Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivers commencement address at Notre Dame de Namur University

BELMONT, Calif. (NBC, KYMA) - Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the commencement address to graduates at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California Saturday.

The 2026 commencement ceremony comes during a milestone year in which the university is celebrating its historic 175th anniversary, and Saturday's commencement was the 174th ceremony.

Established in 1851 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, it's the third-oldest college in California and the first authorized to grant women a baccalaureate degree.

Pelosi told this year's graduates to go forward into the world with hope.

"People ask me all the time, 'Where is hope now?' I say, 'I wear it on my arm.' Hope sits where it always has been, right between faith and the goodness charity of the American people, right in between there, that gives us hope and hope is not just a virtue, hope demands a plan. Our Founders believed that they could establish a democracy because they believed in the goodness of the American people because each generation has a responsibly to build a future better than the one before. You graduates today, you give us hope."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Speaker Emerita of the U.S. House