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Denzel Washington spoke at the University of Pennsylvania's 2011 Commencement on May 16, 2011. Before the ceremony, he greeted and congratulated students with Penn's President, Dr. Amy Gutmann. Washington emphasized the importance of taking risks: "Taking risks is not about going for a job; it's also about knowing what you know and what you don't know. It's about being open to people and to ideas." Other 2011 Penn honorary degree recipients included Renée C. Fox, the Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences at Penn and a pioneer in the field of medical sociology; Mo Ibrahim, the mobile communications entrepreneur who founded Celtel; Nicholas D. Kristof, columnist at The New York Times, and Sheryl WuDunn, senior managing director, Mid-Market Securities, and president of the social investing consultancy, TripleEdge; Ei-ichi Negishi, the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; and Joyce Carol Oates, award-winning author, poet and playwright.