里第一次有了一种作为未来科学家的使命感。但这种使命感不只停在知识层面,它也是我个人道德发展的重要转折点,我自我理解的作为国际社会一员的责任感。

哈佛的教育教会我们学生敢于拥有自己的梦想,勇于立志改变世界。在毕业典礼这样一个特别的日子,我们在座的毕业生都会畅想我们未来的伟大征程和冒险。对我而言,我在此刻不可避免地还会想到我的家乡。我的成长经历教会了我作为一个科学家,积极地将我们所会的知识传递给那些急需这些知识的人是多么的重要。因为利用那些我们已经拥有的科技知识,我们能够轻而易举地帮助我的家乡,还有千千万万类似的村庄,让他们生活的世界变成一个我们现代社会看起来习以为常的场所,而这样一件事,是我们每一个毕业生都能够做的,也是力所能及的。

但问题是,我们愿意做这样的努力吗?

我们的社会强调科学和创新比以往任何时候都多。但我们社会同样需要注意的一个重心是分配知识到那些真正需要的地方。改变世界并不意味着每个人都要做一个大突破。改变世界可以非常简单。它可以简单得变成作为世界不同地区的沟通者,并找出更多创造性的方法将知识传递给像我母亲或农民这样的群体。同时,改变世界也意味着我们的社会,作为一个整体,能够更清醒地认识到科技知识更加均衡的分布,是人类社会发展的一个关键环节,而我们也能够一起奋斗将此目标变成现实。

如果我们能够做到这些,或许,将来有一天,一个在农村被毒蜘蛛咬伤的少年就不需要用火疗这样粗暴的方法来治疗伤口,而是去看医生,得到更为先进的医疗护理。

篇4：登上了哈佛演讲台

“财富权”决定“话语权”

牛根生在哈佛讲台上引用马克思的话说：“资本主义在不到 100 年的时间里所创造的生产力, 比过去所有时代所创造的生产力总和还要多、还要大。”牛总套用马克思的句式：中国最近30年所创造的生产力, 比过去300年所创造的生产力总和，还要多、还要大——这, 正是中国在国际讲台获得话语权的源泉所在。

大清王朝，列强瓜分中国，“八国联军”用中国人的血汗钱，垫高了自己的“脚跟”。最早的掠夺者——大英帝国自不必说, 法、德、俄、意、美也不必说, 就连追随中国几千年的小日本也“回刀屠师”, 用大清帝国的巨额赔款，充实了“百年维新”的底子。

那时，发达国家的“长城”，是用发展中国家的“砖头”砌成的！中国被人一只脚踩住左肩、另一只脚踩住右肩，变成殖民地、半殖民地国家。只有切肤之痛，才能感知一个真理：“落后就要挨打”！“弱国无外交！”把生产力搞上去, 是赢得国际“话语权”最为根本的路径！

美国的崛起, 与“一战”、“二战”都不在美国本土“腥风血雨”有关。物质决定意识, 意识反作用于物质——经济与文化循环往复、循序渐进。不管是被迫, 还是主动, 当人们“与别人较劲”的时候, 收获的是“零和游戏；当人们“与自己较劲”的时候, 你赢我赢, 没有输家。

20世纪的中国，前半叶是“负数”, 后半叶是“正数”。战争, 人死物伤, 属于减法；和平, 国泰民安, 属于加法。

改革开放前30年，有“斗争”,“与天斗, 与地斗, 与人斗, 其乐无穷”, 外斗修正主义帝国主义, 内斗地富反坏, 斗得天昏天暗、是非难辨、人身不保, 生产力的创造就退居“二线”了。

改革开放后30年，虽有竞争, 没有“战争”，人的主观能动性得到空前解放，千万富翁、百万富翁、优秀民营企业家丛生，国民经济高度发展，神舟飞船上天、核潜艇入海，中国在国际舞台声音也更响了。

跨国公司与中国公司

有些人先富了, 富有富的副作用, 食利阶层逐步扩大, 许多人是“用钱生钱”, 那种为工作“殚精竭虑, 废寝忘食”的“原始图景”，在生活中渐行渐远。没有钱，就得艰苦创业，就得把脑力和体力挖掘到最大化，“别人睡觉的时候, 自己还得继续干”——这, 正是牛根生的敬业精神。

每一个后发国家的崛起, 都与新的历史潮流有关。在互联网、信息化这个历史潮流滚滚涌来的时候, 全世界所有国家，几乎一下子站到同一条起跑线上, 这就是机遇。中国创业者最大的幸福, 就是坐拥全世界最大的市场, 对市场脉搏有可能把握得最准。有一句老话说：只要做成中国第一, 就有机会成为世界第一。

在哈佛, 有人说美国公司“如何如何负责”, 中国公司“如何如何不负责”。牛根生却引用中国古人的话说：“己所不欲, 勿施于人”、“穷则独善其身, 达则兼济天下”。我们老祖宗的这种格言，远播海内外之际，美利坚合众国还没有诞生呢！

牛根生认为，跨国公司很强, 但它们在中国, 财富度和慈善度不成比例, 所做善事的比例不如中国企业大。美国不是有做善事的习惯吗? 为什么拿走中国的市场、拿走销售额、拿走利润, 却不留下更多的善事？跨国公司的账算得特细，在公益事业上花一点点小钱, 却会撬出更大的蛋糕。

