BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Northeastern University.

 

Kerry will speak to an expected audience of 25,000 students, family members and school officials at the graduation ceremony on Friday, which begins at 10:30 a.m. at Boston's TD Garden.

 

Northeastern officials say they chose Kerry as the keynote speaker because of his deep roots in Massachusetts and his engagement with the global community.

 

Kerry, who became secretary of state in 2013, served as a longtime U.S. senator from Massachusetts and was a prosecutor in the state. He earned a law degree from Boston College in 1976 after graduating from Yale University. He previously delivered the commencement address at Northeastern in 2000.

 

Northeastern, a private school located in Boston, enrolls about 20,000 students.