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Happy Graduation Season!
Reflections on My Degrees and Some Inspiring Commencement Speeches
Sloane Stephens
May 13, 2022
Education is very important in my family. As I rose through the ranks of junior tennis and made the decision to turn pro, the unwavering expectation from my family was that I would complete my college education and have this investment in myself to rely on after I retire one day.
2017 was a busy year for me on and off the court. I spent most of the year rehabbing from a foot surgery and my life as a professional tennis player felt very uncertain. While I knew I would fight my way back and return to the tour when my body was ready, anyone who has gone through recovery from an injury or surgery knows that you aren’t fully in control of that timing. I always try to find the positive in a situation, and decided to make the most of this period by increasing my course load for my online B.A. in Communication Studies from Indiana University East. The WTA has a partnership with IU East to offer WTA players the opportunity to complete degrees while on tour. We’re trendsetters and were making online education a thing before its time! After winning the US Open that September, I rushed to take final exams and complete my coursework in order to graduate in December.
My Graduation Day at IU East!
I thought I was done with school at that point. I was proud of my Bachelor’s degree and excited to get back to work…until I received an email from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee offering US Olympians a full tuition scholarship. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - if it’s free, it’s for me! Back to school I went to complete my MBA at DeVry University. This time around, we were mid-pandemic and I had a lot of time at home to make some major progress on my degree before the Tour picked back up again. I graduated with my MBA in December 2020. Thank you again, Team USA!
As the founder of the Sloane Stephens Foundation, I want to be a strong role model and positive example for the 10,000+ students we work with in Compton and across the country. Online school was an incredible challenge for so many students during the pandemic, especially underserved students who lack access to the technology, wifi, or support to excel in that setting. I believe that every child deserves the opportunity to have tennis and education change their life, so it was very important to me to show my SSF kids that we were in this together. They were navigating Zoom school, I was navigating Zoom school. We figured out how to navigate tools like Blackboard and Google Drive together and kept each other accountable and motivated.
I have a lot of nostalgia for graduation season. I love celebrating people’s successes. Every photo on my timeline of someone’s cute photoshoot in a cap and gown will get a like from me. Graduations are both an end and a beginning, it’s a time to get in your feelings to reflect on where you’ve come from, and where you’re going. I am incredibly proud of all the current grads who have navigated the past few years. I’m sure that your experience was different than you expected it to be, but I am so proud of you for persevering and writing your own unique story. Amidst all the celebrating, please remember to take some moments for self-care, relaxation, and reflection on all that you have achieved!
I love watching commencement speeches online and finding some good nuggets of wisdom. I pulled some quotes that have stayed with me and have linked to the full speeches for your viewing pleasure.
Oprah Winfrey - Class of 2020 Virtual Speech
I wish I could tell you I know the path forward. I don’t. There is so much uncertainty. In truth, there always has been. What I do know is that the same values, fortitude, and determination (and I know you’re determined, that’s why we’re celebrating your diplomas today)….the same guts and imagination that got you to this moment—all those things are the very things that will sustain you through whatever is coming. It’s vital that you learn, and we all learn, to be at peace with the discomfort of stepping into the unknown. It’s really okay to not have all the answers. The answers will come—for sure—if you can accept “not knowing“ long enough to get still, and stay still long enough for new thoughts to take root in your more quiet, deeper, truer self.
Chadwick Boseman - Howard University - 2018
Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.
Barack Obama - Howard University - 2016
You can be completely right, and you still are going to have to engage folks who disagree with you. If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you’re not going to get what you want. And if you don’t get what you want long enough, you will eventually think the whole system is rigged. And that will lead to more cynicism, and less participation, and a downward spiral of more injustice and more anger and more despair. And that’s never been the source of our progress. That’s how we cheat ourselves of progress.
Shonda Rhimes - Dartmouth - 2014
You are now citizens of the real world. You have a responsibility to become a person worthy of joining and contributing to society. Because who you are today ... that's who you are. So be brave.Be amazing. Be worthy. And every single time you get a chance? Stand up in front of people. Let them see you. Speak. Be heard. Go ahead and have the dry mouth. Let your heart beat so, so fast. Watch everything move in slow motion.
Steve Jobs - Stanford University - 2005
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.