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Babson College undergraduate and graduate students had the privilege of hearing Liberian President — and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf deliver the commencement address at this past weekend’s ceremonies. Sirleaf traveled 4,600 miles to Wellesley to share her message, which included her urging students “not settle for the ordinary when the extraordinary is in your line of sight.”
She used the bulk of her talk to update students on the need for more entrepreneurship across Africa, and highlighted promising examples already underway. “At a time when many around the world are looking to build walls, close doors, and limit interactions across cultures, the entrepreneur, by his or her own definition, is a bridge builder. A door opener. A problem solver.”
You can see and listen to her entire address in the video below.
Student speakers at Babson commencement ceremonies were:
*graduate student Joan Segura Oyamburu, who is the founder of Play Business, an equity crowd-funding platform based in Mexico, which has funded 63 startups, increased the number of investors to 5,000, and helped create more than 500 jobs.
*undergrad Stela Maksjtaj, an Albanian immigrant active with Babson’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Undergraduate Center for Career Development.