Oprah Winfrey is no stranger to giving commencement speeches. Since she became famous, she has given numerous commencement speeches across the country. This year was no exception. On Saturday, May 13, she addressed the Class of 2017 at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. The media mogul also received an honorary degree during the ceremony. This adds to her many others honorary degrees.
It was an honor for Oprah to speak to women from her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa who graduated from Agnes Scott College on Saturday.
Before addressing the crowd, Oprah was introduced by President Elizabeth Kiss who called the television personality a trailblazer.
Oprah's speech
The main take away from Oprah's speech is that she focused on the importance of living a life of substance. She also talked about empathizing with others. She encouraged the graduates to be open to hearing the truth from others and be open to letting the process change them. She calls this "constructive engagement."
During her speech, the 63-year-old television talk show host poked fun at herself about her shoe collection that includes hundreds of shoes. She told the Class of 2017 that having a closet full of shoes doesn't fill up a person's life. She concluded that people are nothing if they don't live their truth.
About the college
Agnes Scott College is an independent undergraduate college located in downtown Decatur, Georgia. The name was changed three times. When it was founded in 1889, it was called Decatur Female Seminary. The name was changed a year later to Agnes Scott Institute to pay tribute to the mother of the school's primary benefactor, Col.
George Washington Scott. In 1906, the name was changed to its current name, Agnes Scott College.
The liberal arts school for women enrolls only 943 students from 44 states and 26 countries. That means the school is a diverse one. According to the school's website, the main mission is to educate women to think deeply and to live honorably.
Addresses over the years
Over the years, Oprah has delivered dozens of commencement speeches at schools including Harvard, Duke, Spelman, Johnson C. Smith, Stanford, Howard, Wellesley, and Greenwich Academy. Oprah's commencement speech at Harvard University has been described as her best one. On May 12, 2007, she told the graduates that nobody can tell them what their calling is. They have to know it from inside themselves.
