Wabash College sent an email to soon-to-be-graduates asking who might be interested in giving a speech at commencement. Jaleel Grandberry, a rhetoric major, emailed back and said he’d like to do it. So on May 12, Grandberry stood in front of some 250 graduates at the all-male school and told them to “secure the bag,” but then use that success to make a positive impact on other lives.
“During my college time that’s what I spent a lot of time doing,” he said in an interview with the Recorder. “I think that’s part of why they asked me to do the commencement speech.”
Grandberry had some tips for the graduates as they head out into the world — put in the work, be yourself (especially for marginalized people) — but he added life is more important than finding individual success.
It’s an important message to deliver to young people who are about to make their impact in communities across the state and country, but Grandberry said he wasn’t nervous to be the messenger.
“I’m usually pretty good with nerves because I talk in front of people a lot,” he said. “Going up to it was surreal, like, I’m about to talk at my own graduation.”
Grandberry, who said he wants to go into sports journalism now, was part of the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies since his freshman year and served its president his junior year. Grandberry said being part of that program “opened up my eyes and made me pay attention to a lot more things around me.”
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
Jaleel Grandberry gave a speech at Wabash College’s commencement May 12. (Photo/Wabash College Communications)
