{"id":189397,"date":"2025-04-30T12:31:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/?p=189397"},"modified":"2025-04-30T12:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:31:32","slug":"commencement-2025-student-speakers-named-for-college-graduation-ceremonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/news\/commencement-2025-student-speakers-named-for-college-graduation-ceremonies\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2025: Student speakers named for college graduation ceremonies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Commencement weekend will be May 16-18 in Ryan Center<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">April 30, 2025<br><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the numerous speakers graduates will hear from during the University of Rhode Island\u2019s spring commencement weekend, none may be more meaningful to them than those who have shared the journey with them, literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last spring, as the University rolled out a new commencement format instituting individual ceremonies for each academic college, student speakers were included in each commencement, sharing their individual, and often universal, experiences. This month \u2013 as URI celebrates the achievements of about 3,300 graduate and undergraduate degree recipients \u2013 student commencement speakers will again be a big part of the pomp and circumstance in the eight ceremonies during commencement weekend,<strong>May 16-18<\/strong>. All ceremonies will be held in the Ryan Center on the Kingston Campus.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This spring\u2019s student commencement speakers are: Puja (Diya) Banerjee, Lucia Caito, Colby Constantine, Jennifer Melgar, Klara Nelander, Lauren Peckham, Joceline Rodrigues, Sarina Thapar, and Helene Tjoumakaris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">GSO&#8217;s representative, Puja Banerjee<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"364\" height=\"273\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/916\/puja-364x273-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-189398\" style=\"width:415px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/916\/puja-364x273-copy.jpg 364w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/916\/puja-364x273-copy-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 364px) 100vw, 364px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Puja Banerjee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/meet\/puja-banerjee\/\">Banerjee<\/a>, who is from <strong>Agartala<\/strong>, a city in the Indian state of Tripura, will be graduating with a Ph.D. in oceanography from GSO, and plans to pursue a career where she can apply her research, data analysis, and project management skills beyond academia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She says graduation is the culmination of years of hard work, resilience, and constant pursuit of knowledge. \u201cAlthough it certainly feels like a sudden void, especially when you\u2019ve been working towards a goal for so long, it also gives us the courage to step into new challenges and embrace new dreams,\u201d she added. \u201cGraduation reminds us that every ending is also a beginning, filled with new opportunities to redefine ourselves and our paths.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more about URI\u2019s Commencement Weekend or to view a full schedule of ceremonies, visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/uri.edu\/commencement\/\">uri.edu\/commencement\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Puja (Diya) Banerjee, who is graduating with a Ph.D. in oceanography, will deliver an address at GSO graduation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":189398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189400,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189397\/revisions\/189400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}