The Ithaca College May Commencement Ceremony has traditionally featured a student speaking as a representative of the undergraduate senior class. For the May 2025 ceremony (scheduled for May 18, 2025) the Commencement Committee is excited to announce an opportunity for all undergraduate seniors to participate in a competition to be selected as the student speaker for the class of 2025.
All undergraduate seniors with a graduation date between December 2024 and December 2025 are eligible to apply to be the student commencement speaker. Students must have earned a minimum of 60 credits at Ithaca College and have a cumulative grade point average as of the end of the fall 2024 term of at least 3.0 to qualify for this recognition.
Applications are due no later than 11:59 pm on February 14, 2025.
The Ithaca College Commencement Committee will review all applications and select finalists who will then be required to prepare and deliver full draft speeches to be shared with a team of senior undergraduate students who will make the final recommendation of the student who should be selected.
The selected graduating senior will then be part of the program for the 2025 Ithaca College May Commencement Ceremony.
The final speech is expected to be between 2-3 minutes long.
Interested students should complete an application form which will include a short 1-2 minute video about why you are interested in being the student speaker and a brief excerpt of a speech. The speech example should be an excerpt from your draft commencement speech. The theme for this year is “sustainability” and there should be some reference to that in your speech