Commencement 2024
Nominations are open NOW and are being accepted until April 7, 2024.
Every year, one graduating student is chosen to deliver a speech at Commencement. If you have a great story that can motivate, inspire, and tear the roof off the Melody Tent, we want to hear it! Please check out the following guidelines for submissions then use the form below to submit your nomination to be our Commencement Speaker
Each year an undergraduate student represents the graduating class with a speech at graduation. All August 2023, December 2023 and May 2024 degree and certificate graduates are invited to become candidates for this distinctive honor.
Your speech should be approximately five minutes in delivery length
Students will submit a short essay with the main points of their speech by Sunday, April 7.
The essay will be evaluated by members of a committee.
Finalists will be invited to meet with the selection committee. If you are selected, we will interview you, ask you questions about your experience at 4Cs, and ask you to deliver your speech to the committee. Your answers to the interview as well as content and delivery of the speech will all be considered in the final selection of a commencement speaker.
The candidate selected will be required to meet with one or more faculty in Communication studies to further develop the written speech and work on delivery.
Here's some helpful tips to you write an awesome speech:
The message from a member of the graduating class traditionally falls before diplomas are presented. The following information is provided as guidance as you develop your speech. It is suggested that you review online copies of recent speeches written by former student speakers to evaluate how the following guidelines were used to develop effective speeches.
1. Consider your audience: classmates, faculty, staff, family and friends. Your speech should acknowledge those whose sacrifices and encouragement have helped you achieve your goals.
2. Ask yourself - what do I want my audience, particularly my classmates, to feel at the end of my speech? Motivated? Inspired? Encouraged?
3. Ask yourself - what do I NOT want my audience to feel at the end of my speech? Bored? Relieved? (Imagine yourself sitting in the audience listening to your speech. What do you feel? If it's bored or relieved, go back to the drawing board. Revise and edit.)
4. Be brief. Be sincere. According to Whitman and Foster, a commencement speech generally addresses the following three topics:
A. It offers congratulations
B. It reviews accomplishments, and importantly,
C. It issues a challenge. The word commencement denotes a beginning... What inspirational thoughts can you share which will assure that you and your classmates are prepared and ready to take up life's challenges as you take your place in society?
5. Use personal anecdotes and appropriate humor to motivate, encourage and inspire your audience.
A. Remind your audience of the joyous event they are celebrating - Commencement!
B. Remember that you are speaking to/for/with your classmates.
C. Consider using any one of the following suggestions to develop an inspirational thread to weave throughout your speech:
D. Remember-use personal experiences only as an inspiration to your classmates. The spotlight may seem to be on you, but your job is to use your experience and refocus its beam on your classmates and, your shared celebration of having achieved your shared goal--commencement. An effective commencement speech reflects the sentiments of your classmates through your shared experiences.
6. Avoid clichés. Make appropriate use of metaphor.
7. Be original.
| Professor Lisa Zinsius | |
|---|---|
| [email protected] | |
| Phone | 774.330.4440 |