Jessica Wilson to receive Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship

    The Committee on Student Life (CSL) recently selected senior Jessica Wilson as the recipient of this year's Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship.
    The annual award recognizes one junior or senior who will be the only student speaker at the Baccalaureate ceremony during commencement in May, CSL student co-chair Haydn Forrest told the Daily in an email. He explained that Wilson will also receive a cash prize as part of her award.
     "It's an absolutely incredible opportunity and I'm really privileged to be able to speak on behalf of the class," Wilson said. "I remember when I received the phone call. I was in the [Mayer] Campus Center, and I screamed out loud. I got so excited."
    According to CSL faculty co-chair and computer science professor Alva Couch, the scholarship was established in 1896 in honor of Wendell Phillips, a preacher and orator who had dedicated himself to the abolition of slavery and later worked for African-American rights, women's rights and labor reforms.
    The selection process began last semester when the Tufts community was invited to nominate students for the award. Nominations typically come from professors selecting their advisees, Couch said.
    "A nomination is just a strong suggestion to apply," he said. "There are usually a large number of nominations but [there were] less applications because it takes time to fill out an application."
    CSL received seven scholarship applications this year, half the usual number, according to Couch. He said that the lower number was likely due to the deadline coinciding with the beginning of classes.
    "We're hoping that people will participate a little more in the future," he said. "We'd love to have a spirited competition."
    The application process itself consists of two rounds, the first of which requires a recorded speech, a written essay, a resume and a list of public service contributions, Couch said.
    "Wendell was a public service person, a great speaker and a great writer, so in the first section we actually choose people based on these three attributes altogether," he said.
    According to Couch, this year's application asked students to speak about mutual responsibility, based on a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. Applicants also wrote about the boundaries between transparency and privacy, based on Edward Snowden's "A Manifesto for the Truth."
    CSL then rated the applications on a scale of one to five and the students who received top ratings were then asked to give an oral presentation to the public on March 5, Couch explained.
    "The five finalists are deemed worthy of the position; they've all passed all of the basic attributes for the position," he said. "The only question left is who's going to be the best commencement speaker."
    According to Forrest, a senior, the other finalists this year were Christina Goldbaum, Joseph Thibodeau, Michael Maggiore, and Taylor Barnard. Couch said the students were asked to speak about how they addressed problems with an idea that began with the best of intentions, but went horribly wrong in its implementation to the point where the struggles threatened to eclipse the merits of the idea itself.
    Couch said that it is always difficult to make a final selection, but expressed confidence in the committee's choice.
    "We're dealing with a situation that this year ... in my personal opinion, every one of the applications could have been the Baccalaureate speaker," he said. "For us it's a very difficult thing ... it's really nice if it's difficult."
    Wilson explained that her speech was meant to have widespread applicability.
    "So I wrote it on basically the idea of how we create life plans … and we lay out what we want to do in the future, which are good, but at the same time it's dangerous when you get really stuck on one plan and not open your eyes to the opportunities that life offers you," she said.
    Wilson plans to focus on universality in her commencement address and said she is seeking input from other people. 
    "I'm really willing to speak to people and get their opinions of what the speech should be about and make sure I get the voice of the class, not just my voice," she said. "I want to make sure that it's reflective of our four years at Tufts for the Class of 2014, but I also want it to relate to people who are younger and older."