ICYMI: Pelosi Urges Graduates to Be “Patriots of Our Time” in Bay Area Commencement Address

Redwood City, Calif. - On Saturday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered the commencement address at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, calling on graduates to defend democracy and embrace their role in shaping the nation's future.

In remarks highlighted by the San Francisco Chronicle, Pelosi warned that American democracy is facing serious challenges and urged graduates to lead with courage, hope and a commitment to justice.

Watch Pelosi's commencement address here.(link is external)

View and download photos from the ceremony here.(link is external)

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San Francisco Chronicle: Nancy Pelosi urges Bay Area graduates to be 'patriots of our time' (link is external)
[By St. John Barned-Smith, 5/2/26]

As she surveyed members of the graduating class of Notre Dame de Namur University, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi told them they are entering a world "calling for their leadership" at a time when American democracy is enduring attacks on the rule of law, free and fair elections, and judicial independence.

The moment echoes similar challenges in America's history, she said, recalling the challenges the founders faced battling Britain and its superior navy, or Abraham Lincoln's role in saving the union.

"You must be the patriots of our time," she said. "That means not just holding onto the rights and freedoms that fellow Americans have fought for, but refusing to surrender the courageous spirit that inspired them."

Pelosi made the remarks during the ceremony Saturday at the Belmont Catholic university, which is one of the state's oldest institutions of higher learning and is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

University President Beth Martin said Pelosi's career of public service, leadership and advocacy reflects the values that define the school's faith-based education.

"We are deeply honored to welcome Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi to Notre Dame de Namur University," Martin said in a statement. "During this 175th anniversary year of the Sisters in California, her presence powerfully affirms the impact of faith-inspired education on the world."

Decades before moving to California and embarking on a political career that would bring her to one of the most powerful posts in American government, the Baltimore native studied political science at Trinity College (now known as Trinity Washington University) in the nation's capital, another institution run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

After its founding in 1851, Notre Dame de Namur was the first college in California where women could study and receive a full bachelor's degree. In 2021, however, it transitioned to a graduate school.

On Saturday, Pelosi acknowledged that the school's graduating class had built a community despite significant challenges over the past few years: a global pandemic, profound debates about democracy and justice, and rapid technological change in a world that can feel "both more connected and more divided than ever before."

Pelosi moved from Baltimore to San Francisco soon after graduating from Trinity College and went to serve as a key figure in California's Democratic Party and as a congresswoman from 1987 to 2023, becoming the first woman elected as House speaker.

Pelosi, who is retiring in January at the end of her current term, urged the school's graduates to be a "force for justice."

"America has always been a long-standing promise and an ongoing project," she said. "Decades of peace and prosperity made it tempting to believe that our democracy would be self-sustaining. In fact, it must be constantly tended to strengthen and defend it."

Pelosi said each generation has a responsibility to build a future better than the one before. She urged them to act with hope.

"Hope is not just a virtue," she said, "Hope is action and demands a plan. It is the courage to believe that we can make things better and do the work to make it so."