Wendell Phillips finalists announced

Five seniors will compete to speak at graduation.

The finalists in the Wendell Phillips competition were announced Thursday by the Office of Student Activities. Ariana Flores, Candace Gomez, Chinua Thewell, Stacey Ulrich and David Wu were selected as this year's finalists.

Each of the students will give a five-minute speech on March 11 in the Coolidge Room. The competition will be open for the entire student body to listen. The Committee of Student Life (CSL) will make the final decision.

Speeches will address the quotation "The agitator must stand outside of organization, with no bread to earn, no candidate to elect, no party to save, no object but the truth -- to tear open a question and riddle it with light." The finalists were instructed to address an issue of "contemporary significance and 'riddle it with light.'"

"I would certainly be very honored to have the opportunity to speak at Commencement because the students and faculty at Tufts have made my college years extremely memorable," finalist Gomez said.

Any student can be nominated by other students, administrators, professors, or by themselves. The nominated are then contacted and encouraged to prepare a speech. Students who accept must submit a resum‚ highlighting their community service, record a speech to present to the CSL, and write a short essay.

Tufts is unusual in that it does not pick graduation speakers based on GPA or academic performance.

The Award was established in 1896 by the Wendell Phillips Memorial Fund to honor one student each year from Tufts and from Harvard to speak at their graduation ceremonies. Wendell Phillips was a great preacher and orator in Boston. His scholarship honors students with excellent orator skills and public responsibility.