May 22, 2023
Senior class president address: Emily Cavanaugh ’23
Emily Cavanaugh ’23
Senior Class President
May 21, 2023
Thank you, Provost Reid, and welcome, family, faculty, alumni, distinguished guests and graduates to the commencement ceremony of the Class of 2023. Every one of us graduating here today has our own story to tell, but my hope is that as we reflect on our time at PC, we begin to uncover what our stories share — a sense of community, one that fostered an environment of support, encouragement, and inspiration.
Freshman year, our story started like most others: hiding our teary eyes as we were abruptly told to say goodbye to our families at the end of the welcome Mass. But that’s where the traditional narrative ends. By the time spring break rolled around there were rumors going around campus that we would not be returning after break. We all collectively joked about the absurdity of a global pandemic shutting down Providence College. And then we all collectively panicked as we realized we were spending the rest of the spring semester at home.
During our sophomore year we were confined to our dorms, taking classes on Zoom, constantly speaking over our roommates who were also in class, and adjusting our cameras to hide the roommates that didn’t have an 8:30 and were still in bed.
But what our sophomore year showed us was that the Class of 2023 was resilient and could rise to any occasion. The reason why the lock down and twice a week testing did not ruin our time at PC was because we were not alone and we had each other. The roommates that we met in Ray and the best friends that we found in Guz became our extended family. It was in these days that we learned the power of community and friendship.
Despite the bizarre start to our four years, the Class of 2023 reached new heights academically, set records in athletics, and worked to change PC for the better.
In the world of academics, members of the class have created their own majors, such as a major in Global Health Equity (Justin Andries). We have been among the first students of PC’s communications minor, and thanks to the work of the classes that came before us we have helped pass the new Black Studies major. All the while, in our free time, we hosted podcasts, wrote books, led Friars Club tours, won intramural T-shirts, worked to improve the residence halls and dining facilities, created new clubs like the Karaohkays and Its On us Friars. We planned spring concerts and on the weekends pushed the limitations of our off-campus leases.
We expanded our classrooms to the far corners of the world and everywhere in between. Some of us have gone to the Philippines to research affordable, shelf stable vaccine alternatives (Chris Bresnahan). Others have spoken at the United States Ambassador’s house in Ireland (Justin Babu) and some studied the life of Elane Brown at the Stanford archives in California (Maeve Plassche).
Class of 2023 student athletes set records in their respective sports. For example, on the women’s swim team, a member of the Class of 2023 set all four school records for the medley relay (Sally Alrutz). The Class of 2023 has also had the privilege of watching the men’s basketball team in the BIG EAST tournaments, one Sweet Sixteen appearance, and take home the title of BIG EAST Champions last year.
What all of these accomplishments have in common is that they were not reached alone. The Providence College community guided us and supported us to be the best that we could be.
There are some people in particular that have supported our class as a whole and deserve an immense show of gratitude. First, to the members of the Class Executive Board, Sinead Martin, vice president; Jennifer Andronico, treasurer, and Hayden Lens, secretary. Thank you for the hours of work you donated to the class this year. Because of you our class was able to come together and make up for the semesters we were kept apart.
To our former class presidents, Lowis Sanchez and Autumn Tangney, you emerged as leaders within our first days on campus and set the standard and foundation for our class to succeed.
It was because of our professors and administrators that the Class of 2023 was able to push the limits of the classroom. You taught us to read with a critical eye and approach decisions in an ethical way. We thank you for your patience and dedication to our academic careers.
And most importantly, thank you to all of our families, parents and loved ones. Some of us may have forgotten to mention you in our senior thesis acknowledgements, but we could not have done it without your encouragement and support. Today is just as much a celebration of you as it is of us.
AS we sit here today, packing the Dunk one last time, I don’t wish luck for the Class of 2023, because we have shown time and time again that we don’t need it. What I wish for our class is that we all find the courage, dedication, and faith to pursue a path in life that we are passionate about, and more importantly, brings us joy. I can’t wait to see the great things that we continue to accomplish. I am rooting for every single one of you.
So congratulations to the Class of 2023. Continue to be resilient. God bless, and Go Friars.
