A Valedictorian’s New Address

In 2003, Jon Favreau spoke to an audience of hundreds on Fitton Field. Today, as chief speechwriter in the White House, his words reach billions.

 

By John Marchese

 

At dinner this night, still early in the momentous and much scrutinized first 100 days of the Obama administration, Favreau admits: “I still sort of step back when I walk into the Oval Office, which is almost every day, and say, ‘Whoa!’”

Favreau has had very little time to step back and appreciate his steep ascent in Washington.

First coming to town as part of the College’s Washington Semester Program in the spring of his third year, the North Reading, Mass., native and political science major had landed a spot in the office of his home-state senator, John Kerry. When Gary DeAngelis, associate director, special programs, for the Center for Inter-disciplinary and Special Studies, visited the capital to check on that semester’s 30 interns, top Kerry aides pulled him aside.

“They told me that this Favreau kid was really incredible,” DeAngelis remembers. The 20-year-old intern had already written several op-ed newspaper pieces for Kerry. “They told me nobody on the staff could write as well as this kid. Why try?

“The students in the Washington internship program do pretty significant work,” DeAngelis observes, “but this was unusual. I’d never seen it in my 20 years running the program.”

Right after graduation, Favreau returned to Kerry’s office as a full-time employee, assigned to the press office. After he showed a copy of his Holy Cross commencement address to Kerry’s top speechwriter, he was enlisted as a speechwriter during the democrat’s unsuccessful 2004 campaign for the presidency.

Favreau thinks that all good speeches tell a story and notes that his parents are two of the best storytellers he’s ever known. He started writing his own stories as a boy—and was a precocious and voracious newspaper reader. A strict and talented high school teacher mentored him through several advanced placement English courses. At Holy Cross, Favreau channeled his writing talent into the subjects that fascinated him: political science and sociology.

“I completely went in that direction,” he remembers, “but I got to write a lot in those courses. And, I worked for the Crusader and ended up as the opinion editor.”

A lot of his opinions, Favreau says now, were shaped by his time at Holy Cross—“right from my first religion class—social ethics—which was basically how the Jesuit ideal works,” he says. “Seeing the Jesuit tradition  of social service and social consciousness really got me active.”

In his final year, Favreau participated in an honors seminar in public history led by Yuhl. “The class was characterized by very strong personalities,” she recalls. “In that setting Jon was able to consistently articulate a position that encouraged people to respond, to help move the conversation along. Often really strong students try to dominate the conversation with their brilliant insights. He didn’t. He had the rare and refreshing trait of truly listening and synthesizing.”