Tom Hanks’ Honorary Harvard Degree Proves He’s in a League of His Own

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood to receive a Harvard degree—just ask Tom Hanks.

The Oscar winner was granted an honorary doctorate of arts at Harvard University on May 25 before taking to the podium as the 2023 Commencement speaker.

While speaking, Tom joked that—unlike the graduates before him—he had received his degree “without having done a lick of work, without having spent any time in class, without once walking into that library,” per People.

“I don’t know much about Latin,” Tom continued at Harvard Yard’s Tercentenary Theatre, “I have no real passion for enzymes, and public global policy is something I scan in the newspaper just before I do the Wordle.”

Asides from the jokes, Tom, who studied at Chabot College and California State University, Sacramento, delivered a powerful message about resisting the “indifference of a people who have been made weary by struggle.”