melody: what a day. i want to send my congratulations to the usc class of 2015 and all of those who celebrate and champion those. now i would like to ask the graduates to do something. i would like you to look past the rain and look up the sky. now i would like you to imagine that you are in a light caps off -- a lightweight capsule. and it took you two hours to be 24 miles up. insane, right? the only way you can get back to the earth is to jump. this actually happened in 2012 where a parachutist put himself in this exact situation. felix bumgarner said if he looked out, he could see the curve of the earth as he contemplated his next move. if you watch the video, you will hear his ground crew tell him to disconnect the oxygen supply hoses attached to his suits. felix does not move. moments passed. then you hear the command again, disconnect the oxygen. why did felix hesitate? i think as most of you know, i would say that sitting 24 miles up is not that different from where you are sitting right now. graduating from college is a major transition. you know that. you are probably feeling eager feeling excited. and like felix you may also be , feeling scared. [applause] ms. hobson: the world may look bigger than it has ever looked and you may feel smaller than you have ever felt. but those of you graduating today, it was not because he was not brave. it was because you cannot be brave without fear. so, despite a racing heart extremely sweaty palms, felix disconnected the oxygen and he put his faith and his preparation in his parachute. and just like you are doing today, he jumped into the great unknown. did he make it? ok, we are going to leave him suspended in free fall a minute and come back to him. in the meantime, i am very excited to be here on solid ground with all of you and i want to thank the president for the very kind introduction, and congratulate my fellow honorary degree recipients. i would like to congratulate all of the supportive relatives and friends. today, we are all one big trojan family. some of you were born into it. some of you chose it. i married into it. [applause] ms. hobson: i remember the first time my husband, george lucas, brought me to campus. [applause] ms. hobson: first stop was the film school, obviously. then we attended a football game. not a game, the game against westwood high. now i went to school back east and the one thing i can tell you, ivy league football is mostly boring. cold like it is right now. but the game was amazing. i cheered the entire time. i could not believe you had a real horse as a mascot. i was amazed. then i learned that that is not the original traveler. i thought to myself, what a nice tradition but doesn't it make more sense to replicate -- pete carroll? now i can tell you, i am truly grateful to have my own degree from u.s. and i cherish this honor as well as the opportunity to speak for you. in preparing for today it made me think about my own college commenced. our speaker was a highly leader who was very well known for what he did. and he talked to us about, honestly, i cannot remember a thing he said. nothing. he may have actually divulged the meaning of life but my mind was racing and i was eager, i cannot focus. i did not have texting as an excuse back then. i was just like you guys are today, my brain was going a mile a minute. i'm sure many of you are feeling it likely the same way. i'm going to give you permission not to remember and that i a 24 -- not to remember anything i say except for three words, three words. it is not a lot. those three words are "just add bravery." let me be clear about what i mean about bravery. to me, being brave means even when you know an action could end very badly he still forge ahead. there are different kinds of bravery. there is what i call bite-size bravery, a smaller but equally important. it was bite-size bravery that caused you to take that applied mathematics class, that led you to speak out when everyone agreed on a topic and you knew they were completely missing the point. it was bravery that led you to fight for a friend in need or perhaps even a stranger. it was bravery that led you to take that shot at the buzzer and it was bravery that led not one but two women to run for president of the usc student council. [applause] ms. hobson: bravery allows us to push beyond the boundaries that hold us back from living the lives that we want. for those of you, some of you, those boundaries may have been imposed by your family. i have to tell you, i was lucky. i grew up in chicago, the youngest of six kids to a single mom. my situation was one that was challenged. some of you may have had the same situation. sometimes we did not have enough money for rent and we would get evicted. which happened a lot. that is not why i was lucky. i was lucky because the one thing that my mother did despite all of the harsh realities we sometimes had to deal with, she made sure that she never gave up and she made sure that we did not either. even when my childhood was filled with some of her brutal pragmatism, she always gave us a tremendous amount of an encouragement. what mattered most to me were the words she spoke nearly every day when she said, mellody, you can be or do anything. it was because of those words i love school more than anything. it was because of those words that i dreamed the biggest dream. i hope you have your family's support as you pursue your passions entering your own dreams. you might need bravery to push past some of the stereotypes that come with our culture and where we live. when i was a little girl taking public transportation to school, i can bet not too many people were sitting on the bus saying there goes the future president of an investment firm with nearly $11 billion in assets. [applause] ms. hobson: they might have thought that if they had spent five minutes talking to me but i do not think they had those ideas. their expectations to not run that high. i hope we can be better at judging people, not under assumptions and appearance is s but on their achievements and on action. here is how we can do that. just how i told you that you can be or do anything, i want you to believe that that is true of anyone and everyone. you see, at college you have a fair amount of control around your social interaction. you can decide who to sit next to in class. you can decide who to room with. i bet in the next chapter of your life you will not have much they about who is in the cubicle next to you at work. you might actually sit next to someone who you have absolutely nothing in common with. and i actually think that is great. it is so easy to get trapped in a self-selective subset of humanity. yes, it feels comfortable, but it is also extraordinarily confining. there's a whole world out there. why limit ourselves? make an effort to step outside of your circle, do more than just expect diversity, seek out diversity. i promise it will make you more interesting, more understanding, and basically smarter. here is another benefit, when you have the courage to expand your world, person by person we can and stereotypes and remove barriers to opportunities. although this change begins with awareness, it does not and never ends there. we need action. the way to move from awareness to action, just add bravery. where is felix? i have left him suspended in the air. after leaping into the great unknown, he went into a freefall and all went well for seven seconds. at eight seconds he had accelerated to 600 miles an hour and he began to spin violently. he was in an uncontrollable spin when he broke the sound barrier. he says, the most terrifying part was not the leap, it was trying to get his bearings and to write himself. once again, felix provides a perfect metaphor for after college life. each of