NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Lester Holt delivers Villanova University’s commencement speech

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

As NBC Nightly News celebrates the Class of 2023, we’re sharing Lester Holt’s remarks from Villanova University’s commencement ceremony on May 19.

Hello. I gotta tell you, I am so glad I'm here. I am so glad I'm here. And Jordy, my friend, you rocked it. You're a tough act to follow. Thank you. Father Peter, Dr. Magiddi, members of the Villanova Board of Trustees, University leadership, members of the faculty, distinguished guests, families, friends, and of course graduates, good afternoon. Nice to see you. It is an honor and privilege to be here at Villanova's 180th commencement. Thank you for this degree. It is so powerful to be part of this great school's legacy,

to be one with all of you on this day. This is the fifth college commencement I've spoken at over the years. Each one fills me with a sense of wistfulness. You see, I never completed my college education. I've never made the walk to this stage that you were about to. And I haven't tossed a cap since my high school graduation. OK, last chance. You still sure you want me to speak? OK, we're good? All right.

See this degree, automatic street cred. How cool is that? To be clear, what I just shared with you is not an expression of regret. It's more of a statement about the choices we make in life and what we do with them going forward. To reach this point, you have already made plenty of choices. In some cases, the consequences of those choices were predictable and they played out in real

time in your lives. But you will learn others will play out across a lifetime, and you have to prepare yourself for that. Much of who I am today, at least professionally, is shaped by that decision back in 1979 to suspend my studies and pursue a job in radio news. Sure, 40 years plus later, it looks like a pretty wise decision, a no-brainer. Things worked out well. But at that moment, I was taking a considerable gamble with my future in terms of opportunities. And believe it or not, I still revisit that decision every so often. Obviously, I don't hide from it, but neither do I dwell on it.

So, as I look at all of you, the class of 2023, I think not so much about my missed experiences, but about how proud I felt watching my sons graduate from college. And I find myself reflecting on their journeys and what many of you must be feeling at this moment. Parents, I have sat where you are. I know it seems like yesterday you helped move them into their freshman dorms, probably with a minimum of three trips to Ikea, I'm guessing. And you weathered that awkward moment when they were trying to figure out how to nicely get you to leave. It's getting late. The road's going to be dark.

Well, guess what? Now it's you who will have to figure out how to get them to leave your spare bedroom. Remember, unemployment is down to 3.4%. They will find a job. They will get their own place in good time, okay? Although it may not come with the chef and housekeeper that they enjoy now. I suppose each generation is defined by the events that occur around them. Some more memorable and more dire than others. My sons were children of 9-11, middle and high schoolers back then, and eyewitnesses of some of the horrors of that day. You are a generation forged in part by a different dark chapter in our history, the pandemic, which directly shaped your college experience. It wasn't what you imagined or planned for, but you adapted. You opened your eyes to new ways of learning, and here you are today, imbued with the strength

and the faith that is at the beating heart of the Augustinian tradition and of this great university. Class of 2023, congratulations. We are so incredibly proud of you. Now, we talked about choices a moment ago. Some are made for us, not by us. There are things that we cannot change, but things that should stay with us if we're going to learn from them. During the height of the pandemic, we all learned a lot about science. Boy, did we learn about science, mRNA, strains, herd immunity. But we also learned a lot about sociology and psychology, the varying degrees of human behavior and response to a shared threat. How easily we carved out different paths

against an onrushing threat. Uh-oh, he's veering into politics. Here we go. No, don't worry. Relax. As a journalist, though, I need to talk here about how we communicate and how we learn to find and value truth.

We will face new threats or frightening challenges in our lifetimes. We will need your historical perspective of how we got through this one and to relay the lessons of what can happen when communications and trust fails us at a moment of great peril. When I was named anchor of NBC Nightly News back in 2015, the thing that surprised me most was how suddenly everybody thought I was wiser and I knew a lot of stuff. Admittedly, it might have been the gray hair that fooled them, but it was pretty awe-inspiring. During the height of the pandemic, I got a lot of people asking me, are we going to be all right?

