Student Commencement Speakers Named

The three students who will speak at Commencement were announced Friday.

Seth W. Moulton '01, a Currier House resident, will give the English Oration, Corinne S. Crawford '01 of Eliot House will deliver the Latin Oration, and Leng L. Lim of Harvard Business School was chosen as the graduate student speaker.

The three speakers were picked after an extensive selection process conducted by the Commencement Office at Wadsworth House.

Crawford said she found the selection process rigorous, yet extremely fair.

"It was a good process," said Crawford, a Classics concentrator. "I found that I especially enjoyed the auditions, mostly because I really enjoy speaking in Latin and rarely get an excuse to use it."

As a member of the marching band, Crawford said she has witnessed many past Commencement ceremonies, and has always wanted to audition to be a student speaker.

Crawford said she will talk about the personal growth a student experiences as she or he is able to study what interests them.

The Latin word for study, studium, refers not only to hard work but emphasizes the enthusiasm and zeal that comes with intellectual pursuit, Crawford said.

Moulton, a physics concentrator, said he hopes to send an inspirational message to the present generation. Students should not be happy to remain complacent and satisfied with the prosperity our country has had in recent years, he said.

"Just because our generation doesn't have an obvious cause or challenge, like a war, doesn't mean that we should not aspire to do great things in the world and be great people," Moulton said.

Moulton said that he felt that the application process was very competitive.

"I was much more nervous about reading my speech during auditions," Moulton said. "Now, I am just excited."

The finalists were chosen from a large pool of applicants.

"We had a generous turnout of students from which to select," said Grace C. Scheibner, the Commencement director.

The prospective speakers signed up and submitted their speeches to a panel of faculty judges. Preliminary auditions took place early last week and semi-finalists then advanced to the final auditions last Thursday.

The committee of faculty judges posted the finalists Friday morning.