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Kermit graduation commencement speaker - Ladypanther - 05-23-2025
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/05/22/kermit-the-frog-university-maryland-commencement/
How cool.
Appreciate the people around you, Kermit the Frog urged University of Maryland graduates Thursday, because they are what makes life worth living.
“Seriously, go ahead, look around,” he told the crowd. “You’re probably sitting next to some of your people right now. These are friends you will have for your whole life, and there will be many others to collect along the way.”
The superstar of “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show” fame was the featured speaker at this year’s U-Md. commencement, or the “Kermencement” as it was known on the campus in College Park.
The ceremony was part of a final wave of college graduations across the D.C. region and beyond this month. Thursday’s festivities celebrated a group of graduates who earned more than 9,000 bachelor’s degrees, 3,000 master’s degrees and nearly 1,000 doctoral degrees, according to the university.
Before the ceremony started, flashes of bright green could be spotted in the crowd as some attendees held Kermit toys in their hands — and for at least one graduate, their hair.
“It is so important that we find ways to experience joy during challenging times,” Geoff Gonella, vice chair of the University of Maryland System’s Board of Regents, told graduates. “After all, joy should be at the heart of any ‘Kermencement’ ceremony.”
A graduate wearing a miniature Kermit the Frog arrives to the U-Md. ceremony. (Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post)
Kermit the Frog is a familiar figure in College Park. Jim Henson, who graduated from U-Md. in 1960, initially used his mother’s coat, a pair of his blue jeans and a sliced ping-pong ball to create the first version of Kermit, according to the National Museum of American History, where the first Kermit puppet is stored.
Henson, who died in 1990, was the brains and voice behind Kermit for years. He is memorialized in a statue with his most famous creation outside the U-Md. student union.
The graduation speech marks the latest visit to campus for Kermit. With Matt Vogel as the puppeteer, Kermit told attendees at a September lecture to follow their dreams and be okay being different, the Diamondback student newspaper reported.
Thursday was not Kermit’s first commencement speech. In 1996, he told Southampton College graduates they were “no longer tadpoles” and that it was time to drop their tails and work hard to save other swamps.