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HACKLEY REVIEW COMMENCEMENT SUPPLEMENT 2022
click here for video of the Address
The Commencement Address Dave Karger ’91
Good morning Hackley faculty and staff, trustees, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and most of all, members of the Class of 2022. It is wonderful to be back here on the Hilltop for the first time in years, and I’m honored that you invited me to be a part of your ceremony today. I am told that you chose me based on an anonymous description that read in part: “He is a television host who appears regularly on E! and the Today show and has co-hosted ABC’s Live from the Red Carpet on Oscar night.” So I apologize to any and all of you who thought that you were getting Ryan Seacrest as your commencement speaker. But even if it is not from Ryan, you all certainly deserve a hearty congratulations. No class was hit harder by COVID-19 than the Class of 2022. I feel horrible that, for over a year, you couldn’t have any athletic matches, musical concerts, or dramatic performances. And it’s so frustrating that the pandemic denied you so much precious in-person time with your classmates. But I think it’s so great that, when the outdoor mask mandate was lifted right in time for your Junior Day of Fun, almost all of you braved the summer-like temperatures to play kickball, toss water balloons, and make tie-dye t-shirts. I mean, you even organized a ping pong tournament in the chapel? You are my kind of people. Although you are all about to embark on an exciting adventure and spread out across the country and maybe even the world, the people that you are sitting with right now will always be a huge part of your lives. And although I am sure you’ve heard this before, it is true and it is the best news: Your Hackley education, especially the emphasis on writing, is going to give you a major head start during your first fall semester and beyond.
So how can you all continue to spread joy and live authentically as you head off to college and begin thinking about your life after school? Well, I am here with a few lessons learned in the 31 years since I was in your shoes. When I think back to everything that has gone right in my life, I can always attribute it to a combination of three words that start with O: optimism, opportunity, and openness. You will surely hear those three words several times during the rest of this speech. Throughout my childhood, I always had an obsession with music and movies. As a first-year student at Duke University, I remember walking into the career center on campus, asking for the entertainment industry specialist, and telling him I was interested in finding an internship in New York City for that summer. He said, “Wow, we’ve never had a freshman come in here before.” But I refused to let that deter me, and I was optimistic and continued to check in with him until he alerted me to a PR firm in Manhattan that was willing to consider a younger student. That internship led to another one the following summer