I appreciate the trust in me that's implied in that question. And I do seek those answers. This role affords me access to many people of power and influence. I've traveled all over the world to hotspots near and far. I lead a broadcast with deep connections and resources our job is to get answers to uncover and deliver the facts but my answer to those broader questions like are we going to be okay i have to say i don't know i don't know it's a surprisingly difficult thing to say for someone who spends each day providing answers to millions of people on a lot of topics. It's hard to say it, especially in a society that seems to thrive on sharp opinion and absolutisms and shuns nuance. Flip the channels tonight and you will hear a cacophony of righteousness, voices across

the ideological spectrum defending this position or that position with unflinching certainty. Smart, smart people. In that world, we know exactly how to fix the migrant crisis. We can determine guilt from innocence before a jury hears a case. And boy, we know exactly what motivates people all in that world. Nobody wants to be the guy in the back of the room who feels like they are the only one who hasn't figured out the answer. But guess what? Chances are neither of the guys in the front rows. Until we can acknowledge what we don't know, we can't possibly be asking the right questions. You don't have to be the smartest guy in the room. Your aim should be to be the one asking for more information, the one audacious enough to say, I don't know. Another question I'm often asked focuses on something I cover every day. How do we heal the divide in America? For the record,

that is a hard I don't know, but I will throw out some thoughts on the subject. I'm obviously an active participant and a defender of the freedom of speech. Our ability to express ourselves, our ideas and beliefs are core to who we are. But sometimes, sometimes, I wonder if a little less talking might serve us better in some circumstances. Asking smart questions, searching for the truth, learning to spot the red herrings are critically important. But I worry that listening gets short-stripped. When I say listening, I'm speaking of more than just hearing words, but hearing the meaning and the perspective and the experiences of others. Well, that's almost as scary as I don't know, because it may require you to

hear what you may be afraid to hear. That peace that threatens to disrupt your carefully arranged worldview. Resist that feeling. Find the courage. Learn to listen with your mouth closed. All that said, we do need your voice. We need your voice to speak for knowledge voice we need your voice to speak for knowledge we need your voice to speak for justice and for truth we need your voice to speak for civility but sometimes we just need your reason your sober thinking thoughts born of learning and real experience that elevate our problem solving and know that not everything requires an instant immediate response take a chance learn to pause to be silent to pick your moment based on knowledge and full understanding foster informed debate we

have never had more capable tools of communication at our disposal. So why is it so hard for us to communicate? Maybe because those tools do not include a restraint button, other than the one that says, log off, and we're not touching that one. Everything we see, read, and hear about seems to demand our opinion, our immediate validation alike, as if that makes whatever they're talking about so. I know those comment sections below an article of interest beckon loudly, but ask yourself, is your voice really needed at this moment on this topic, or will it further power the treadmill of anger and mistrust that we're stuck on?

The knee-jerk inclinations to sound off on everything, irrespective of a full set of facts or useful information, is at the heart of not just what divides us but what can harden us. What would happen if you started saying, I don't know, or give me a minute, I need more time, I need more information? Would Twitter grind to a halt? Would stopping to listen occasionally, asking a few questions, applying some critical thinking skills leave you on the outside? My job requires me to interview a lot of notable figures.

I usually prepare for interviews by wading through a lot of research and then kind of forming a blueprint of questions that I hope will challenge the interview subject or steer them into new ground. Experience has taught me that the key to a successful news-making interview is not necessarily the questions I ask, but what I call the reveals. That moment when you resist thinking about what's my next question on the list, and you just listen. And you hear the moment that someone reveals something new, something they've never said publicly before, a policy change, a new direction,

an admission, something that can change the direction of the interview and enhance its news value. All thanks to a questioner's most powerful tool, their ears. Following a conversation where it takes you, not how you thought it would play out. In other words, kind of like the way life works. You guys have had a fine education. You've been supported by a rich community of scholars these many years, blessed by devoted families and a caring faculty and staff. But as has been said before, the learning starts now. If only you go in search of the truth using all the tools of effective communication.

And let me conclude with this. In my role, I may not know all the answers, but I think I know this. Class of 2023, you're going to be all right. God bless you all. Thank you and congratulations.