牛根生说，衡量一个企业是否履行社会责任, 宜用“行为标准”, 不宜用“动机标准”。不管跨国企业, 还是中国公司, 只要做了好事就行, 最好不要过分琢磨它背后隐藏的动机。探讨动机没有意义, 同样一件事，可以推测出一万个不同的动机。如果做了公益有收益, 那叫“好人得好报”；如果做公益和不做公益的人，获得一样的回报, 那就等于“好人没得好报”。

做公益也要讲可持续发展, 只有公益、没有收益, 只出不入, 那就无法形成良性循环, 只能进行单向性、一次性的“断头公益”；只有形成“公益——收益——公益”的良性循环、永续循环, 才能完成可持续发展的“千头公益”、“万头公益”。

如果本着“动机论”, “不为收益做公益”固然是一种高尚, “为了收益做公益”同样也是一种善举；如果本着“效能论”, “公益背后无收益”是一种“有限公益”， “公益背后有收益”是一种“循环公益”。

救人、济穷、赈灾、助学，可以归入“不为收益做公益”的范畴。扶植奶农, 是“公益”、“收益”双丰收——向农民发放种草补贴, 投放养牛保险, 发放养牛贷款, 提供免费培训, 实施胚胎移植与性控技术……既有帮助农民脱贫致富的“公益成分”, 也有为企业获得优质奶源的“收益成分”。

在企业社会责任的履行上, 存在“公益背后有收益”与“公益背后无收益”之分, 也存在“有限公益”与“循环公益”之别。迈克尔·波特教授2006年12 月份曾提出一个理论, 将社会责任模式区分为两类：一是“反应型责任模式”, 企业向社会捐献, 消减对社会带来的负面影响，如环保；二是“战略型责任模式”, 企业和社会双赢。世界虽大, 东西同理, 所见略同。

大品牌就得负大责任

牛根生在哈佛讲台上说，大品牌就得负大责任。这不是口号, 也不是假面具, 必须化作企业的“实践”与“行为准则”。承担社会责任是企业的第一要务。

第一, 无责任则无品牌。薪水微薄, 员工不满意；质量低劣, 顾客不买账；信誉欠佳, 银行不放贷；贡献平平, 政府不支持……不承担责任的品牌大不了。

第二, 大品牌伴随大监督。大品牌，媒体盯得最勤, 队友跟得最紧, 社会评得最多。不要说：“他比我差，为什么你不说他”、“我栽了树，凭什么让他乘凉”, 因为你是大品牌。你的四周布满了眼睛：怀疑的眼睛, 期待的眼睛, 威慑的眼睛, 完善的眼睛。

第三, 大品牌关联大市场。市场扩大一倍, 大品牌受益的比例比别人大；市场萎缩一圈, 大品牌受损的程度比别人深。大企业与整个行业同进同退、共生共荣，要承担更大的责任——代表行业与消费者沟通；代表行业肩负起产业进步的使命；更多地关注全局, 避免“死掉一个小品牌, 毁掉一个大行业”的株连效应, 为小品牌充当免费的导师。

第四, 大责任通向大舞台。负一省之责, 是一省品牌；负一国之责, 是一国品牌；负全球之责, 是世界品牌。责任有多大，舞台就有多大。

第五, 大品牌责系大人群。大品牌是行业领导者, 受最多的人信赖, 受最多的人支持, 大品牌的一举一动牵涉着最多人的利益——那么, 大品牌不负大责任谁负?

总之, 大品牌就得负大责任。有时候, 超额负点责任也不怕。大家都知道, 食品安全, 人命关天。一旦发生命案, 要的就不是一条命, 而是两条命——顾客的命没了, 企业的命也没了。

有一天, 东部沿海的一个城市传来一个消息, 说“一盒酸奶喝死了一个孩子”！紧跟着, 媒体来了, 要报道！蒙牛乳业牛董事长说：“不行。等查清了再说。一切后果我负责。”最终, 公安局查清楚：是孩子姥爷下的毒。

原来, 这个孩子天生弱智, 女婿还想要一个孩子, 就与女儿闹离婚。姥爷心疼女儿, 决定“千斤重担一人挑”，对外孙实施“安乐死”。傻外孙平时喜欢喝蒙牛酸奶, 他姥爷就在酸奶里下了“毒鼠强”。

这件事情跟蒙牛没关系。但是在没查清的时候, 蒙牛立即回收了这个城市的所有酸奶, 一共30吨, 统统销毁。消费者的安全与健康是第一位的。这也是一种责任。牛根生说，创业难，难创业，大企业不难，别人要难你。 即使兢兢业业, 都有可能死掉；要是马马虎虎, 那活着是偶然的, 死掉是必然的。每一个企业家，主动地担负起社会责任，共同促进经济发展，中国在国际讲台的声音，就会更加响亮！

篇5：奥普拉哈佛演讲

Oh my goodness! I’m at Harvard! Wow! To President Faust, my fellow honorans, Carl [Muller] that was so beautiful, thank you so much, and James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson, Harvard faculty, with a special bow to my friend Dr. Henry Lewis Gates. All of you alumni, with a special bow to the Class of ’88, your hundred fifteen million dollars. And to you, members of the Harvard class of 20xx! Hello!

我的天啊!我在哈...佛!真的!尊敬的Faust校长、和我一起获得荣誉学位的各位，Carl(注：Carl Muller哈佛校友会主席)，真是太棒了，谢谢你们!还有James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson和哈佛的教职工们，特别感谢我的朋友Henry Lewis Gates博士(注：美国知名黑人教授)!感谢所有的哈佛校友，特别要感谢88届的毕业生，你们为哈佛捐出一亿一千五百万美元(注：哈佛历史上最多的一次同一班次校友捐款)。所有20xx届的各位毕业生们!大家好!

