President Barack Obama will deliver a commencement address to our nation’s three million high school seniors in a one-hour primetime TV and streaming event this weekend.
“Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020” will reflect on the disruption of their lives, especially missing out on such milestone rites of passage as senior proms and parties, class trips, and, of course, graduation ceremonies, caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to President Obama, the program features inspirational messages of support from celebrities LeBron James, Malala Yousafzai, Megan Rapinoe, along with high school students from Chicago public schools, members of the Obama Youth Jobs Corps, and from students, teachers, and their families from coast to coast.
Musical guests include the Jonas Brothers, Bad Bunny, Pharrell Williams and H.E.R..
The special one-hour telecast is Saturday, May 16 at 8PM ET/PT, 7PM CT/MT
It is live on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and streaming on multiple online platforms.
Two weeks later, on June 6th, Lady Gaga, BTS and Barack Obama are set to give a commencement speech during YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020” virtual commencement.
The event will also feature appearances by Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland and more, and streamed on YouTube..
The schedule will be announced on May 17, the day after the Graduate Together event.
Graduate Together social media
Join the event on social media #GraduateTogether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok.
About Graduate Together
As coronavirus has prompted the cancellation of high school graduation ceremonies across the country, a broad coalition of partners joined together to pay tribute to millions of high school seniors, including The Entertainment Industry Foundation, The LeBron James Family Foundation, XQ Institute, to rally everyone around a message of hope and unity.
“This high school graduation season will be anything but ordinary — but that’s all the more reason why the Class of 2020 deserves extraordinary advice, heartfelt encouragement, and hard-won wisdom about facing new challenges in an uncertain world,” Russlynn Ali, CEO and co-founder of XQ Institute, said in a statement.
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