With the start of May typically comes the beginning of weeks of celebrations honoring the year’s graduating students — in high school, college and more. However, with the ever-growing coronavirus pandemic, students across the country have missed out on in-person commencement ceremonies and celebrations of their achievements.
But, on May 2, Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks delivered a special message to Dayton, Ohio’s Wright State University’s class of 2020 through a virtual commencement speech. The five-minute video message was played during a virtual ceremony for graduates of Wright State’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures. Throughout his message, Hanks consistently referred to the graduating class as “the chosen ones.”
“You have been chosen in many ways,” he said. “First, by the temperament and discipline you’ve lived by, by the creative fires that are inside of you and the instinctive lunges of your desires.”
Hanks referenced the COVID-19 pandemic, which hospitalized himself and his wife, Rita Wilson, after they tested positive for the virus in March; they have since recovered. He said that, despite this pandemic, the accomplishments of this year’s graduates have not gone unnoticed.
“You succeeded because of the aid and the love of others that are in your lives, without a doubt,” he said. “But you have succeeded mostly because you, and you alone, chose to do so.”
He then issued a call to action to the 2020 graduating class saying, “No one will be more fresh to the task of restarting our measure of normalcy than you, you chosen ones.”
Hanks’s longstanding relationship with Wright State made him the ideal person to offer a bit of hope and inspiration to the university’s graduates during this unprecedented time.
According to the university, Hanks visited in 2016 to dedicate Wright State’s Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures and helped them lead a Rise.Shine. fundraising campaign, which made more than $167 million. Hanks is also friends with the Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures’ retiring artistic director, Stuart McDowell, who asked the actor if he would contribute a video message.
Joe Deer, artistic director and chair of the Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures, said, “This speech means a great deal to all of us. We’re so grateful for his inspiring words and the care he took to give what was clearly a very carefully written speech. He is one of a kind.”
Some students even took to Twitter to express their gratitude. Andrea Molina, a graduate student in the Neuroscience and physiology program tweeted:
Other graduates took to their own accounts to celebrate their accomplishments and thank their university:
Three years ago I made the best desicion of my life.
Three minutes ago I finished my last final! 💚💛 https://t.co/2eb1TTFlSi
— Alexis Voisard (@alexis_voisard) May 2, 2020
Jalsie Beck, a former Wright State women’s basketball player, tweeted:
Officially a WRIGHT STATE GRADUATE🐺🎓 Forever grateful 💚💛 https://t.co/6VdlagTGEc
— Jalise Beck (@jbeck11_) May 2, 2020
Graduate Brea Marie also shared her excitement to join the Wright State alumni family and tweeted and even referenced Hanks’s speech:
#Blackgrad #BSW #WSU 🎓✨I’m sooo proud of myself 🥺 if you knew my college experience you’d understand ! With everything I still left Wright State University with a 4.0. The chosen one 🆗💚 pic.twitter.com/fMDO43mJoU
— Brea Marie 💋 (@bmb1_) May 3, 2020
Hanks concluded his speech by praising the achievements of each graduate and said, “The future is always uncertain. But, we who celebrate what you have done, who celebrate all of your achievements, we are certain of one thing on this day: You will not let us down.”
This article appears in Apr 15 – May 5, 2020.