Congratulations, Class of 2010!

George Washington University

"You guys can't be stopped. You don't know the meaning of the word 'can't.' And every time someone's tried to say to tell you that, you've replied, 'Oh, yes we can.' In fact, you remind me of something President Wilson once said. He said: 'Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that's the way I know I'm an American.'

"Even so, you've probably also run up against people who love your idealism but warn you to lower your sights, to scale back your ambitions a bit, to settle for something less. And you know their hearts may be in the right place. They may be worried that you're in for a letdown once you realize that it can take years and even decades for your best efforts to bear fruit. See, we live in a culture, after all, that tells us that our lives should be easy, that we can have everything we want without a whole lot of effort. But the truth is, and you know this, creating anything meaningful takes time."

— First lady Michelle Obama, who promised to speak at George Washington if they performed 100,000 hours of community service