【演講現(xiàn)場】

President Bok… parents， and especially， the graduates：

I’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this：“Dad，I always told you I’d come back and get my degree.”

I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job next year… and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume[簡歷].

I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part， I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me Harvard’s most successful dropout[輟學(xué)生]. I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class… I did the best of everyone who failed.

But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer[微軟總經(jīng)理] to drop out of business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation， fewer of you might be here today.

Members of the Harvard Family： Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent[智力] in the world.

What for？

There is no question that the faculty[老師]， the alumni[校友]， the students， and the benefactors[資助者] of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more？Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name？

Let me make a request of the deans and the professors-the intellectual leaders here at Harvard： As you…

Knowing what you know， how could you not？

And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments[專業(yè)成就] alone， but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities. On how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

Good luck.