Jill Abramson at Wake Forest: The Student Perspective

Yes. This. RT @ravisomaiya: I am always so impressed by this generation of 20-somethings. So confident and articulate.

— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) May 19, 2014

Jill Abramson gave a commencement speech at Wake Forest today, her first public statement since her firing. Ravi Somaiya was there to cover the event for the Times:

Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of The New York Times, made her first public appearance since her abrupt dismissal last week, speaking about resilience in a long-scheduled commencement address on Monday at Wake Forest University.

After telling the students she had been fired, Ms. Abramson said her father had always emphasized that it was as important to handle setbacks as to embrace success. “I’m talking to anyone who’s been dumped,” she said.

After acknowledging the small media circus that followed her all the way to Winston-Salem, she did her best to focus on the task at hand: Welcoming graduating students into the real world, and sharing her considerable experience in a way that might give them guidance, or at least something to think about. So what are they thinking about? I am curious what these fresh young minds, ignorant of the biases of their parents’ generation, make of all this. Let’s check Yik Yak, the anonymous bulletin board app that’s wildly popular in high schools and Southern universities, including Wake Forest.

Must just be a few trolls. Not all students!

Hmm. It’s graduation day, emotions are running high. We all say things we don’t mean.

Well, I guess that’s what grad school is for?