I thank you for allowing me to be a part of the conclusion of this chapter of your lives and the commencement of your next chapter. To say that I’m honored doesn’t even begin to quantify the depth of gratitude that really accompanies an honorary doctorate from Harvard. Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge. And I can tell you that I consider today as I sat on the stage this morning getting teary for you all and then teary for myself, I consider today a defining milestone in a very long and a blessed journey. My one hope today is that I can be a source of some inspiration. I’m going to address my remarks to anybody who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwed by life, this is a speech for the Quad.

感谢你们让我成为你们人生这一篇章的结束与下一篇章开始的纽带。对我而言，荣幸根本无法表达我内心深处对哈佛授予我荣誉学位的感激之情。不是每个来自密西西比州的农村小姑娘都能来到剑桥城的(注：哈佛位于波士顿郊剑桥城)。我可以告诉你们，当我今天早上坐在这个台上，为你们和我自己流下眼泪的时候，我觉得今天是我漫长并被祝福的人生旅途中的一个里程碑。我希望今天我能为你们带来一些启发。我的演讲是为那些曾在人生中感到自卑或觉得自己没有优势，甚至觉得生活一团糟的人，这就是我给哈佛带来的演讲。

Actually I was so honored I wanted to do something really special for you. I wanted to be able to have you look under your seats and there would be free master and doctor degrees but I see you got that covered already. I will be honest with you. I felt a lot of pressure over the past few weeks to come up with something that I could share with you that you hadn’t heard before because after all you all went to Harvard, I did not. But then I realized that you don’t have to necessarily go to Harvard to have a driven obsessive Type A personality. But it helps. And while I may not have graduated from here I admit that my personality is about as Harvard as they come. You know my television career began unexpectedly. As you heard this morning I was in the Miss Fire Prevention contest. That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville, Tennessee, and you had the requirement of having to have red hair in order to win up until the year that I entered. So they were doing the question and answer period because I knew I wasn’t going to win under the swimsuit competition. So during the question and answer period the question came “Why, young lady, what would you like to be when you grow up?” And by the time they got to me all the good answers were gone. So I had seen Barbara Walters on the “Today Show” that morning so I answered, “I would like to be a journalist. I would like to tell other people’s stories in a way that makes a difference in their lives and the world.” And as those words were coming out of my mouth I went whoa! This is pretty good! I would like to be a journalist. I want to make a difference. Well I was on television by the time I was 19 years old. And in 1986 I launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed at first. I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising the bar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew. Sound familiar to anybody here? Eventually we did make it to the top and we stayed there for 25 years.

其实我真的很荣幸，因此我想为你们做些特别的事。我想要跟你们说，请看你们座位下面有免费硕士或博士学位证书，但是我发现你们已经有了。说实话，在过去的几个星期我感到很大的压力，因为我想要跟你们分享一些你们从没听到过的东西，毕竟你们都上了哈佛，而我没有。但后来我意识到其实并不是一定要上哈佛才能有一个驱动性强迫型的A型人格，当然上了哈佛还是有帮助的。虽然我没有从哈佛毕业，但我认为我的性格和哈佛的毕业生是一样。大家都知道，我的电视事业生涯开始的出乎意料。正如你们早上听到的，我当时在参加“防火小姐”比赛。那年我16岁(注：奥普拉出生于1954年，今年59岁)，在田纳西州的纳什维尔。在我参加比赛那年之前，想赢的话你必须得是红头发女孩。在进行问答环节时，因为我知道我在泳装比赛中不会赢，所以当问答环节问道：“年轻的女士，你长大后想做什么?为什么?”等轮到我回答的时候，好答案都被之前的参赛者说完了。因为那天早上我正好在“今日秀”中看到了芭芭拉·怀特女士，所以我说：“我想成为一名新闻工作者，我想成为为人民带来一些在某种程度上能改变人民生活和改变世界的故事。”当我说出这些话时，我觉得：“哇!还挺不错的!我想做个记者，我要做出一番事业。”后来，19岁时我上了电视。在1986年，我推出了我自己的电视节目，一开始就下定决心要成功。我以前对比赛很紧张，后来我和自己竞争，每年设立一个更高的目标，一步一步地推到极限。对大家来说听着挺熟悉吧?最终，我们成功达到巅峰，并在那里待了20xx年。

The “Oprah Winfrey Show” was number one in our time slot for 21 years and I have to tell you I became pretty comfortable with that level of success. But a few years ago I decided, as you will at some point, that it was time to recalculate, find new territory, break new ground. So I ended the show and launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. The initials just worked out for me. So one year later after launching OWN, nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my new venture was a flop. Not just a flop, but a big bold flop they call it. I can still remember the day I opened up USA Todayand read the headline “Oprah, not quite standing on her OWN.” I mean really, USA Today? Now that’s the nice newspaper! It really was this time last year the worst period in my professional life. I was stressed and I was frustrated and quite frankly I was actually I was embarrassed. It was right around that time that President Faust called and asked me to speak here and I thought you want me to speak to Harvard graduates? What could I possibly say to Harvard graduates, some of the most successful graduates in the world in the very moment when I had stopped succeeding? So I got off the phone with President Faust and I went to the shower. It was either that or a bag of Oreos. So I chose the shower. And I was in the shower a long time and as I was in the shower the words of an old hymn came to me. You may not know it. It’s “By and by, when the morning comes.” And I started thinking about when the morning might come because at the time I thought I was stuck in a hole. And the words came to me “Trouble don’t last always” from that hymn, “this too shall pass.” And I thought as I got out of the shower I am going to turn this thing around and I will be better for it. And when I do, I’m going to go to Harvard and I’m going to speak the truth of it! So I’m here today to tell you I have turned that network around!

