Senior Mikayla Tolliver has been selected to speak on behalf of her fellow graduates at Ithaca College’s 129th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 19. All undergraduate members of the Class of 2024 were invited to apply to be chosen by the Ithaca College Commencement Committee to represent their classmates as the event’s student speaker.
Student Speaker Selected for 2024 Ithaca College Commencement
By News, April 1, 2024
Tolliver will be receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in writing, with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in sociology. An aspiring novelist, after graduation she plans to pursue work with a creative writing nonprofit and then attend graduate school to further her education and continue strengthening her writing.
Tolliver has been involved in a number of campus organizations during her four years at IC. She was a member of the sixth cohort of BOLD scholars, co-chaired the Admission Host Committee, and served as president of Buzzsaw Magazine. As a first-year student, she wrote the Ask a Freshman column for The Ithacan.
In 2023 she was selected as a School of Humanities and Sciences Summer Scholar, during which she worked on writing her first novel and conducted research on diversity and representation within the young adult fantasy genre.
As previously announced, the keynote speaker for Commencement will be Jason DeLand, co-founder of the advertising agency Anomaly and a 1998 graduate of the college. The ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Glazer Arena of the Athletics and Events Center on campus. For more information, visit ithaca.edu/commencement.