The best commencement speeches and speakers offer graduating students advice and guidance for the post-college times ahead. For graduates, excited but nervous and confused about their future, the motivating words said by a speaker on graduation day will be the last lesson taught. Here are some of the best commencement speeches at black colleges this year.

2Steve Harvey, Alabama State University


“You got your degree; that’s successful. So far, this has been about yourself … but great people change other people’s lives. Great people put other people’s needs in front of theirs. Great people go back to their communities and change lives.”