As the doors of Ballou's Coolidge Room closed for the Committee on Student Life (CSL) to consider the speeches just heard in the annual Wendell Phillips competition, contestants and onlookers knew the committee had a difficult decision ahead. After the deliberation, the CSL awarded the honor of speaking at the 146th commencement to senior Michael Ferenczy.
Ferenczy, who chairs the Tufts Community Union Judiciary, spoke second among the group of eight, almost all of whom described how their personal experiences influenced their views on this year's topic of education. From tear-jerking pasts, to meaningful college enterprises and noble goals for the future, each speaker articulated how education has affected his or her life and future plans.
Drawing on the death of his father when he was 17 and subsequent economic difficulties, Ferenczy said the most important lessons in life are not learned in school. Moreover, he emphasized that times of hardship can be the defining moments in a person's education. "Simply watching my mother quietly bare the burden of a family's heartbreak taught me more than any book ever has," Ferenczy said. "...The most important lessons of life you don't learn in a classroom. You learn just by the act of living, especially during times of struggle."
The other seven finalists took on the issue of education by describing it through the prism of their experiences and interests. Working off the given quotes by Phillips - "Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment," -seniors Seren Levinson and Anoop Swaminath told the CSL and gathered audience that education must be seen in the context of the larger world around us. For Levinson that meant seeking out "cultural exchanges" so that all people could better understand each other, and hopefully avoid conflict. Opening his speech with a quote in Tamil, Swaminath underscored the importance of seeing the world from an international perspective. Translated, his quote said "actions and events in places near and far are interconnected. And that no region of the world can be ignored."
Several other speakers said that a quality formal education was the key for disadvantaged youth to break out of the cycles of poverty and violence. Some commented that the paradox that higher education is only available to those who can afford it has led to "vicious cycles of educational inequalities," as senior Alethea Pieters stated. "For too long this jewel, knowledge, has been locked in a box that only the elite can look at," she said.
Every finalist championed the idea giving back to one's community and personally working to improve their societies. Ferenzcy will teach in an inner-city school with Teach for America next year, while Levinson also hopes to teach English and in a foreign country.
"We need to reverse the stigma that there's something wrong with being a teacher," finalists Erin Ross said, summing up the group's general views on service. Senior Jesse Levey noted specifically that public service should be realigned with the worthy efforts of teachers and other community servants.
The decision to choose Ferenczy was formally made by a majority vote of the ten CSL members present for the speeches. Committee members grade each finalist in a small number of categories for general guidance, but the final choice is very much a product of group discussion and deliberation, according to CSL member Sam Dangremond.
CSL Student Chair Amanda Berkowitz stressed the comprehensiveness of the body's analysis and eventual choice of Ferenczy. "We looked at every aspect of anything you could grade a speech on," she said. "What separated him was all the things we considered in our deliberations."