you will head off on your own unique path. you may have different goals but there is one thing you will all have in common. it is 100% certain that you all will have significant challenges in your life. you will spin out and you will struggle to right yourself. the best way to confront those struggles and challenges, just add bravery. that does not always mean charging the hills with this in the air. sometimes that means not charging. we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the march on selma. people came together to walk to the alabama state capital to demand the passage of the voting rights act. what is less well known, except for the american studies majors, there were three attempts to do this march. the first time, 600 peaceful protesters tried to cross the edmund pettus bridge and they were attacked teargas. the second time, martin luther king jr. came, and he assembled all the marchers. they were ready to cross the bridge. he told them, first let's kneel in prayer. they did, and when they got up he told them to turn back. they were shocked. sometimes restraint takes bravery. it was the third time, 16 days later, when they had all of the federal protections in place that dr. king actually completed the 54 mile march to montgomery with 25,000 marchers. now let's return to felix. he is in this violent spin. 15 seconds into the jump, he is going 844 miles an hour or as the physics majors know, mach 1.25. now, he tried working systematic -- a way and using all of his years of preparation and training to right himself. it does not matter what he did or how he did it because i do not think find ourselves in the situation. when you feel yourself spinning out at supersonic speed, keep your wits about you and rely on your preparation. five minutes later, felix landed, safe and sound except for a few bruises and a slight case of whiplash, basically the equivalent of a fender bender on expedition. i hope wherever you land you too wind up successful, happy, and proud to do something unique. if you cannot see a clear path to your dreams, i can offer you three equations that can get you there. this is simple math, so simple that even the students who took the selfies class are going to understand what i talk about. ok equation number one, hard , work plus bravery equals success. however you define success, set your sights high. be a hard grader on yourself. when i started in money management i knew there were people who had a lot more experience and knowledge, and the one thing i knew i could do was outwork them. and i actually did. if i did not understand them, i asked questions. if i did not know how to do something, i would ask to learn . most people do not want to admit what they do not know. i do. i see nothing wrong with it. so do not pretend you know nothing -- you know more than you are -- then you do. i am jealous of you. you have years to know. at the same time, do not pretend to know less than you do either. my boss told me i will be in rooms with people who have a lot of money and make titles and just because i am young and new does not mean i have -- i do not have great ideas. i urge you to participate fully, not in a cocky or smug way but with confidence and humility. be willing to speak up and stand out. i know firsthand this can be very hard at times for women and minorities who are desperate to fit in. a lot of women hang back and say, tell me what you want me to be and i will be it, when a better attitude is, this is who i am and i have value and i hope that you like it but if you do not, this is who i am. [applause] ms. hobson: and their matter who you are, i promise if you focus on the work, success will come. if you focus on the success, nothing will come. equation number two, imagination is bravery equals creativity. there are so few originals in life. i think the best compliment you can receive is, i've never met anyone like you. being unique needs forming your own opinion. it helps if you reach for questions and push for answers. if you bring that attitude to work, you not only will advance yourself, you will advance all of humanity. usc has produced visionaries in every field, technology, edison, medicine, and the arts. now we're going to talk about the art for a minute because they are near and dear to my near and dear. this university had something that no school anywhere can match. the greatest film school in the country. [applause] ms. hobson: this matters because our society is held together all societies are held together by stories. from cave paintings to "star wars." stories serve an essential purpose in our communities and in our lives. five centuries ago, the majority of people cannot read so the church relied on artists to turn the sistine chapel into a stunning classroom's frescoes that more than give people something to stare at as they were listening to long services in latin. they were a 15th century highlight reel of moses and jesus christ. it entertained as well as educated. george lucas movies are not only fun to watch harrison ford fly through space with his furry copilot but to teach the variety -- the value of society. the choice between being selfish and being impassioned. he took the stand and made his beliefs clear. but all the dark side can be more powerful and alluring. the light will bring more joy. which brings me to my last equation. love plus bravery equals happiness. a lot of graduation speeches will encourage you to be passionate about something. i'm going to encourage you to be passionate about someone. now i'm going to be brave and talk about love. and i know for some of you, just the word probably makes you squirm. i get that. i was totally that way. for a long time i avoided the subject. for me, it was career, business, those are my priorities. it took me a long time to be as brave in my personal life as i was in my professional life. that is because to be brave in love needs opening yourself up to the possibility of heartbreak. for me, like felix in that violent spin, i did not want to lose control. i did not want to be in a situation where i would not be able to right myself. then, i met george. people talk about soulmates. i met my mind's friends. since i always trusted my mind when it told me to leap, so did my heart. usc has a rich tradition of brave graduates. now it is up to you to carry on the tradition. your bravest self will be your best self. moving forward from this momentous occasion, i hope you embrace these words written by w.e.b. dubois who cofounded the naacp. in 1914, he took his then teenage daughter to boarding school in england. here is the advice he offered to her as she set out on this exciting and terrifying adventure. i mean think about it, 1914, a , black teenager going to england. he said "you are in one of the world's best schools. in one of the world's greatest modern empires. deserve it. be frank, honest, and fearless. amazing is the you. do not shy away from new experiences and customs. take the cold back bravely." so i say to you as you plunge into your new adventure, did the cold back bravely. and as inspiring an important is that message was, he did not and his letter there he ended it with something more important. he said above all, remember, your father loves you and believes in you. that is my hope for all of you that you are brave and that you are loved. congratulations to the usc class of 2015. fight on! [applause] >> former massachusetts governor mitt romney received an honorary doctorate at saint anselm college in new hampshire before delivering this year's commencement address. he talked about his lost in 2012 election and urged the graduating class to get involved in the next new hampshire primary. this is 20 minutes. [applause]

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