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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Samantha Power Speaks at UPenn Commencement 2015 [Watch (HLS stream): Samantha Power Speaks at UPenn Commencement 2015](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/m2OY2o6z.m3u8) (8:42)  _Published 2015-05-18. Samantha Power Speaks at UPenn Commencement 2015_ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:16 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Ed Helms Speaks at UVA Commencement 2015](/video/tmCJbbY6/) ### Ed Helms Speaks at UVA Commencement 2015 [Ken Burns Speaks at WUSTL Commencement 2015](/video/yOOzfLJA/) ### Ken Burns Speaks at WUSTL Commencement 2015 [Mellody Hobson Speaks at USC Commencement 2015](/video/RHSUoAiu/) ### Mellody Hobson Speaks at USC Commencement 2015 --- ## Transcript Please join me in welcoming Ambassador Samantha Power. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you, Provost Price. President Guttman, trustees, faculty, alumni, friends, and family, and Class of 2015. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? It is an indescribable privilege. To share this remarkable day with you. Graduates, you made it. [ APPLAUSE ] You've got your families and loved ones. People who have been in your corner for as long as you have been breathing, here to hail you. Some even up in the cheap seats. You're surrounded by some of the greatest friends you'll ever make, people who will have your backs for decades to come. I'm reminded of the William Butler Yeats poem which ends beautifully. Think where man's glory most begins and ends Friends. And say my glory was, I had such friends. In many ways, these bonds are every bit as great an achievement as the diploma you may frame. One of my greatest achievements is up here on stage with me today. I got to marry your law school commencement speaker Professor Sunstein, my best friend. [ APPLAUSE ] Cass's commencement speech yesterday Was about Star Wars and the law. [ APPLAUSE ] And our six year old, some Jedi Knights in the back, and our six year old Declan insists that his dad's speech is way better than mine. [ LAUGH ] But I'm hoping I get the votes in the over six crowd. [ LAUGH ] Cass may be the most cited law professor in the world, and the co- inventor of nudging, but in my house he's better known as the man who will climb onto any roof and into any pond, no matter how gross. to retrieve wiffle balls crushed by Declan, our aspiring major leaguer. And let's be real, none of you graduates and none of us on stage would be here today if we, also, didn't have a parent, step- parent, a teacher or a mentor who hadn't made what mattered to us Matter to them through the years. So grads, let's give it up to our parents and our loved ones. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Now, looking back on all you've done to get to this point, you should feel a great wind at your backs. And you're gonna need it. Because, Class of 2015, the world outside Penn's walls leaves a lot to be desired. That is diplomatic speak for things are really screwed up. Violent extremist groups like ISIL are executing civilians and selling girls like cattle in markets, Russia is using military force to lop off parts of a neighbor's territory. Thousands of migrants, most fleeing brutal wars in Africa and the Middle East are drowning while trying to cross the Mediterranean. Thousands more Rohingya and Bangladeshi are fleeing persecution and economic despair in Asia. These migrants have been smuggled or trafficked by people who take their money and then abandon them at sea. It feels, as Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, hell is empty, and all the devils are here. Even with all that you've learned in your time at Penn. Heading out into a world that looks like ours can feel overwhelming, intimidating, paralyzing even. Where do you start on problems that seem so big, and injustices that run so deep? How do you go about making this broken world even a little less broken? I had those same questions more than two decades ago when I sat where you were sitting. The challenges that my generation faced also seemed well beyond our reach. And it wasn't as if warlords or dictators were about to stop in their tracks if they saw a liberal arts graduate striding purposefully towards them. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] While I knew that individuals had in history and still could make a difference, it seemed presumptuous, even pompous to imagine that I could be part of it, that I could be one of them. And if you had told me that I, an Irish immigrant to this country who went to public schools in Pittsburgh and Atlanta Would not only get to be the United States ambassador to the UN, but also be invited to speak at Penn's commencement. I'd have wondered whether you've been spending far too much time drinking at Smokes. [ APPLAUSE ] So, you have, in fact. [ LAUGH ] I was a good athlete, a good friend and a pretty good student. But growing up I was never known for my patience, a prerequisite for tolerating bureaucracy. For my ability to be diplomatic, generally a feature of practising diplomacy. Or even for my idealism an absolute necessity for a career in public service. And yet here I stand before you having served in the US government for six and a half years. Still training, I'll admit, for a black belt in bureaucracy, and having concluded that in diplomacy, being diplomatic is a tad overrated. But after 23 years in the real world, and especially, especially after my time in government, I am more idealistic than I have ever been in my life. Utterly convinced that individuals can make a tangible difference. In promoting human dignity and in making the world and our communities in this country a little less broken. [ APPLAUSE ] Now, I don't know how many future public servants or diplomats are out there today, [ APPLAUSE ] A few, good? Hopefully not only the ones who were drinking and smokes. [ LAUGH ] But I know that this miraculous, miraculous institution was conceived as a place to spawn a spirit of service. In 1749, when Benjamin Franklin made the case for a college here in Philadelphia His vision was distinct from that of the handful of colleges in the colonies at the time. The aim and end of all learning, wrote Franklin, was quote, an inclination joined with an ability to serve mankind, one's country, friends and family, end quote. That's important. Let me repeat that an inclination joined with an ability to serve mankind, one's country, friends and family was at the root of the founding of this great institution. A few of you out there may already see yourself on the road to answering Franklin's calls. You may know you have both the inclination and the ability to serve usefully. But others of you may question whether you have what it takes to serve your community or your country, much less mankind or womankind. I spent the past couple decades trying to find the ability to match the inclination. In the process, I've worn a lot of different hats. I've been a war reporter, and a human rights defender. A professor, and a columnist. A diplomat, and by far most thrillingly, a mother. And what I've learned from all these experiences, is that any change worth making is going to be hard. 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