Senior Class Speaker for the May 2026 Commencement Ceremony

The Ithaca College Commencement Ceremony has traditionally featured a student speaking as a representative of the undergraduate senior class. For the May 2026 ceremony (scheduled for May 17, 2026) the Commencement Committee is excited to invite all undergraduate seniors to participate in a competition to be selected as the student speaker for the class of 2026.

All undergraduate seniors with a graduation date between December 2025 and December 2026 are eligible to apply to be the student commencement speaker. Students must have earned a minimum of 60 credits at Ithaca College and have a cumulative grade point average as of the end of the fall 2025 term of at least 3.0 to qualify for this recognition.

The Ithaca College Commencement Committee will review all applications and select finalists who will then be required to prepare and deliver full draft speeches to be shared with a team of senior undergraduate students who will make the final recommendation of the student who should be selected.

The selected graduating senior will then be part of the program for the 2026 Ithaca College May Commencement Ceremony.

The final speech is expected to be between 2-3 minutes long.

Apply by February 6, 2026

Interested students should complete the Senior Class Speaker Application form on IC Engage no later than 11:59 pm on February 6, 2026. In addition to completing all required fields, applicants will need to provide a link to a short (1-2 minute) video in which they introduce themselves, tell why they are applying to be the Commencement Student Speaker, and give a short example of themselves giving a part of a speech. The speech example should be an excerpt of the speech you would share at commencement. The theme for this year is “dialogue” and there should be some reference to that in the speech.

SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

Selection Rubric

The Commencement Committee will review all submitted applications between February 7 and February 22. Applications and videos will be judged on a 5 point Likert Scale and the applications with the highest total average will be selected as finalists (no more than 5 finalists will be selected).

Rubric Includes

  • Application – completeness, lack of errors
  • Theme – How well did the applicant specifically address how their speech would be appropriate for the commencement address for their class.
  • Video – quality of rationale for application – did the applicant give reasons for applying and do these reasons seem authentic
  • Video – quality of “sample speech” - enthusiasm, eye contact with the camera, etc.

Finalist Process

The Commencement Committee will notify the (no more than five) finalists of their selection by February 23.

Finalists will be instructed to prepare a Final version of their commencement speech by March 22.

The Student Speaker Selection Committee will schedule appointments with each finalist between March 23 and March 26 for them to share their speech. The Student Speaker Selection Committee will consist of 5-10 seniors.

The Student Speaker Selection Committee will select the student speaker for Commencement by March 27 and all finalists will be notified of the decision by that same date.

Once selected, the finalist will have the opportunity to work closely with a member of the Commencement Committee to fine tune and practice their speech so they will be well prepared for the big event in May.