Are you not satisfied with Oprah as your 2020 commencement speaker? Well, now you have another option. On Wednesday, April 30 Lebron James announced that he will be hosting Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 on May 16, one day after Oprah’s graduation livestream. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The one-hour special will air simultaneously on all broadcast channels CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC and will be available to stream on major social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok, so there’s no excuse for sleeping through the ceremony. James will be joined by a host of artists, athletes, musicians, and activists including The Jonas Brothers, Yara Shahidi, Ben Platt, Lena Waithe, Megan Rapinoe, Pharrell Williams, Bad Bunny, Malala Yousafzai, Chika, YBN Cordae, Loren Gray, H.E.R., Brandan Bmike Odums and Charli D’Amelio.
The LeBron James Family Foundation and its I PROMISE School are joined by Laurene Powell Jobs’ XQ Institute and the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) to host the virtual graduation ceremony, which is also raising money for families most negatively impacted by school closures due to coronavirus via DonorsChoose and America’s Food Fund.
“We learned early on in our work with students and families in Akron that education is so much more than academics. It’s about a shared experience, a journey we’re all on together — students, parents, educators, community members, and everyone around them,†said James in a statement on Wednesday. “With that not being possible right now, we’ve been working to find ways to help families get through this really difficult time. These students have worked incredibly hard for this and there’s no way we can let that go unrecognized. While this won’t be the graduation experience they were supposed to get, we hope we can still give them something special because they deserve it.†Not to sound bitter, but a Lebron James hosted one-hour graduation event with Malala and Pharrell Williams sounds a lot better than baking in the hot sun for 4 hours waiting to hear your Vice Principal mispronounce your last name.