AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
It's graduation season, a time of transition for college seniors. And commencement speakers across the country offer advice on a common theme - how to survive outside the bubble of school. This morning, President Trump spoke at the United States Naval Academy graduation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We know the truth. We will speak the truth. And we will defend that truth. America is the greatest fighting force for peace, justice and freedom in the history of the world.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
There were many inspiring, newsworthy and some funny speeches around the country this season. Before President Trump fired him, Rex Tillerson was secretary of state. At the Virginia Military Institute, Tillerson seemed to take a dig at his former boss.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
REX TILLERSON: The responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not, what a fact is and is not, and begin by holding ourselves accountable to truthfulness and demand our pursuit of America's future be fact-based.
CORNISH: Truthfulness was also touched on in this speech by the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at Harvard University.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE: If I were asked the title of my address to you today, I would say above all else, do not lie or don't lie too often, which is really to say tell the truth.
CORNISH: At Yale University, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told students that in order to win, you have to be willing to lose.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HILLARY CLINTON: Look for the good wherever we can, celebrate heroes, encourage children, find ways to disagree respectfully. We need to be ready to lose some fights because we will. As John McCain recently reminded us, no just cause is futile even if it's lost. What matters is to keep going. No matter what, keep going.
SHAPIRO: And then there was this practical guidance from Oprah Winfrey at the University of Southern California.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OPRAH WINFREY: Eat a good breakfast. It really pays off.
(LAUGHTER)
WINFREY: Pay your bills on time. Recycle. Make your bed.
(LAUGHTER)
WINFREY: Aim high. Say thank you to people and actually really mean it. Ask for help when you need it. And put your phone away at the dinner table.
SHAPIRO: The all-women's Barnard College, soccer legend Abby Wambach urged the graduating class to demand what's theirs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ABBY WAMBACH: Our landscape is overrun with archaic ways of thinking about women, about people of color, about the other, about the rich and the poor, about the powerful and the powerless. And these ways of thinking are destroying us. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We will not Little Red Riding Hood our way through life. We will unite our pack, storm the valley together and change the whole bloody system.
(CHEERING)
CORNISH: Actor Chadwick Boseman of the blockbuster hit film "Black Panther" urged the graduating class at Howard University not to take the easy way out.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHADWICK BOSEMAN: I don't know what your future is. But if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory, then you will not regret it.
SHAPIRO: And last but not least, Michael Keaton, aka Birdman and Beetlejuice, had very specific parting words for the Kent State University class of 2018.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MICHAEL KEATON: I've got one more thing to say, and it'll only take me a second. I've got two words that I want you all to remember. They're very important. And if I leave you with anything, I'm going to leave you with these two words. And those two words are, I'm Batman.
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: And with that, the class of 2018 is launched into the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND'S "THAT'S IT!") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
