Nicholas Johnson Delivers Commencement Speech

Source: Lisa Festa, Center for Career Development / Nicholas Johnson/Princeton

Princeton’s First Black Valedictorian has delivered his address. As previously reported Nicholas Johnson made headlines after being named Princeton’s First Black Valedictorian in the institution’s 274-year history.

As promised Princeton had their digital commencement on Sunday, May 31 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scholar who hails from Montreal studied operations research and financial engineering at the Ivy League school and in his commencement address he spoke on the importance of “building” together.

“I believe that “building” is the best way to create and deliver value to the world,” said Johnson. “Building is not restricted to the creation of tangible objects. Together, we have built communities, relationships, traditions, innovative algorithms and lasting memories. Building is fundamentally a means to serve humanity. When I reflect on our collective accomplishments, I feel confident that each of us possesses the ability to build and to create. After all, we each made it through our Senior Thesis!

Identifying what needs to be built is inherently harder – and arguably of greater importance – than specifying how something is built. It is the first step one takes in creating the future and requires an intimate familiarity and engagement with the present state of the world coupled with a capacity to unabashedly dream of a distinctly different future. In the words of Michelle Obama, of the Class of 1985, “it was possible, I knew, to live on two planes at once – to have one’s feet planted in reality but pointed in the direction of progress. […] You may live in the world as it is, but you can still work to create the world as it should be.” I challenge each of us to develop our own unique answer to the question “what needs to be built?” and to revise our answers as we continue to learn. Think critically about what needs to be built in the world, build it, and never stop learning.”

Congrats to Nick and all the 2020 grads.

You can watch his speech in its entirety below.