Provost announces undergraduate, guest commencement speakers

Seniors Shabrelle Pollock and Andrew Merki have been selected to give the student speeches during the undergraduate ceremonies May 7, Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson announced today.

Merki will speak at the morning ceremony, and Pollock will speak in the
afternoon.

The commencement ceremony for students in the Kelley School of Business; School of Education; School of Health, Physical Education and Recreatio; School of Public and Environmental Affairs; Jacobs School of Music; School of Nursing and School of Social Work will be from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The ceremony for students in the College of Arts and Sciences, Continuing Studies, School of Informatics and Computing, School of Journalism and School of Optometry will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Both ceremonies will take place at Assembly Hall.

Shabrelle Pollock
Pollock, from Jeffersonville, Ind., will receive a B.A. degree in journalism with a minor in marketing. Pollock said she applied because if she didn’t, she knew she would regret it.

“This University has afforded me a lot of things, and I have had a lot of experiences that if I had gone anywhere else in the world, it wouldn’t have been the same,” she said.

Pollock said she isn’t completely sure what her speech will be on.
“I took one experience at IU and I made it a metaphor to graduation,” she said. “What I say the other graduates will be able to relate to.”

Giving a commencement speech is a way to show her appreciation to the University for all the great opportunities, Pollock said.

“I was really excited,” she said. “I was in a state of disbelief. I was super excited and really honored.”

Andrew Merki
Merki, from La Plata, Md., will receive a B.S. in business with concentrations in economic consulting and public policy analysis.

Merki said he plans to talk about education after graduation, the topic he wrote about in the application.

“I will probably continue with that theme, and that is probably what I will go off of,” he said.

Merki said he was ecstatic and shocked when he received the call from
Hanson.

“I thought it would be a true honor to share my thoughts and reflections of the past four years,” he said. “I like public speaking in general, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to do that.”

The commencement speech will serve as the perfect ending to the past four years, Merki said.

“These have been some of the best years of my life,” he said.

Other commencement speakers Patricia R. Miller, co-founder of Vera Bradley Designs and former Indiana secretary of commerce, will speak to both undergraduate ceremonies May 7.

William G. Bowen, former president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and of Princeton University, will speak at the ceremony for graduate students May 6.