The 10 most powerful quotes from Northeastern commencement speakers
From adapting to a world with artificial intelligence to the importance of original, personal journeys, here are some messages that commencement speakers offered this year’s graduates.
Artificial intelligence was front of mind for many of the speakers who addressed Northeastern University’s 2026 graduates.
From President Joseph E. Aoun to graduate speaker and business leader Alan McKim, the speakers took the opportunity to encourage the gathered crowds to lean into their humanity.
Technology, Aoun said, “cannot comprehend the moment when you look a friend in the eye and they know, without you saying a word, that you have their back. Those qualities are yours.”
Others, including the many student speakers and undergraduate speaker Hilary Duff, emphasized the need for the graduates to celebrate their individuality and hold true to their own choices.
Here are the 10 most memorable quotes from today’s celebrations:
Maintain your humanity
“Remember that the future doesn’t belong to the most optimized; it belongs to the most original…In a world that will increasingly ask you to move fast, optimize, and reduce everything to a metric, your humanity is what sets you fully apart.”
— Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University.
Never lose sight of what AI cannot do. It cannot imagine what does not already exist. It cannot invent a business model that upends an industry. It cannot devise a theory that changes our perception of the universe. It lacks the vision to dream of a different future. And has no passion to create a better world.
—Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University.
“I’ll be honest, it’s a little surreal to be standing here giving advice, since I am genuinely still figuring it out myself, every single day. But in a way it makes sense, because at Northeastern University, you believe experience isn’t a substitute for education. It is the education.”
— Hilary Duff, multiplatinum singer and actress, undergraduate commencement speaker
“Your character will matter more than your code. The human element is more important than ever.”
– Alan McKim, founder of Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc. and co-namesake of Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business
“AI will touch everything … everyone … everywhere. And that is not your burden. It’s your opportunity.”
– Alan McKim, founder of Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc. and co-namesake of Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business
Staying true to who you are
“What you do might change. Who you are never has to. You are the architect of your own happiness, and you get to decide what belongs in your life. We only get one.”
— Hilary Duff, multiplatinum singer and actress, undergraduate commencement speaker
“If there is one thing this journey has taught me above all else, it is that success is not just about where we end up. It is about who we become along the way and who we bring with us.”
– Abou-Bakar Mohamed Ouattar, graduate speaker, master’s in accounting
“The dreams that belong to you do not exist by accident. They were given to you because you and you alone, are capable of bringing that pure potential into the kinetic and alive … to deprive humanity of those gifts, is an unspeakable loss.”
— Evan Kenny, undergraduate student speaker, bachelor’s in behavioral neuroscience
Embrace change
“Change is inevitable, but the resilience to adapt is what keeps us on top. The strongest results come not from the resilience of doing the same thing until it works, but from doing a different thing, every time, until something does.”
– Menahi Shayan, graduate speaker and master’s in engineering management
“As we walk out of Fenway today, I hope we remember this: whoever we were before we got here is not what we leave behind. It’s what we carry forward. … It’s what we build with.”
— Daniela Gonzalez, graduate speaker, master’s degree in data science
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