President Barack Obama has finally delivered a commencement address to an HBCU. After speaking at Notre Dame and the University of Michigan, the president chose to speak at Hampton University in Virginia.
Obama encouraged the 1,072 graduates to be mentors and develop a culture that understands the importance of a good education.
“All of you have a separate responsibility to be role models for your brothers and sisters,” Obama said. “To be mentors in your communities and, when the times come, to pass that sense of an education’s value down to your children.”
Obama has made an effort to assist HBCUs financially. In February, he signed an initiative that will grant $1 billion in funding to HBCUs over the next decade and he has also doubled the Pell Grant program.
In related news, Obama has received flack from techies who are upset with him for warning students on becoming distracted by technology. “With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” he said. –a.r.
