Duke on Demand

At a press conference in advance of her Duke University commencement address, alumna and philanthropist Melinda Gates comments on her return to campus and meetings with students.

Read more here: http://today.duke.edu/2013/05/gates2013.

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.

Read more here: https://today.duke.edu/2013/05/commence2013.

Recap of Mason Plumlee's introduction and speech at the 2013 Duke Basketball Banquet

Duke's most senior senior is Robert Becker. The 80-year-old member of the class of 2013 arrived on campus in the early 1950s but after four years left two courses shy of a degree. After careers in the military and airline industry, Becker returned to Duke this January to finish up. Having taken courses in logic and religion, he's slated to receive a bachelor of arts degree in political science.

The native of Satellite, Fla., should have plenty of fans on hand at commencement. His wife, son, two daughters and five grandchildren plan to attend. As a graduate, he would join brothers Dennis '66 and Richard '56 as a Duke alumnus.

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