/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/DRVOFBVPIVDWVNTNWHH7NH7PCE.JPG "What Quinta Brunson said in her Penn commencement speech")
Award-winning writer, actress and comedian Quinta Brunson delivered the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education commencement speech to a cheering crowd of thousands on Saturday.
As the creator and star of NBC’s Abbott Elementary, Brunson has risen to a national spotlight for her comedic and informative takes on Philadelphia’s education system that has resonated across the country. During her speech, the Philly native brought that same nuance to graduates of Penn, emphasizing the lack of compensation educators face and speaking of her own experience within Philadelphia’s school system and as a daughter of a Philly kindergarten teacher.
Through riffing between jokes about going to Penn (for doctor’s visits) and her actual college years at Temple University, Brunson emphasized the importance of educators.
“You all will do more than teach a curriculum, you will mold the minds of the future,” Brunson told the crowd. “My high school Spanish teacher was Miguel Vazquez … in my senior year he told me I had the intelligence, the confidence and personality that made him sure I would make something of my life.”
“Some of you are going to teach calculus, and that’s insane — that sucks,” she joked as the crowd laughed.
At Penn’s Palestra arena were thousands of family and friends celebrating more than 700 recent Graduate School of Education graduates. One student felt Brunson’s words deeply as an educator and actress herself. That was Psacoya Guinn, who received a master’s degree with a focus on educational entrepreneurship.
“I was instantly ecstatic as I am a professional actor in theater,” said Guinn, whose roles have ranged from Shakespeare to Molière. “So when I heard that Quinta was doing the commencement speech there was that connection for me being from the entertainment industry as an actor, but also because I love Abbott Elementary. It is one of my favorite shows and my nonprofit is specifically for elementary students.”
Guinn, who is the founder of Trinity — a nonprofit that increases literacy and enhances social and emotional development through theater-based programs for homeless youth in New York City — will open the doors to this new chapter on Monday in New York.
Not only was it an exciting moment for graduates who were laughing and smiling ear to ear throughout, but it also marked the end of the tenure for Pam Grossman, the dean of the Graduate School of Education for nearly the last decade and a leading expert in teacher preparation, teacher quality and professional development.
Brunson finished her 10-minute speech to uproarious applause and laughter. In one of her final jokes in reference to student debt, Brunson said, “You will be in debt, but that’s OK — I think somebody’s working on that,” she said referring to President Joe Biden, who is expected to attend a separate Penn graduation event for his granddaughter. “He’ll be here Monday; ask him about that.”
