He's "F"ing with Them: Jon Huntsman Jr.'s Advice to Graduating UPenn Seniors (VIDEO)

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University Communications

This past Monday, Penn hosted its 254th Commencement and Penn alum Jon Huntsman, Jr. (C'87), Ambassador to China, delivered the Commencement Address.

Today and tomorrow I'm posting a few of these videos from graduation for you to soak in. I watched these videos so you don't (necessarily) need to and can skip to the good parts : )

...However, I do encourage you to listen to these speeches as they really are a source of great inspiration no matter how old you are!

After the jump, find out some key moments from Jon's enthusiastic commencement speech including how he worked in an Incubus song and his "ooh"-invoking comment about how beautiful President Amy Gutmann's looked!

In his speech above (starts at 4:21), Jon talks about:

1. what he refers to as "the elephant in the room"
2. how he didn't follow conventional wisdom and how he was encouraged to have a fallback job (find out in what profession!)
3. "oohs" from the crowd when he talks about Amy Gutmann's beauty! (7:40)
4. encouragement to follow one's passion (as these alumni have)
5. his 5 "F"s in order to have a fulfilled life: (14:10):

• Find yourself
• Find a cause to be passionate about (don't hide behind your myspace page, but speak out)
• Face failure (references an Incubus song!)
• Find someone to love
• Find meaning in life by having goals and creating a personal philosophy to value the world around you (which will lead to wisdom)

Jon then concludes his speech by dispensing what he calls the best wisdom which comes from Thomas Jefferson, "The most valuable of all talents is never having to use 2 words when 1 will do."

Check out videos from this year and previous Penn graduations HERE



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