Oprah Winfrey will be commencement speaker for Class of 2020

Celebrities feature event held by Facebook

Talk show host and billionaire philanthropist Oprah Winfrey has signed on to be the featured commencement speaker in a virtual graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020, hosted by Facebook and Instagram. The May 15 event will be live-streamed on Facebook, and will feature appearances by Lil Nas X, Simone Biles, Miley Cyrus and other celebrities.

According to TechCrunch, the event will begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Time via the Facebook Watch App under the hashtag #Graduation2020. Daily videos “that spotlight iconic senior experiences” will be shown on Instagram four days prior. Facebook will also add special features such as custom filters and a virtual graduation hub so that graduates can host their own virtual ceremony and party.

From Harvard in Massachusetts to Agnes Scott College in Georgia, Winfrey has had prior experience in giving speeches as a guest speaker for graduations across the U.S.

“You move forward by taking the next right step,” Winfrey said in an Agnes Scott College ceremony speech in 2017. “If you have to ask other people, you don’t [have] the answer yet.”

Senior Kristyn Zhang thinks that inviting Winfrey to speak at the virtual graduation ceremony is a creative way to celebrate the Class of 2020.

“[The event] would be interesting if it gets enough publicity,” Zhang wrote to the Talon.

As 43 states and Washington D.C. have ruled that students should stay home for the rest of the academic year, major tech companies have stepped in to provide communication when face-to-face interactions are not safe during the pandemic. Many schools have canceled traditional graduations and are turning towards virtual events.

“[The Class of 2020 is] commencing at a time of great uncertainty,” Facebook executive Marne Levine wrote in a blog post. “But graduating is a tremendous achievement, and worth pausing to celebrate even in these circumstances. That’s why Facebook has planned a special event on the Facebook app and Instagram.”