Stephen E. Frank ’95 is making Harvard history.

When he takes the stage this morning in Tercentenary Theater to deliver his graduate English oration, entitled “Leaving Footprints in Time,” Frank will become one of only a handful of people in the University’s history to have given such an address as both an undergraduate and graduate student.

Frank, who will receive his J.D. from Harvard Law School (HLS) today, also delivered a Commencement oration when he graduated from the College in 1995.

Chair of the Department of Classics Richard F. Thomas, who heads the Faculty committee in charge of picking the student speakers for Commencement morning, can recall only one other student who was selected twice to deliver a Commencement address.

Frank says that he is taking this opportunity to expand the message of his 1995 oration, “A Life of Learning.”

The first time around, Frank set out to preach his belief that Commencement should not mark the end of one’s education, but rather a beginning.

“Commencement is the end of our Harvard education but the beginning of our life-long education,” he says.

Although he was not very specific about the oration he will deliver today for fear of revealing too much, Frank says that he plans to exhort his classmates to put their education at the service of the fight against injustice.

“This speech is about using your education to combat injustice and to take a stand against intolerance,” he says. “As graduates of the best university in the world, we have the opportunity and the obligation to use our education to promote understanding and tolerance. When people are given an opportunity to get to know each other they can bridge divides that seem unbridgeable.”

Frank says no particular event moved him to write the speech but rather that he found his inspiration in the world around him and in his grandmother.

Friend Wendy Rockman ’95 says that during his undergraduate speech, Frank moved his audience to give his grandmother—who was sitting in the audience that day—a standing ovation. According to Rockman, the woman was an inspiration to Frank because she went back to school to become a doctor late in life.

Frank’s oration was selected from among the 27 submitted by graduate students during this year’s competition, according to Thomas.

The inspirational nature of Frank’s speech and his perspective outside the classroom are what caught the eyes of the members of the committee, Thomas says. “We are looking for a message that speaks to the class but also to a larger constituency; that has a Harvard profile but that has a universal aspect to it as well.”

Franks says he is looking forward to the speech.

“It’s a real honor to have the opportunity to speak to my fellow graduates and their families and friends,” he says. “I hope that they will be as enthusiastic about the speech as I am and that they won’t sleep through it.”