“奥普拉秀”在同一时间段的电视节目中连续20xx年排名第一，我必须说我对于这个成功非常的满足。但是几年前，我觉得，在人生的某一时刻，你必须重新来过，找到新的领域，实现新的突破。所以我离开了“奥普拉秀”，以我的名字命名推出了我自己的电视网络“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”，缩写正好是“OWN(自己的)”。在奥普拉·温福瑞电视网推出一年后，几乎所有的媒体都认为我的新项目是失败的。不仅仅是失败，他们称之为一个大写的失败。我还记得有一天我打开《今日美国报》时看到头条新闻说“ 奥普拉搞不定‘自己的’电视网”。不是吧，今日美国报啊?真是份好报纸....这正是去年我职业生涯最低谷的时刻。我压力超大近乎崩溃，老实说，我感到羞愧。就在那个时候，Faust校长打电话邀请我到哈佛做毕业演讲。我心想：“你让我给哈佛的毕业生演讲?我能跟这些世界上最成功的毕业生说什么?而我已经不再成功。”我挂了Faust校长的电话后去洗了个澡。要么去吃奥利奥要么去洗澡，我选择了洗澡。那个澡我洗了很长时间，在洗澡的时候我突然想到某首古老赞美诗中的一句话，你可能没听过“终于，清晨来临...”，之后我就想，我的黎明也许要来了。因为那时我觉得我被困在一个洞里了。我又想到那首古老赞美诗中的一句话：“困难只是暂时的，都会过去...”当我走出浴室时，我想：我遇到的麻烦同样会有结束的一天，我会将这一页翻过去，我会好起来的，等我做到了，我就去哈佛，把这个真实的故事告诉大家!今天我来了 并且想告诉你们我已经把“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”带上正轨了。

And it was all because I wanted to do it by the time I got to speak to you all so thank you so much. You don’t know what motivation you were for me, thank you. I’m even prouder to share a fundamental truth that you might not have learned even as graduates of Harvard unless you studied the ancient Greek hero with Professor Nagy. Professor Nagy as we were coming in this morning said, “Please Ms. Winfrey, walk decisively.”

这一切都是因为我想在来哈佛之前把事情做好，所以非常感谢你们!你们不知道你们给了我多大的动力，谢谢!我甚至能更骄傲地来和各位分享一个基本的真理。作为哈佛的毕业生你也未必知道，除非你上过Nagy教授的课程知道古希腊英雄人物。在今天早上来的路上，Nagy教授说：“温福瑞女士，请坚决地向前走。”

I shall walk decisively.我应该坚决地向前走。

This is what I want to share. It doesn’t matter how far you might rise. At some point you are bound to stumble because if you’re constantly doing what we do, raising the bar. If you’re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher the law of averages not to mention the Myth of Icarus predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. Now when you’re down there in the hole, it looks like failure. So this past year I had to spoon feed those words to myself. And when you’re down in the hole, when that moment comes, it’s really okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost but then here’s the key, learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are. And then figure out what is the next right move. And the key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S. that can tell you which way to go. Because now and forever more when you Google yourself your search results will read “Harvard, 20xx″. And in a very competitive world that really is a calling card because I can tell you as one who employs a lot of people when I see “Harvard” I sit up a little straighter and say, “Where is he or she? Bring them in.” It’s an impressive calling card that can lead to even more impressive bullets in the years ahead: lawyer, senator, C.E.O., scientist, physicist, winners of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes or late night talk show host. But the challenge of life I have found is to build a résumé that doesn’t simply tell a story about what you want to be but it’s a story about who you want to be. It’s a résumé that doesn’t just tell a story about what you want to accomplish but why. A story that’s not just a collection of titles and positions but a story that’s really about your purpose. Because when you inevitably stumble and find yourself stuck in a hole that is the story that will get you out. What is your true calling? What is your dharma? What is your purpose? For me that discovery came in 1994 when I interviewed a little girl who had decided to collect pocket change in order to help other people in need. She raised a thousand dollars all by herself and I thought, well if that little 9-year-old girl with a bucket and big heart could do that, I wonder what I could do? So I asked for our viewers to take up their own change collection and in one month, just from pennies and nickels and dimes, we raised more than three million dollars that we used to send one student from every state in the United States to college. That was the beginning of the Angel Network.

