Kean University Announces Commencement 2017 Speakers

Kal Penn to speak at undergraduate commencement, while Norah O'Donnell to speak at graduate commencement

Campus News > Kean University Announces Commencement 2017 Speakers
Kean University Announces Commencement 2017 Speakers

Kal Penn and Norah O'Donell are this year's undergraduate and graduate commencement speakers

Gaelle Gilles

Kean University has announced the speakers for graduate and undergraduate commencement.

The speaker for the graduate commencement, which will be held on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 is award-winning journalist Norah O'Donnell. Undergraduate commencement, which will occur on Thursday, May 18, 2017, will feature Kal Penn, a star on ABC's new show Designated Survivor.

O'Donnell is the co-host of the CBS news show This Morning, which airs every weekday. She is an award-winning journalist who has interviewed highly respectable people like former President Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. She is also a correspondent for the show Face the Nation, a contributor to 60 Minutes and was also the Chief Washington Correspondent and news anchor for the NBC news show Weekend Today. 

O'Donnell has reported from every continent except from Antarctica and has co-authored a book with her husband, Geoff Tracy, titled "Baby Love: Healthy, Easy, Delicious Meals for Your Baby and Toddler". O'Donnell can be seen on television every weekday on CBS at 7 a.m.

Penn is known to many as an actor. He is highly known as playing Kumar in the Harold and Kumar movie series.

Like many actors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penn has had a career in politics taking a break in his acting career. As a strong supporter of the Obama Administration and a member of Obama's National Arts Policy Committee, Penn became the associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in 2009 and ended his time in office in 2011. 

Not only that, but Penn also taught for a short period of time at the University of Pennsylvania. In the spring semester of 2008, he taught two classes titled  "Images of Asian Americans in the Media" and "Contemporary American Teen Films."

Catch Penn on the popular ABC show, Designated Survivor every Wednesday at 10 p.m.

For more information about either commencements, visit the undergraduate or graduate commencement page.