Erika Kirk Gives Commencement Address at Hillsdale College and Receives Honorary Degree

Erika Kirk delivered the keynote commencement speech at Hillsdale College on Saturday, calling on the next generation of Christian scholars to pursue truth and defend liberty. The 37-year-old widow of Charlie Kirk told the college’s 400-person graduating class that through his learning Charlie was better able to recognize his duty to pursue truth and to defend liberty, and this responsibility he felt to God.

She said Charlie felt the responsibility to God, their family, and their country, and that it was born from what he learned.

Kirk implored the graduates to uphold traditional values as they enter the workforce and to marry one another young. “As you continue forward in life, I want you to kind of embrace the similar blueprint of my husband, where he loved to point out that God made us purposeful beings and continue forward in life with clarity and intention,” she said.

“And you will come to understand that life is not defined by the abundance of options, but by the weight of the choices that you make within them.

Kirk opened her address with an account of the couple’s honeymoon, which they had agreed would be a disconnected vacation with no computers or cell phones. Charlie Kirk used the emergency phone during their honeymoon to keep up with free online courses at Hillsdale College.

“He really understood that this institution wasn’t normal. It was something that elevated his thinking to be a thought leader and really become a serious person. Not just a political talking head, but someone who truly sought out the beautiful things in life, the good, the true, and he really took that seriously because he loved learning.

And that’s what set him apart,” Kirk said. Following the 15-minute speech, Dr. Larry Arnn presented Kirk with two honorary degrees of public service: one for her and one posthumous for Charlie Kirk. Arnn had promised to give the honorary degrees during Charlie Kirk’s September memorial.

“I tried to help Charlie be a good citizen, and he was a very good citizen. But above all, he was a student teaching others to love freedom, to learn high things, to get married and have children, to be responsible, to love the Lord,” Arnn said. “Now, Erica and her colleagues ..

They have that job. ” Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September in front of a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem while speaking for Turning Point USA. Alleged killer Tyler Robinson is being held behind bars awaiting trial.

Hillsdale College announced in March that Erika Kirk would serve as the ceremony’s keynote speaker. A number of leftist protesters gathered outside Hillsdale College on Saturday morning to decry Turning Point USA’s culture-war extremism. New York Post reported the details of the speech, the honorary degrees and the protest.

Kirk accepted the honors on behalf of herself and her late husband, who took numerous online classes at the college and maintained a decade-long friendship with Arnn. The president told graduates that Charlie Kirk’s example now falls to Erika Kirk and her colleagues.