这就是我想分享的。无论你已经达到怎样的成就，在某个节点，你会发现你会跌倒，因为如果你一直不断的在做我们每个人做的事：不断设定更高的目标。如果你一直不断把你自己推向更高的目标，你将在某一点上落下，更不必说伊卡洛斯能预测你会跌倒的神话。当你真的跌倒时我想让你知道，并请记住：“世间并不存在失败，那不过是生活想让我们换个方向走走罢了，现在当你在人生谷底，那看起来像是失败。”在过去的一年里，这些话支撑着我自己。当你到了人生谷底，到那时候，你可以难过一段时间，给自己时间去哀悼你认为你可能失去的一切，但关键在于：从每个失败和遭遇中学习特别是你的每个错误，都会教并迫使你成为真正的自己，然后想想接下来怎么做。生活的重点在于建立内在道德、情感的定位系统，它能为你指路，因为现在或将来当你在谷歌上搜索你自己，结果会是“哈佛20xx毕业生”。在这个竞争激烈的世界，那的确是块敲门砖。我作为一个雇佣过很多人的人，可以说当我听到哈佛的毕业生，我都会坐直一点，然后说“他/她在哪，带来见我”。这是一个令人印象深刻的敲门砖，在未来的日子里那的确是颗有力的子弹：成为律师、议员、老板、科学家、物理学家，诺贝尔奖普利策奖获得者或者晚间脱口秀主持人。然而来自生活的挑战并不是做个履历简单地告诉大家你想做什么，而是你想成为什么样的人。这份履历不只是告诉大家你完成了什么，而是你为什么做这些?这份履历不仅仅是一个头衔和职位的罗列，而是告诉大家你究竟想做什么?因为当你不可避免地跌倒或陷入困境时，它可以帮你走出困境，人生真正的意义是什么?你的人生哲学是什么?你的目标是什么?对我来说，我是在1994年采访了一位决定攒零花钱来帮助他人的小女孩，她筹集了一千美金。我想：“嗯，如果一个9岁的小姑娘，用一个筐和热忱的心就能做到，我能做到什么?”所以我请我们的观众拿出自己的零钱，在一个月内我从一分一毫筹集超过300万美金，我们用这笔钱从每个州选出一个学生上大学。这就是“天使网络”的开始。

And so what I did was I simply asked our viewers, “Do what you can wherever you are, from wherever you sit in life. Give me your time or your talent your money if you have it.” And they did. Extend yourself in kindness to other human beings wherever you can. And together we built 55 schools in 12 different countries and restored nearly 300 homes that were devastated by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. So the Angel Network — I have been on the air for a long time — but it was the Angel Network that actually focused my internal G.P.S. It helped me to decide that I wasn’t going to just be on TV every day but that the goal of my shows, my interviews, my business, my philanthropy all of it, whatever ventures I might pursue would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me. Because what had become clear to me, and I want you to know, it isn’t always clear in the beginning because as I said I had been on television since I was 19 years old. But around ’94 I got really clear. So don’t expect the clarity to come all at once, to know your purpose right away, but what became clear to me was that I was here on Earth to use television and not be used by it; to use television to illuminate the transcendent power of our better angels. So this Angel Network, it didn’t just change the lives of those who were helped, but the lives of those who also did the helping. It reminded us that no matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and more importantly it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort. I saw something on the “Bill Moore Show” recently that so reminded me of this point. It was an interview with David and Francine Wheeler. They lost their 7-year-old son, Ben, in the Sandy Hook tragedy. And even though gun safety legislation to strengthen background checks had just been voted down in Congress at the time that they were doing this interview they talked about how they refused to be discouraged. Francine said this, she said, “Our hearts are broken but our spirits are not. I’m going to tell them what it’s like to find a conversation about change that is love, and I’m going to do that without fighting them.” And then her husband David added this, “You simply cannot demonize or vilify someone who doesn’t agree with you, because the minute you do that, your discussion is over. And we cannot do that any longer. The problem is too enormous. There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light.” In our political system and in the media we often see the reflection of a country that is polarized, that is paralyzed and is self-interested. And yet, I know you know the truth. We all know that we are better than the cynicism and the pessimism that is regurgitated throughout Washington and the 24-hour cable news cycle. Not my channel, by the way. We understand that the vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks because they realize that we can uphold the Second Amendment and also reduce the violence that is robbing us of our children. They don’t have to be incompatible.

其实我做的只是简单的请求我们的观众：“无论你在哪里处于人生的哪个阶段，如果可以，请拿出你的时间、天赋以及金钱，做你力所能及的事。”他们这样做了。无论你在哪里，将你的仁慈带给他人。众人拾柴火焰高，我们一起在12个国家建了55所学校，重建了近300个被丽塔和卡特里娜飓风摧毁的家园。所以“天使网络”聚集了我内在的定位系统。它能帮助我知道，我不是仅仅每天在电视上出现，还有我的采访目标，我的生意，我的慈善事业，所有的一切。无论我追求怎样的事业，我更清楚把我们凝聚在一起的力量比分离我们的力量更令人满足和不可抗拒。但我想让你们知道，任何事情的一开始对于我们未必明朗，正如我所说我19岁就开始上电视，然而到了94年我才渐渐清楚，所以不要期待一下子就想清楚、并马上明白自己的使命。对我来说，我最终清楚，我要利用电视而不是被电视利用，利用电视来照亮我们内在天使的一面。这个“天使网络”，它不只是改变那些我们帮助过的人们的生活，同时也改变那些提供帮助的人们的生活。它提醒我们，无论是谁，看上去如何，或者我们相信什么，更重要的是它成为了我们为共同目标走到一起的驱动力。我最近在“比利摩尔秀”上看到一些东西再次提醒了我。那是一个采访戴维和弗朗辛·惠勒的节目，他们在Sandy Hook惨案中痛失他们7岁幼子Ben。尽管在此次访谈时国会已经否决了加强背景调查的枪支安全立法，他们谈到他们拒绝被国会的否决所打击。弗朗辛说：“我们的心都碎了，但我们的精神没有垮，我想告诉他们关于变故的对话是怎样的感觉，那感觉就是爱。我将会接受他而不是抵触。”然后她的丈夫戴维继续说：“你不能诋毁或妖魔化那些持有异见的人，因为如果你这样做的那一刻，就不再有下文，我不能再那样做了，问题已经很严重了，总会有方法将光明驱逐黑暗。”在我们的政治体系和媒体环境下，我们经常看到对这个国家的反思，这个两级分化，近乎瘫痪、自我利益的国家。然而，我知道你们明白真相。我们都知道我们比电视上新闻媒体24小时滚动从华盛顿传来的那些愤世嫉俗和悲观主义更好。顺便说一句，那不是我的电视频道。我们理解，在这个国家绝大多数人相信并支持背景调查，因为他们明白我们可以支持宪法第二次修正案，同时减少残杀我们孩子的暴力。而这两者并不必水火不相容。

And we understand that most Americans believe in a clear path to citizenship for the 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants who reside in this country because it’s possible to both enforce our laws and at the same time embrace the words on the Statue of Liberty that have welcomed generations of huddled masses to our shores. We can do both.

