Along with their degrees, graduating students will be leaving Binghamton University with the messages of four notable speakers, including one BU alumnus.

The commencement ceremonies, which will be held at the Events Center on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18, will celebrate the academic excellence and dedications of more than 3,200 candidates for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

Honorary degree recipient Ronald Ehrenberg, an economist and professor at Cornell University, will be speaking to the Graduate School at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Since receiving his bachelor’s degree in mathematical sciences from Binghamton in 1966, Ehrenberg has committed himself to research and has published esteemed works on the economics of educations, labor markets and social and compensation programs.

Ehrenberg credits BU for setting him on the path that has led him to where he is today.

In February 2004, Ehrenberg wrote a presentation entitled “Last Lecture,” in which he poured advice to his students. His message, in what he called “the single best thing” he’s ever written still applies to students today.

“I have often joked … that [graduate] students are the sons and daughters that I never had, and many of my graduate students have become life-long friends,” he said.

He further commented on coping with life’s trials, and spoke of a personal account of his son’s diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor and the stresses that came along with it. He attributes his son’s experiences as a lesson in growing.

“Life is all about changing expectations,” he said.

A veteran in receiving praise for his philanthropic work, Raymond Osterhout has already received the Binghamton University Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award three years ago. He’ll receive an honorary doctor of human letters degree at the Professional School’s commencement ceremony on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Osterhout has donated $1 million in establishing the Ray and Wanda Osterhout Distinguished Professorship in Entrepreneurship within the School of Management and another $1 million to name the Osterhout Concert Theater in support of the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts.

He received his bachelor’s degree in economics at nearby Syracuse University, and Osterhout now serves on the Binghamton University Foundation audit committee, the School of Management’s Dean’s Advisory Board and Harpur Forum.

Richard Felder will be speaking at the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences commencement ceremony on Sunday at 9 a.m. Felder is a chemical engineer and will be awarded an honorary doctor of science degree. Felder, a professor at North Carolina State University, has received numerous awards, such as the R.J. Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was chosen as one of five Outstanding Engineering Educators of the Century.

Along with Felder, Ted Kooser, 13th poet laureate consultant to the Library of Congress and Pulitzer Prize winner, will be making a speech at the 4 p.m. ceremony. Kooser, who has published award-winning books, gives advice to both graduating and continuing students.

“The world is short on kindness and graciousness, and paying attention to those virtues will carry you far in this world,” he said.