Student Speaker to Tell Grads: “Make Your Own Experiences.”
Jennifer Quigley (UNI’08) to give address at Sunday’s Commencement
When she arrived at Boston University as a freshman, Jennifer Quigley was shy and insecure. But over the last four years, she has become a stellar student, a President’s Host, a resident assistant — and a gregarious young adult. On Sunday, May 18, she’ll stand before thousands of fellow graduates, BU faculty and staff, and families and friends as the student speaker at the University’s 135th Commencement.
Quigley (UNI’08) says she has gained self-confidence by getting involved in extracurricular activities. “It took me most of freshman year to adjust to college,” she recalls. “I didn’t really get involved in much until the end of that first spring, and settling in was a definite challenge for me.”
But soon, Quigley’s entire college experience became more rewarding. “As a student in the University Professors Program, I was able to take courses in several colleges,” she says. “I’ve become involved in the Student Activities Office, and I participated in a wonderful living environment by spending four years in the University Professors Program House.”
A theology and literature major, Quigley will graduate summa cum laude. (She will return to BU in the fall to pursue a Master of Divinity at the School of Theology.) She has been the chair of the Student Allocations Board for the past two years, and she was a President’s Host and a resident assistant in the University Professors Program House. “I think the most rewarding part of being a student at BU is the ability to be involved in so many things,” she says. “That’s my advice to all of the undergraduates at BU. Get involved.”
Quigley says she won’t impart such words of advice to her fellow graduates on Sunday. “I think my classmates are in a great place to follow their own advice,” she says, “and to make their own experiences.”
Vicky Waltz can be reached at vwaltz@bu.edu.
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