John Krasinski's Virtual 2020 Graduation Ceremony Featured Advice From Celebs Like Oprah
Graduation festivities are going to look a little different for the Class of 2020, due to the novel coronavirus, but that doesn't mean this year's graduating class can't celebrate their send-off in style. On Sunday, May 3, John Krasinski debuted his sixth episode of "Some Good News" with its usual mix of feel-good stories, celebrity cameos, and a virtual commencement address with advice from well-known figures like Stephen Spielberg and Oprah. If you missed it, here's how to watch the Some Good News 2020 graduation and see all the famous faces that tuned in for the virtual celebration.
Before diving in to the graduation segment of the episode, viewers got to see Ryan Reynolds hilariously take over Brad Pitt and Robert De Niro’s previous weather forecaster spot, while Samuel L. Jackson acted out one of the day's heartwarming stories of two 6-year-old girls who've been brightening strangers' days by yelling compliments at them. Krasinski — who spoke at Brown University's 2019 commencement — admitted he was "absolutely terrified" by the gig at the time, and therefore decided to enlist some motivational heavyweights to help virtually send off the Class of 2020, Some Good News-style. In addition to speeches from actual graduates all around the world, the line-up included Stephen Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Malala Yousafzai, and Jon Stewart. Unlike in many other virtual graduation celebrations, individual students could skip out on tuning in to a generic address and instead come up with a personal question for the different public figures to answer. It's not every day you can interview Oprah or Malala.
To watch the addresses — and the uplifting messages from the celeb speakers — for yourself, you can head to the SomeGoodNews YouTube channel and click on the latest episode titled "Graduation 2020: Some Good News With Jon Krasinski Ep. 6." From there, you can watch the whole thing through or skip to the end of the video when the commencement answer and question portion starts happening. The graduation portion of the video starts at the 6:25 mark, and the celebs come in around 11:55 mark.
There are plenty of gems from the episode, like this outlook on the current situation from Spielberg, who reflected on what positive things people can take away from living through the coronavirus pandemic.
"One of the things this moment is teaching us is that truly anything is possible," he told a student. "It will be imagination and innovation that gets us all to the other side. I know this is a time of huge loss, but it’s also a chance to dream big about our futures together. And your generation has something important to say about making that a better future for all of us."
Meanwhile, Oprah shared some wise words about encountering failure in her career early on, and how it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise and led her to where she is now. "I believe that failure is an opportunity to move in yourself in a different direction. It gets better, because you learn the lessons from the first time," she told one student, after recounting how she got "demoted" to a talk show host when she was 22.
These stories and other words of advice from Stewart and Yousafzai are in the graduation segment, so head to YouTube and click on the video for a virtual pick-me-up. While you're there, you can also check out the SGN Prom highlights, which Krasinski put on in April.
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