Soledad O'Brien Speaks at Harvard Class Day

Soledad O’Brien spoke to this year's graduating Harvard seniors at Senior Class Day ceremonies on the day before Harvard’s 362nd Commencement.

O’Brien graduated from Harvard in 1988 and has since reported on breaking news from around the globe.

In 2011, she won an Emmy for “Crisis in Haiti” in the category of Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story — Long Form. O’Brien was part of the coverage teams that earned CNN George Foster Peabody Awards for its coverage of the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina, and an Alfred I. duPont Award for its coverage of the Southeast Asia tsunami. The National Association of Black Journalists named O’Brien the Journalist of the Year and she won the Edward R. Murrow and RTDNA/UNITY award for “Latino in America” in 2010.

O’Brien has been integral in hosting and developing the award-winning Black in America franchise, one of CNN’s most successful international franchises.

In 2010, she wrote a critically lauded memoir, The Next Big Story: My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities, which chronicled her biggest reporting moments and how her upbringing and background influenced these experiences.