Normally, one student is chosen from among auditioning candidates to serve as student speaker.

 

“今年我们选择了两位演讲者, 一个本科生和一个研究生, in part because of the large number of graduate students planning to attend Commencement,帕梅拉·费曼说, 负责学生发展的副院长 评选委员会成员. “We also noticed a significant difference in their experiences as students and their connections to the university.”

 

Addressing their fellow Class of 2023 graduates will be Richard Christopher 瓦拉 of Houston, 德州, who will receive a Master of 艺术 degree in digital journalism, 和瓦伦蒂娜·科西奥·西尔斯, an accounting and finance double major from Seminole, 佛罗里达, who will receive a Bachelor of Business 政府 degree.

 

瓦拉 is part of the inaugural class of graduates in St. Bonaventure’s online master’s degree program in digital journalism, which began in fall of 2021. He plans to tell graduates to not forget to include themselves when thanking the people 是谁帮他们顺利毕业的.

 

“我将讲述我们的道路如何引领我们走向圣. Bonaventure and what we are called to do as Bonnies after we cross the stage. I will urge my fellow graduates to thank those who helped us along the way — that study buddy who became a close friend, 鼓励你不要放弃的人, or your parents who worked extra shifts to help pay your way through school,瓦拉说. 

 

“But I will remind my classmates that they did all the work. 他们有足够的责任心去上课. They’re the ones who spent late-nights writing papers and studying for exams. It’s their hard work that is making this moment possible, 你可以为此感到骄傲.”

 

瓦拉, who has more than 20 years of experience in media technology and theater, is a media engineer at the University of Houston-Downtown. 他维护视听设备, sets up and operates multimedia equipment for classes and conferences, 创建 and edits video and audio content, and provides training, among other duties. 

 

He has also been heavily involved with the university’s Theatre Department, which “led to a 20-year love affair with the stage,他说. He performed in a production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” at the Edinburgh 苏格兰边缘艺术节.

 

瓦拉 is the creator and editor-in-chief of “The VCR Show,” a pop culture website and podcast.

 

休斯顿大学市区分校的毕业生, 他在哪里获得了人文学科学士学位, he formerly worked as an audio-visual technician at Rice University in Houston and as a high school social studies teacher at South Houston High 学校.

 

瓦拉知道了圣. Bonaventure在Facebook上的广告, said he will use his degree in digital journalism to continue his work on “The VCR Show,” and that he is “excited to see what other opportunities will be coming my way now 我有硕士学位.”

 

Cossio Siles said she will convey “a sense of hope and fellowship” in her address to graduates.

 

“These four years have flown by and I’m so thankful to St. Bonaventure for giving me the chance to improve, persist, and grow through successes and failures. 这是把我们所有人团结在一起的东西. 我们都对自己有了很多了解 并准备好在“现实世界”中脱颖而出,我为2023届的毕业生感到无比自豪,科西奥·西尔斯说.

 

“I’ll talk about how love and Franciscan values set us apart from all other graduates entering the workforce. They’re what made Bona’s feel like home the minute I stepped on campus, 我希望这里有家的感觉 最新一批校友.”

 

An honors graduate, Pacioli Scholar and recipient of a Presidential Scholarship to attend St. Bonaventure, Cossio Siles has been active in and out of the classroom. 

 

She served as president of the student group Ladies in Faith Together; coordinator for the Warming House, the student-run soup kitchen in Olean; a residence hall resident assistant and mentor; secretary of external affairs for the Student Government Association; a facilitator for the financial education club NvestNus; and student representative to the 任务 Integration Advisory Committee. 她也是模拟联合国的成员, 礼仪委员会, a student worker for the Farm to Table summer program at Canticle Farm in Allegany, and an overnight host for the Office of 招生.

 

Cossio Siles was a volunteer for a Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic in Olean; for a COVID-19 vaccination call center in Olean; at St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia; for activities run by St. Bonaventure’s Enactus chapter; and for Mountain on the Road, an outreach program of the SBU-affiliated Mt. 爱任纽修士团体.

 

在参加圣. Bonaventure, she served as a launch intern for Ernst & Young in New York City and as a tax intern at Proto & 洛斯基注册会计师有限责任公司，在奥利安.

 

出生在玻利维亚, 科西奥·希尔斯热爱学习语言, 这让她辅修了法语.

 

毕业典礼后，她将返回圣. Bonaventure to complete her MBA and serve as a graduate assistant in the 学校 of Business.

 

St. Bonaventure’s 163rd Commencement Exercises will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, 5月14日, in Reilly Center Arena on campus. The ceremony will be livestreamed on the university’s livestream channel: http://video.ibm.com/channel/st-bonaventure-university-live-stream. For more information about Commencement events, visit www.在布.edu/commencement.

 

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大学简介美国第一所方济各会大学全球网赌十大网站 is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service 和国籍. St. Bonaventure was named the #5 regional university value in the North in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 college rankings edition.