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PUBLIC SERVICE IS WRITTEN into Harvard Kennedy School’s DNA, Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China and a former ����vlog���� professor, told the crowd of graduating ����vlog���� students and their families in May as the speaker for the ����vlog���� Graduation Address. He urged graduates to confront the “seemingly overwhelming challenges” of the world they are heading out into and “find the collective vision, the collective faith, the collective courage to do something about it.” “The world needs change,” Burns said. “The world needs your help. Change the world, change it for the better, make it more humane, make it more just, make it more prosperous, make it more peaceful.” Burns, who taught at the Kennedy School for 13 years before returning to public service in 2021, spoke to an audience of 659 graduating students from 35 U.S. states and 87 countries, calling them “our planet in microcosm.” The student body is 56% international, one of the most cosmopolitan classes in the School’s history. Alluding to President Kennedy’s famous challenge to Americans—words that the Kennedy School has made its own—Burns reminded the graduates that their obligation is not to themselves but to humanity. “It’s, ‘Ask what you can do.’ It’s not, ‘What will I gain?’ It’s not, ‘What will I profit from?’ It’s not, ‘What’s in it for me?’ It’s, ‘Ask what you can do to make this a better world.’ The Kennedy School asks that you not just be involved in the world but to be great in the world.”

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You can watch the events featuring these speakers through the videos below:

• Koh:
• Baron:
• McCarthy:
• DuVernay:
• Totenberg:
• Sanders:

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Banner photograph by Kayla Szymczak; Headshots by Martha Stewart.