An Ohio State University student whose wacky commencement speech went viral last year wasn’t invited back to another college graduation this spring – and said he still has “PTSD” from the blowback in 2024.
But self-described social entrepreneur Chris Pan — whose hallucinogen-fyeked 2024 speech was filled with crypto advice, awkward sing-alongs and even a magic trick — had advice for this year’s speakers, telling them to avoid topics that the audience might not connect with.
“Don’t get caught up in stuff you are personally passionate about, but maybe isn’t as relevant to many or at least in their current life stage,” he added.
Pan’s 2024 speech was mocked and even at one point led to a chorus of boos from the crowd of roughly 70,000 people but he told The Post last week he had even grander plans that involved fireworks and the school marching band to make the address more like a half-time show.
“And especially for a group that didn’t get a high school graduation because of COVID, I really bent over backwards, like my heart was like what can I do to really elevate and celebrate these grads and I got so much backlash,” he said in an interview.
“So you can imagine like someone that pours their heart out and gets just beat down if I’m a little still like PTSD.
“The press, they’re all like writing about this as if I like shouldn’t have, but look at it from like the other lens, from the other lens, it’s weird to say, but no one’s applauding me for like trying because I gave a lot of effort,” Pan continued.
“I was genuinely trying to deliver a really cool experience for the graduates and everybody in the stadium that day.”
The OSU alum largely stood by his wonky message to the 12,000 grads — that he admitted he wrote on hallucinogens — and said he particularly feels vindicated by his bitcoin advocacy that sparked the most jeers from the crowd.
During the 17-minute speech, he called cryptocurrency “a very misunderstood asset class” and encouraged graduates to keep an open mind.
Pan, who came from Taiwan with his family as a kid, stressed since his speech, bitcoin stock is up more than 60% and has outpaced S&P 500 as of last week.
“Let’s say, especially if there were some parents in the room, if they took $100,000 and they bought bitcoin they’d be up $60,000,” Pan said. “That’s a meaningful amount.”
Pan’s speech also left a mark – for better or worse – when he started a sing-along to a part of “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes and then “This Little Light of Mine” while also leading the audience in a breathing exercise.
He asked OSU President Ted Carter to come up at one point to help him perform a nifty magic trick and vowed to gift every grad a custom bracelet from his company – a promise he followed through on.
And the commencement address could have been more off the rails.
Leading up to the speech, he asked school officials if fireworks could be set off at the end of the address and if the school marching band could do a drum roll during his magic trick, according to internal emails between Pan and school officials obtained by the Columbus Dispatch and other local outlets earlier this year.
Pan concedes he might have tried to cram too much into the speech and should have focused more on a message grads would have been receptive to.
He said for now “it’s not super high” on his priority list to speak at another graduation.
“I think I’m still digesting the last experience if I’m totally honest,” he said.
But Pan was still willing to offer advice to future speakers when asked by The Post, telling them to focus on sharing “universal life lessons” that are most relevant to the group of grads, and are “inspirational and empowering.”
“Enjoy the truly unique and memorable experience in a stadium trying to impact so many people at once!”
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