It is Commencement speech time across the United States where business leaders and politicians attend

Over the years, some of the most popular speeches have been given by Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates.

However at the graduation ceremony for Harvard University’s School of Education class of 2016; there was an unlikely source of much needed inspiration.

Livingston decided to give a spoken word performance titled “Lift off” instead of a traditional speech. He opened his performance with a 1848 quote by politician and education reformer Horace Mann: “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of the conditions of men.”

Livingston then contrasted Mann’s quote by talking about the struggles of many students to fit into the current education system. He also questioned the widely-held belief that “education is the key to success” when inequality continues to keep many educated people at the bottom of society

“For generations we have known of knowledge’s infinite power. Yet somehow, we’ve never questioned the keeper of the keys- the guardians of information...Injustice is telling them education is the key while you continue to change the locks. Education is no equalizer.”

The five minute performance talked about the need for his colleagues (now teachers) to give every student a chance to end inequality within communities and to make classrooms more inclusive and diverse spaces so that students of a minority background do not feel like “quotas or tokens.”

The performance which was received with a standing ovation was ended: “No, the sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning. Lift off.”

Among the millions who have commended Donovan have been presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and singer Justin Timberlake.