Condoleezza Rice urges grads to pursue learning

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged graduates of Talladega High School in Alabama to find their passions in life and follow them.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged graduates of Talladega High School in Alabama to find their passions in life and follow them.

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Rice is a native of Birmingham and was the school's graduation speaker on Thursday night.

She told the 150 graduates and their families that she first studied music in college but later pursued international studies, although she said she "didn't have a Russian bone in my body," The Birmingham News reported.

She said that many years later, when she was leaving the White House with then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, she thought she had made a good decision in changing her major. Talladega Mayor Brian York gave Rice a key to the city and declared it "Condoleezza Rice Day."

Rice was Secretary of State under the Bush administration from 2005-2009.