The lights of the Caesars Superdome glowed bright Friday afternoon as hundreds of graduates from Tulane University’s School of Liberal Arts crossed the stage before cheering families, waving friends and faculty members gathered to celebrate the Class of 2026.
But for many in the crowd, one of the night’s loudest ovations came before the diplomas were even handed out.
Ali Vitali, host of Way Too Early with Ali Vitali on MS NOW and the network’s senior Capitol Hill reporter, returned to Tulane to receive the School of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumni Award and deliver the ceremony’s keynote address. Vitali, a member of Tulane’s Class of 2012, was honored for her decade-long career covering Congress, the White House and presidential politics at the highest levels of American journalism.
Established in 2021, the Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes graduates whose work has shaped public life and culture. Previous recipients include novelist N.K. Jemisin, Academy Award winner Robert Fyvolent, educator Elizabeth Daley, WNBA executive Colie Edison and political scientist Ian Bremmer.
Introducing Vitali to graduates gathered beneath the cavernous dome ceiling, Dean Brian T. Edwards called her “the very best of what a liberal arts education can do.”
“She represents the very best of a liberal arts education: thoughtful, fearless, adaptable and deeply engaged with the world around her,” Edwards said. “In an era too often defined by noise and division, Ali’s reporting reminds us that behind every headline are people, communities and stories that deserve care and clarity.”
Vitali’s path from New Orleans student to national political correspondent has included reporting on four presidential election cycles, interviewing congressional leaders and authoring the 2022 book Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet.
Yet much of her speech focused not on Washington, but on Tulane itself: the friendships she formed here, the city that shaped her and the winding path that brought her back to the Superdome stage.
“Some of the best things in my life so far have happened because I came to this school,” Vitali told graduates. “The friendships I most cherish … the realizations that have shaped my life.”
She recalled arriving at Tulane after being rejected twice from another university she once thought was her dream school. Tulane, she said, became the place that taught her rejection can become “re-direction.”
“As soon as I got to Tulane, any other idea of where I was meant to go to college disappeared,” she said. “Tulane told me I was welcome here and I was enough. I could come as I was. But also that I could grow. I could learn. I could evolve.”
Throughout the address, Vitali returned repeatedly to themes of curiosity, resilience and human connection, lessons she said continue to guide her reporting from Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
“When I talk to politicians or do big interviews with people who want to be president, what keeps my nerves at bay is the idea that we’re all just people,” she said.
She also spoke candidly about entering adulthood in an uncertain time shaped by rapid technological change, economic instability and political polarization, acknowledging anxieties many graduates face about their futures.
“The good news,” she told the crowd, pausing as graduates leaned in, “is there is no map.”
“Your path will zigzag and loop and double back,” she continued. “My path isn’t replicable. Yours won’t be either. It will be unique.”
The speech blended heartfelt reflection with flashes of humor familiar to Tulane alumni, from references to Boot Pizza and Snake and Jake’s to a story about singing the Tulane fight song in a 30 Rockefeller Plaza elevator with fellow alumnus Jerry Springer.
By the time Vitali closed her remarks with “It’s been a helluva hullabaloo,” graduates were on their feet in applause.
As a sea of black robes streamed across the Superdome floor and families gathered for photographs afterward, the ceremony marked both an ending and a beginning — one that Vitali encouraged graduates to meet with openness, empathy and curiosity.
“Stay curious,” she said. “Ask questions when something doesn’t seem quite right. Lead with empathy and find ways to build connection — even if you don’t agree.”