Consider the bar for convocation speeches raised.
A sophomore student at Georgia Institute of Technology gave a speech welcoming new students, capturing the attention of both the students and faculty and social media users worldwide.
Mechanical engineering major Nicolas Selby was chosen by faculty and staff to give the traditional “sophomore welcome.”
A video posted on YouTube earlier this week has been viewed over 275,000 times (you can watch the video below).
What begins as a thoughtful speech, offering advice to the new students, evolves into a fervent motivational address (around the same time the theme for A Space Odyssey kicks in).
At the climax of Selby’s speech, he shouts:
“If you want to change the world, you’re at Georgia Tech. You can do that! If you want to build the Iron Man suit, you’re at Georgia Tech. You can do that! If you want to play theme music during your convocation speech like a badass, we’re at Georgia Tech! We can do that! I AM DOING THAT!”
Selby, who said he was pleased with the speech, was admittedly surprised the attention it has received online.
“When everyone started posting it on Facebook and other social media and the view count started rising, I had no idea (and still really have no idea) what was happening,” said Selby in an email.
Sports website SB Nation, referring to Selby as a “motivational nerd-god,” offered a detailed analysis of the speech, docking points for stereotypical engineering references, adding them back for managing to use proper grammar in the midst of such a passionate address.
“In the spring of 2003, I crossed over the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, and I never once got a speech this inspiring,” wrote columnist Matt Ufford.
You can watch Selby’s full speech below:
Comments