我们知道大多数美国人相信让1200万没有合法身份的移民居住在这个国家成为公民会有一条清晰的路径。因为在捍卫法律的同时，我们还要拥抱自由女神像上的辞藻，而这些话语欢迎了一代代人到达美国的海岸。我们都能做得到 。

And we understand. I know you do because you went to Harvard. There are people from both parties, and no party, [who] believe that indigent mothers and families should have access to healthy food and a roof over their heads and a strong public education because here in the richest nation on Earth, we can afford a basic level of security and opportunity. So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Really, what are you going to do about it? Maybe you agree with these beliefs. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you care about these issues and maybe there are other challenges that you, Class of 20xx, are passionate about. Maybe you want to make a difference by serving in government. Maybe you want to launch your own television show. Or maybe you simply want to collect some change. Your parents would appreciate that about now. The point is your generation is charged with this task of breaking through what the body politic has thus far made impervious to change. Each of you has been blessed with this enormous opportunity of attending this prestigious school. You now have a chance to better your life, the lives of your neighbors and also the life of our country. When you do that let me tell you what I know for sure. That’s when your story gets really good. Maya Angelou always says, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give. That my friends is what gives your story purpose and meaning.” So you all have the power in your own way to develop your own Angel Network and in doing so, your class will be armed with more tools of influence and empowerment than any other generation in history. I did it in an analog world. I was blessed with a platform that at its height reached nearly 20,000,000 viewers a day. Now here in a world of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Tumbler, you can reach billions in just seconds. You’re the generation that rejected predictions about your detachment and your disengagement by showing up to vote in record numbers in 20xx. And when the pundits said, they said they talked about you, they said you’d be too disappointed, you’d be too dejected to repeat that same kind of turnout in 20xx election and you proved them wrong by showing up in even greater numbers. That’s who you are.

正如我们了解的那样，你们能理解，因为你们上了哈佛。来自两党派和无党派的人同样坚信：贫困的母亲和家庭都理应获得使其健康的食物、住所以及强有力的教育支持。因为我们现在正生活在全世界最为富有的国家中，我们有能力去提供安全与机遇最基础的社会保障。于是问题便随之而来：我们将对此有何打算呢?说真的，我们将要对此做些什么呢?也许你是赞同这些理念的，也有可能你会持反对意见。或许你作为20xx届哈佛的毕业生，对这些问题很上心，抑或是你把关注点放在了其他极具挑战性的事情上。你可能想要通过行政工作改变我们的社会，你可能想要做自己的电视节目，你也可能仅仅是想收集一些零钱，你的父母会赞扬你现在的所作所为。关键是你们这一代人肩负着突破国家积年累月无法突破的重重围嶂的使命。你们每一位上了哈佛这所名校的人都拥有千万机会、无尽不可。现在你有机会来改善你的生活，改变你周围人的生活，以及整个国家的命运。当你这样做的时候，我可以坚定地告诉你：这个时候，有关你的故事已然尽善尽美。Maya Angelou常常说：“有所学时你要去施教，有所得时你便去给予。我亲爱的朋友，那将赋予你的故事以目的与意义。”你们都有能力用自己的方式去打造属于你们自己的“天使网络”，与此同时你会拥有史无前例的影响力与权力的工具。我用虚拟网络的方式做到这一点，我的网络电视在鼎盛时期的日浏览量能够达到20xx万，在这个Twitter、Facebook、YouTube与Tumbler盛行的时代，你在片刻之间便可获得几十亿的浏览量。就是你们这一代，在其他人都以为你们会对政治漠不关心的时候，你们用你们的一腔热情，彻底颠覆了世人的想象，你们在20xx年的时候，参与总统大选投票的人数创造新高。当那些“博学多识”的人们猜测道，你们必然已经失望透顶，你们在20xx年总统大选中由于太沮丧而不可能重复20xx年的辉煌时，你们用甚至比20xx年更高的参与记录，再一次让世人刮目相看。这就是你们这一代.

This generation, your generation I know, has developed a finely honed radar for B.S. Can you say “B.S.” at Harvard? The spin and phoniness and artificial nastiness that saturates so much of our national debate. I know you all understand better than most that real progress requires authentic — an authentic way of being, honesty, and above all empathy. I have to say that the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years talking every single day to people, was that there is a common denominator in our human experience. Most of us, I tell you we don’t want to be divided. What we want, the common denominator that I found in every single interview, is we want to be validated. We want to be understood. I have done over 35,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off everyone always turns to me and inevitably in their own way asks this question “Was that okay?” I heard it from President Bush, I heard it from President Obama. I’ve heard it from heroes and from housewives. I’ve heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes. I even heard it from Beyonce and all of her Beyonceness. She finishes performing, hands me the microphone and says, “Was that okay?” Friends and family, yours, enemies, strangers in every argument in every encounter, every exchange I will tell you, they all want to know one thing: was that okay? Did you hear me? Do you see me? Did what I say mean anything to you? And even though this is a college where Facebook was born my hope is that you would try to go out and have more face-to-face conversations with people you may disagree with.

