--- title: Bernie Sanders to Give Brooklyn College Commencement Speech description: Bernie Sanders will give the commencement address to Brooklyn College's graduating class in May, the school announced on Thursday canonical: https://time.com/4658334/bernie-sanders-commencement-brooklyn-brooklyn-college/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-02T18:09:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:41:01.652Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders Will Give the Commencement Speech at Brooklyn College og:description: The senator will return to his roots og:url: https://time.com/4658334/bernie-sanders-commencement-brooklyn-brooklyn-college/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcff1ae54e9e3996f/6988b88dcf40a8bafec4651b/bernie-sanders-mlk-speech-commencement-brooklyn-college.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders Will Give the Commencement Speech at Brooklyn College twitter:description: The senator will return to his roots twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcff1ae54e9e3996f/6988b88dcf40a8bafec4651b/bernie-sanders-mlk-speech-commencement-brooklyn-college.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Will Give the Commencement Speech at Brooklyn College by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Feb 2, 2017 6:09 PM UTC  Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks onstage at 2017 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Jan. 16, 2017 in Atlanta. Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks onstage at 2017 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Jan. 16, 2017 in Atlanta.Paras Griffin—Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Feb 2, 2017 6:09 PM UTC [Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/4301570/bernie-sanders-2016-time-100/?iid=sr-link1) will give the commencement address to Brooklyn College’s graduating class in May, the school [announced](https://twitter.com/BklynCollege411/status/827201416691347462) on Thursday. The return to Brooklyn is fitting, as the Vermont senator grew up there and attended Brooklyn College before transferring to University of Chicago. His education in socialism and outlook on life was shaped in Brooklyn, as [he told TIME](http://time.com/3896500/bernie-sanders-vermont-campaign-radical/?iid=sr-link2) near the start of his campaign. Sanders was known for drawing huge crowds while he was challenging Hillary Clinton during the [2016 Democratic primary](http://time.com/4564440/donald-trump-wins-2/?iid=sr-link3) > [](https://twitter.com/BklynCollege411/status/827201416691347462) CNN announced this week it would host a [Feb. 7 debate](http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/02/cnn-to-air-debate-between-bernie-sanders-and-ted-cruz-234480) between Sanders and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on the future of the Affordable Care Act, but this commencement speech will be an opportunity for Sanders to speak directly to young people as he often did during his presidential run. Sanders is not the only 2016 presidential contender who will return to their roots this spring. Hillary Clinton is slated to give the commencement speech at Wellesley College, [her alma mater](http://time.com/4359618/hillary-clinton-wellesley-commencement-transcript/), the [school announced](http://fortune.com/2017/02/01/hillary-clinton-commencement-speech/) Wednesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4658334/bernie-sanders-commencement-brooklyn-brooklyn-college/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4658334/bernie-sanders-commencement-brooklyn-brooklyn-college/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Will Give the Commencement Speech at Brooklyn College","datePublished":"2017-02-02T18:09:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:41:01.652Z","description":"Sanders will return to his roots","url":"https://time.com/4658334/bernie-sanders-commencement-brooklyn-brooklyn-college/","keywords":["Bernie Sanders","Commencement","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcff1ae54e9e3996f/6988b88dcf40a8bafec4651b/bernie-sanders-mlk-speech-commencement-brooklyn-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcff1ae54e9e3996f/6988b88dcf40a8bafec4651b/bernie-sanders-mlk-speech-commencement-brooklyn-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service","caption":"The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service","creditText":"Paras Griffin—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bernie-sanders/","name":"Bernie Sanders"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4658334/bernie-sanders-commencement-brooklyn-brooklyn-college/","name":"Bernie Sanders Will Give the Commencement Speech at Brooklyn College"}}]}] ```