Oprah Will Be Virtual Speaker For Graduating Seniors

It’s the spring so many high school and college students are wrapping up their academic year, and for seniors, many were looking forward to graduating. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, however, those expecting to walk across the stage aren’t going to be able to physically.

In lieu of this, Oprah Winfrey’s stepping in. Instagram and Facebook are announcing they will be hosting a virtual graduation ceremony with the help of some special guests.

Winfrey will be joined by Awkwafina, Jennifer Garner, Lil Nas X, Simone Biles and other yet-to-be-announced guests to share words of wisdom for the class of 2020. According to a statement from Marne Levine, Facebook’s VP of global partnerships, Miley Cyrus will also perform a rendition of “The Climb” in the virtual send-off.

Earlier this month, former president Barack Obama was petitioned to be a national virtual commencement speaker by a Twitter user, who apparently spoke for a lot of seniors close to graduation as their tweet was favorited over 223,000 times and received 46,000 retweets.

“Hi @BarackObama! Like most high school/college seniors, I’m saddened by the loss of milestone events, prom & graduation,” user @lincolnjackd wrote. “In an unprecedented time, it would give us great comfort to hear your voice. We ask you to consider giving a national commencement speech to the class of 2020.”

The event is titled #Graduation2020: Facebook and Instagram Celebrate the Class of 2020 and will be livestreamed Friday, May 15, at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PT. on Facebook Watch.