Matt Damon selected to deliver commencement speech at MIT, where he played a gifted janitor

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FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2015 file photo, actor Matt Damon laughs during a press conference promoting the film "The Martian" during the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. Damon has been selected to deliver the university’s 2016 commencement address. MIT announced Thursday, Dec. 10, that the Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker, social activist and Cambridge native will address graduates on June 3. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Matt Damon shot to fame in the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting” as a gifted janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now, he has been selected to deliver the university’s 2016 commencement address.

MIT announced Thursday that the Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker, social activist and Cambridge native will address graduates on June 3.

Damon said in a statement that it’s an honour to be named commencement speaker “at a school that I couldn’t have gotten into.”

MIT President L. Rafael Reif says Damon has “made us think about our world in new ways, and through his service, he has made it a better place.”

Anish Punjabi, president of MIT’s Class of 2016, says Damon is an inspiration to students who teaches that the world needs more well-rounded leaders.

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