我所了解的你们这一代对一些胡言乱语有极为敏锐的追求，你能在哈佛“胡说”吗?关于我们的国家，虚伪幻象铺张在你眼前，纷扰流言充斥在你耳畔。我深知你们比众人更加了解，一个国家真正的进步是要求建立在真实而坦然的基础之上的，还有更为重要的——一种感同身受的心理。我想我不得不坦言，在我20xx年的访谈历程中，我所学到的最重要的，我们的人生有一个共同的公分母。我可以告诉你的是，我们中的大多数人，并不愿意被分割。我在每次访谈中发现我们的“公分母”，发现我们想要的，是我们想要被证实、被认可。我们渴望被理解。我的职业生涯中容纳了大约35000个访谈，每每在摄像机的镜头关闭后，几乎所有人都不可避免地转向我，用他们各自的方式，询问着同一个问题“像这样可以吗?”布什总统这样问，奥巴马总统这样问，我在英雄的口中听到过这个疑问，同样也在家庭主妇的口中听说过这句话。我听受害者这样问，也听过那些有罪行的人们这样问，我甚至听过碧昂斯和她的粉丝们这样问。碧昂斯结束表演之后，把麦克风递到我手中，问道：“像我这样可以吗?”朋友或家人、支持者或敌人、每次争论或邂逅的陌生人，有关每一次交流，我都可以笃定地告诉你们，他们都想知道一件事儿——“像这样可以吗?你听得见我吗?你看的见我吗?我之所言是否对你有些许意义?”尽管这里是Facebook诞生的大学，我还是希望你们能够脱离虚拟，尽可能多的和那些与你意见相左的人进行一些面对面的交流。

That you’ll have the courage to look them in the eye and hear their point of view and help make sure that the speed and distance and anonymity of our world doesn’t cause us to lose our ability to stand in somebody else’s shoes and recognize all that we share as a people. This is imperative, for you as an individual, and for our success as a nation. “There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light,” says the man whose little boy was massacred on just an ordinary Friday in December. So whether you call it soul or spirit or higher self, intelligence, there is I know this, there is a light inside each of you, all of us, that illuminates your very human beingness if you let it. And as a young girl from rural Mississippi I learned long ago that being myself was much easier than pretending to be Barbara Walters. Although when I first started because I had Barbara in my head I would try to sit like Barbara, talk like Barbara, move like Barbara and then one night I was on the news reading the news and I called Canada “Can-a-da,” and that was the end of me being Barbara. I cracked myself up on TV. Couldn’t start laughing and my real personality came through and I figured out, oh gee, I can be a much better Oprah than I could be a pretend Barbara.

你们要有勇气去直视他们的双眼，去聆听他们的观点，并且确保这世界的高速、距离、匿名不会让我们失去站在他人的立场上去认可那些我们作为人类共同享受东西的能力。这是你作为一个个体或是为了整个国家的成功必须要做到的。“一定存在某种方法可以使光明驱逐黑暗。”一位孩子在12月一个普通的星期五被杀害的父亲如是说道。所以无论你愿意称她为灵魂、精神、抑或是更高尚的自我，天资什么的，我知道，我们内心深处的星星之火总能够点燃我们——只要你愿意让自己被点亮。作为一个来自密西西比州农村的年轻姑娘，我早就知道，成为自己比假装成芭芭拉更容易。纵使我对自己的坚守是因为我想要成为芭芭拉而起，我希望的的坐姿像芭芭拉、谈吐像芭芭拉，举止像芭芭拉。直到有一天晚上，我在电视上读新闻的时候，我把“Canada”读成“Can-a-da”，这就成了我试图变成芭芭拉的终止。我在电视上把自己层层剖析，我笑个不停。随后真正的自我脱颖而出，我突然就想通了“哦，哎呀，与其成为芭芭拉我能够成为一个更出色的奥普拉。”

I know that you all might have a little anxiety now and hesitation about leaving the comfort of college and putting those Harvard credentials to the test. But no matter what challenges or setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way, you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal, there really is only one, and that is this: to fulfill the highest most truthful expression of yourself as a human being. You want to max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family and the people around you. Theologian Howard Thurman said it best. He said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” The world needs … People like Michael Stolzenberg from Fort Lauderdale. When Michael was just 8 years old Michael nearly died from a bacterial infection that cost him both of his hands and both of his feet. And in an instant, this vibrant little boy became a quadruple amputee and his life was changed forever. But in losing who he once was Michael discovered who he wanted to be. He refused to sit in that wheelchair all day and feel sorry for himself so with prosthetics he learned to walk and run and play again. He joined his middle school lacrosse team and last month when he learned that so many victims of the Boston Marathon bombing would become new amputees, Michael decided to banish that darkness with light. Michael and his brother, Harris, created Mikeysrun.com to raise $1 million for other amputees — by the time Harris runs the 20xx Boston Marathon. More than 1,000 miles away from here these two young brothers are bringing people together to support this Boston community the way their community came together to support Michael. And when this 13-year-old man was asked about his fellow amputees he said this, “First they will be sad. They’re losing something they will never get back and that’s scary. I was scared. But they’ll be okay. They just don’t know that yet.” We might not always know it. We might not always see it, or hear it on the news or even feel it in our daily lives, but I have faith that no matter what, Class of 20xx, you will be okay and you will make sure our country is okay. I have faith because of that 9-year-old girl who went out and collected the change. I have faith because of David and Francine Wheeler, I have faith because of Michael and Harris Stolzenberg, and I have faith because of you, the network of angels sitting here today. One of them Khadijah Williams, who came to Harvard four years ago. Khadijah had attended 12 schools in 12 years, living out of garbage bags amongst pimps and prostitutes and drug dealers; homeless, going in to department stores, Wal-Mart in the morning to bathe herself so that she wouldn’t smell in front of her classmates, and today she graduates as a member of the Harvard Class of 20xx.

