Read the full transcript of actor and conservationist Harrison Ford’s commencement address during Arizona State University’s Undergraduate Commencement at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe on May 11, 2026.
Editor’s Notes: In his undergraduate commencement address at Arizona State University, acclaimed actor Harrison Ford shares a personal and stirring reflection on his journey from a struggling college student to a global icon. Drawing a poignant distinction between passion and purpose, Ford explains how his commitment to environmental conservation gave his life a deeper sense of meaning beyond his legendary career in film. He concludes with an urgent call to action, empowering the graduating class to harness their collective power to protect the natural world and lead the way toward a more just and sustainable future.
TRANSCRIPT:
HARRISON FORD: Thank you, President Crow. Thank you very much. Thank you, President Crow, for the kind, gracious introduction and for the privilege to address all of you here today.
You Earned Your Place Here
You’re here because you have accomplished something significant. You understood the opportunity before you. You took advantage of all this world-class university had to offer. You made wise choices, followed through with the work. I celebrate your commitment. The combined success of all of you, the potential of your entire generation, that is what gives me hope for the future.
I Did Not Make Good Choices
I didn’t give much thought to the future, to my future, when I was in college. I did not make good choices. I didn’t have the perspective, the maturity. I served only myself. I was squandering my life in riotous living. By my junior year, I was in real trouble, grade point-wise, and looking for an easy A.
A Course Called Drama
I took a course, the catalog called Drama, the Study of Plays. We’d be responsible for putting on plays for the college, but I didn’t give that part much thought. I thought I’d work in the box office or build sets. My classmates were people I had previously discounted as geeks and misfits, but I soon realized I was a geek and a misfit. I had found my fit. These were my people.
Turns out I didn’t work in the box office. Instead, I had major parts in five or six plays that we put on that year. I began to find myself on stage, pretending to be someone else. I had always seen myself as shy, but hiding in character and costume and makeup, I had a freedom, a bravery I had never felt before, and I got an A.
I was, I realized, present for possibly the very first time in my life. My passion had led me to community.
A Mentor, a Path, and a Career
The head of the theater department had become a mentor to me. He invited me to do plays in a summer theater season he directed, sure, and then come to California to join him again at a more professional theater, wow, which led to an interview at Columbia Pictures, which eventually would lead to my theatrical career.
But acting was not yet paying the bills. I was supporting my growing family with carpentry jobs, another way to put food on the table. I loved making things.
Back up for me, if you would, please. And I only took acting jobs when the part challenged me. This went on for about 15 years, during which I did a lot of carpentry and only four or five acting jobs, but they were more ambitious, good projects. And then it all added up and I got Star Wars. The load lightened. I had freedom, opportunity, but something was still missing.
Passion and Purpose Are Not the Same Thing
Passion and purpose are not the same thing. Passion brings you joy. Purpose brings you meaning. Passion gets you out of bed in the morning, but purpose allows you to sleep at night. And I hadn’t found purpose higher than my job yet.
Finding Purpose: Conservation International
That changed in the late 80s. I was living in Wyoming and I was impressed by a group of people that I met there who had recently formed a non-profit called Conservation International. They had inspired leadership in their founder, Peter Seligman, who became a trusted friend. Their message was simple: nature doesn’t need people. People need nature to survive. A healthy natural world provides free services to mankind that we cannot provide for ourselves. And in the air we breathe, pollinators for our crops, fresh water and carbon capture from our forests, wetlands, and ocean, medicines present and future from the rainforest. They had their heads in the sky and their feet in the mud. And they encouraged me to join them.
There it was, purpose, a place to put my passion for storytelling to work. I didn’t want to be a poster boy for the cause. I wanted to be part of the work, so I was invited to join the board some 35 years ago.
Protecting Nature: Our Essential Mandate
And that’s why I stand here now before you, to represent for nature, the source of life itself. Humanity is a part of nature, not above it. We have an essential mandate to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and sea by 2030, to prevent the mass extinction, to slow the warming of our planet.
Still, despite new science, new policies, we are still losing nature to profiteering, corruption, conflict, including land that is already protected on paper. These efforts matter, but they’re not enough. We need cultural change. We need to extend social justice. We need to respect and elevate the indigenous people that are being marginalized, and in many cases, killed in cold blood.
These communities have long understood that the trees, the mountain, water, soil, are not commodities. They are relatives to be cherished for following generations to embrace and protect. We can all play our role by embracing that wisdom in our day-to-day lives, by loving the planet, by honoring nature’s authority, her generosity, the bounty she affords us, the justice of her example.
Find Your Voice, Lead Your Generation
Because the world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you, is a real mess.