--- title: Graduation 2017: Octavia Spencer Speech at Kent State description: Actress Octavia Spencer encouraged graduates to be optimistic during her commencement address at Ohio's Kent State University canonical: https://time.com/4778418/octavia-spencer-kent-state-university-graduation-commencement/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-14T15:12:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:54:48.740Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Read Octavia Spencer's Commencement Speech at Kent State og:description: "Be loud with your voices" og:url: https://time.com/4778418/octavia-spencer-kent-state-university-graduation-commencement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aa2e3a4d6af81d/6988b8c28fd2ee4a1f355aa8/octavia-spencer-trump-supporters-hidden-figures.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Octavia Spencer's Commencement Speech at Kent State twitter:description: "Be loud with your voices" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aa2e3a4d6af81d/6988b8c28fd2ee4a1f355aa8/octavia-spencer-trump-supporters-hidden-figures.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Octavia Spencer's Advice to Graduates: 'The Best Years Are Very Much Ahead of You' > Sponsored content. 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Octavia Spencer arrives at the 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Expo Hall on January 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Steve Granitz—WireImage by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 14, 2017 3:12 PM UTC _Actress Octavia Spencer delivered the commencement address at Ohio’s Kent State University on Saturday._ --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4778418/octavia-spencer-kent-state-university-graduation-commencement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4778418/octavia-spencer-kent-state-university-graduation-commencement/"},"headline":"Octavia Spencer's Advice to Graduates: 'The Best Years Are Very Much Ahead of You'","datePublished":"2017-05-14T15:12:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:54:48.740Z","description":"\"Be loud with your voices\"","url":"https://time.com/4778418/octavia-spencer-kent-state-university-graduation-commencement/","keywords":["Education","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aa2e3a4d6af81d/6988b8c28fd2ee4a1f355aa8/octavia-spencer-trump-supporters-hidden-figures.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aa2e3a4d6af81d/6988b8c28fd2ee4a1f355aa8/octavia-spencer-trump-supporters-hidden-figures.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals","caption":"23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Steve Granitz—WireImage","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/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4778418/octavia-spencer-kent-state-university-graduation-commencement/","name":"Octavia Spencer's Advice to Graduates: 'The Best Years Are Very Much Ahead of You'"}}]}] ```