Melinda Gates Urges Graduates to Stay Connected

Saying "humanity in the abstract will never inspire you in the same way as human beings you meet," Melinda Gates urged Duke University's graduates Sunday to use new technology to connect with others, including people in the developing world whose lives Americans can now touch in a more personal way.

"Over the course of your lives, I promise you, you will have many opportunities to use technology to make your world bigger, to meet more different kinds of people and to keep in touch with more of the people you meet," she said in the annual commencement ceremony in Wallace Wade Stadium. "I want you to connect because I believe it will inspire you to do something, to make a difference in the world." 

Gates, who received undergraduate and business degrees from Duke and later served as a university trustee, said, "it is so fantastic to be back here at my alma mater." She recalled attending Duke basketball games and spending long nights writing computer code as a student, long before she became co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest transparently operated private foundation.

"The way you communicate is the single biggest difference between you now and me a generation ago," she told the graduates. Smartphones and other technologies have proliferated, even in a Kenyan slum she visited recently, making it possible for Americans to get to know people in other countries more personally.

"Your world really can become a neighborhood," Gates said, arguing that "deep human connection ... is not a tool. It's not a means to an end. It is the end -- the purpose and the result of a meaningful life -- and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity and humanity."

Delivered under a sunny sky, her address highlighted the ceremony at which Duke awarded more than 5,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees, including to those who graduated in September and December.

Gates received an honorary degree during the ceremony. The university also awarded honorary degrees to human rights activist Marguerite "Maggy" Barankitse; immune system scientist Dr. Max Cooper; archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero; Harvard professor of African-American history and literature Henry Louis Gates; investment manager William H. (Bill) Gross; and choreographer Judith Jamison.

Read the full story on Duke Today. Her speech was covered by The Huffington Post, USA Today, News & Observer, The Herald-Sun and WRAL.