This Saturday, Senator Warnock to deliver the commencement address to Morehouse School of Medicine Class of 2021, where he will be awarded an honorary doctorate degree

Last week, Senator Warnock delivered the commencement address at Savannah State University, the oldest HBCU in the state, where as a high school student he participated in the Upward Bound Program

Senator Reverend Warnock to graduating class: “You are more powerful than you know. Smarter than you give yourself credit for. You can do more than you ever imagined.” 

Senator Warnock slated to deliver additional commencement remarks for other high schools, universities, and colleges, including Fisk University and the University of the Virgin Islands

**WATCH FULL COMMENCEMENT SPEECH**

Washington, D.C. — During graduation season, U.S. Senator Reverend Warnock (D-GA) will deliver commencement addresses across the state of Georgia and throughout the nation. This past weekend, Senator Warnock delivered a commencement address for Savannah State University (SSU), the oldest HBCU in the state. Senator Warnock, a Savannah native, spent his high school years walking the halls of SSU while participating in Upward Bound/TRIO programs to get a better sense, as a first-generation college student, of the possibilities of higher education. Savannah State University’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated also established a scholarship in Senator Warnock’s name “Senator Raphael Warnock Scholarship of Excellence” following his commencement.

Senator Warnock is set to deliver commencement remarks for Georgia high schools and other colleges/universities, including Morehouse School of Medicine this Saturday, Fisk University, and the University of the Virgin Islands. 

VIEW excerpts from his commencement below:

• “I lived in the projects, but I spent my summers on the campus of Savannah State and that made a difference. It gave me a glimpse of what was possible. And it inspired me to pursue— and to know that I could pursue higher education.”

• “Now I stand before you, not only as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr stood, but as a United States Senator, I say that not to brag, but to inspire you to understand that if you dream big, God is always dreaming a dream that’s even bigger than the one, you’re dreaming.”

• “Only in America is my story possible. That’s why I love this country. Our patriotism is deep because we had to love the country until the country began to learn to love us.”

• “You’re not just any class, you are the class of the global pandemic. You’ve had to navigate a kind of double darkness to get this far. COVID-19, a severe disruption to your education, your plans, your life. Adjusting to remote learning and making sure you had all the equipment and resources you needed to make it work. Losing critical work hours, being forced out of work that you needed in order to finance your education and your life as a student. […] You handled all of that for more than a year, all the while still writing papers and preparing presentations and going to the lab and studying for exams and now you sit in front of me as graduates of the mighty Class of 2021.”

• “Having done all of that, don’t you know you can go anywhere from here? So keep moving now. Don’t give up. If you have a mountain, just climb it, a river, just cross it, a dream, just chase it, a vision, just pursue it, an idea, just do it, a bad habit, just break it, a handicap, just overcome it, a talent, just develop it, a song, just sing it, a poem, just recite it, a book, just write it. You have life, you ought to live it; You are more powerful and promising than you know you can get anywhere from here.”

• “Eyes have not seen. Ears have not heard. Neither has it been revealed in the hearts of men and women, the things that God has prepared for those who believe. So we need you. We need your fresh eyes, your fresh ideas. We need new voices. We need the tools that you bring to the fight.”

• “You can get anywhere from here. So never give up the fight. Dream dreams. See visions. Pursue the unimaginable. Find yourself in a place where others think you don’t belong”

• “Keep on pressing, keep on studying, keep on writing, keep on thinking, keep on arguing the case, keep on standing up when others sit down and you will discover that behind the little creek, there is a river, behind the river there is a bay, and behind the bay there is a mighty ocean of God’s humanity and together we will make it to the promise land.”

***WATCH FULL COMMENCEMENT SPEECH HERE** 
(Senator Warnock’s remarks begin at 38:45)

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