我非常理解在你们即将离开大学象牙塔一样舒服单纯的生活，把你们在哈佛里积累的经验拿出去实践的时候，或多或少会有些焦虑与犹豫不决，但是无论你一路上经历到怎样的挑战、挫折、险衅、绝望，如果你自始至终都只有一个目标，真的只有一个目标，你就会找到真正的成功和幸福。这个目标就是：作为一个人，你要满足你最真挚、最坦诚的自我表达，奋力拓展自己的人生领域，去追逐生命的最大化，去改变你周围你亲友，让他们的人生也因你而不同。神学家Howard Thurman将这件事儿阐释的淋漓尽致，他说：“不要追问这世界需要什么样的人，扪心自问是什么支持着你活到现在，然后你奔赴你的信仰、因为这世界需要的就是人们充满活力地活在世上，”这是世界需要的——正如来自劳德代尔堡的迈克尔·斯托尔岑贝格。迈克尔年仅8岁时险些丧命于细菌感染，虽然他活了下来，但却永远失去了双手双脚。须臾之间，原本一个完整的，充满活力的男孩儿失去四肢，成为一个残疾人，他的命运轨迹在这一劫难之后被硬生生地扭转。但在失去一切之后，他听懂了他的心，他明白了自己真正想成为谁，他拒绝整日坐在轮椅中上沮丧、难过，而是选择了在假肢的扶持下继续行走、奔跑、玩耍、他甚至加入了他高中的曲棍球队。上个月当他得知在波士顿马拉松的轰炸中，有一些不幸的人同样被截肢时，他决心用同样的“灯光”帮助他们驱逐黑暗，于是迈克尔和他的兄弟哈里斯创办了mikeysrun.com为其他被截肢的人募捐。他希望集资100万美元，等到20xx年哈里斯从1000多英里外跑波士顿马立松时，这两位年轻的兄弟将把人们聚集在一起来支持整个波士顿社区，如同他们的社区支持迈克尔那样。当这个十三岁的孩子第一次被问及一些关于同样被截肢的人的事时，他说：“他们一定会很伤心，因为他们失去了生命中重且永不复返的东西，那是很可怕的一件事，但是他们一定会振作起来的，他们只是现在还没察觉罢了。”我们可能对这种事所知甚少，这些事情并不常见，在电视里也鲜听闻，我们的日常生活中也不能有所获知。但是我对你们有信心，不管发生什么，20xx届的毕业生们，请相信，柳暗花明又一村，你们也要记得去确保我们的国家的安康。我有信心，因为那个9岁小女孩会出去收集零钱;我有信心，因为David和Wheeler;我有信心，因为迈克尔和哈里斯。我有信心是你们让我充满信心，因为你，因为“天使网络”现在就在这里。这其中就有四年前来到哈佛的Khadijah Williams。Khadijah在过去的20xx年中上了12个不同的学校，身处在皮条客、妓女、毒品贩子和流浪儿之间的垃圾袋子里，她为了不让同学们闻到他身上的异味，他每天清晨会去百货大楼、沃尔玛超市洗澡，今天他成为20xx届哈佛毕业生的一员。

From time to time you may stumble, fall, you will for sure, count on this, no doubt, you will have questions and you will have doubts about your path. But I know this, if you’re willing to listen to, be guided by, that still small voice that is the G.P.S. within yourself, to find out what makes you come alive, you will be more than okay. You will be happy, you will be successful, and you will make a difference in the world. Congratulations Class of 20xx. Congratulations to your family and friends. Good luck, and thank you for listening.

不时地，你可能会失足跌倒，我们之中谁也难以幸免。对你的未来之路你会彷徨、会忧虑、会无所适从，但是我知道：只要你肯听听你内心深处的声音 ，你体内隐藏的GPS定位系统，能让你回归你人生的本真，你可能会因此活的更加夺目。你一定会快乐，一定会成功。你一定可以让世界因你而不同。祝贺你们，20xx届哈佛的毕业生们。把祝贺同样送给你们的亲朋好友们。祝你们的命运永远备受眷顾，同时感谢你们的聆听。

Was that okay?像这样可以吗?

★ 校长毕业典礼经典致辞

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篇6：比尔盖茨哈佛毕业演讲

Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great

collections of intellectual talent in the world.What for?

There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the

benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world.But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?

Let me make a request of the deans and the professors鈥攖he

intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask

yourselves:

Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?

Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world鈥檚 worst

inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty鈥he prevalence of world hunger鈥he scarcity of clean water鈥he girls kept out of school鈥he children who die from diseases we can cure?

Should the world鈥檚 most privileged people learn about the lives of the world鈥檚 least privileged?

These are not rhetorical questions鈥攜ou will answer with your policies.When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given鈥攊n talent, privilege, and opportunity鈥攖here is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue鈥攁 complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it.If you make it the focus of your career, that would be

phenomenal.But you don鈥檛 have to do that to make an impact.For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get

informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.Don鈥檛 let complexity stop you.Be activists.Take on the big inequities.It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time.As you leave

Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had.You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have.And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you

abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort.You have more than we had;you must start sooner, and carry on longer.Knowing what you know, how could you not?