Graduate students: Invitation for Special Opportunity

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation!

The Graduate School extends warm appreciation to you for your hard work, perseverance, and dedication to your own academic and personal growth. Your achievement will last a lifetime.

In advance of the 2021 Spring Virtual Hooding Ceremony honoring your achievement to be held Saturday, May 1 at 3 p.m., we are seeking a Student Speaker to represent your graduating class and offer brief remarks about your graduate school journey.

As dean of the Graduate School, I encourage you to apply for this prestigious honor. Should you be selected, you will compose a 3-5 minute speech and deliver it (via pre-recorded video). You will appear as one of the featured speakers during the pre-recorded 2021 Spring Virtual Hooding Ceremony viewable via the UAA website.

Required application materials

The application for nomination is simple. Please send your most recent resume (include your name and UAA Student ID number), a 250-300 word essay explaining why you are interested in being the 2021 Spring Virtual Hooding Ceremony Student Speaker, and a reference from a UAA faculty member supporting your nomination. All materials must be sent in one email (though they can be three separate attachments) to uaa_graduateschool@alaska.edu.

Criteria for selection

Your application will be reviewed in its entirety with special consideration given to the clarity and depth of your interest in being selected as expressed in your essay, and the strength of your faculty reference. When composing your essay, include details of your unique journey through graduate school and the ways in which it inspired you to share it with the audience of fellow graduates, family members, friends, UAA staff, faculty, and administrators.

Important deadlines

Your application materials are due by midnight Friday, April 2, 2021. Review of applications will occur during the week of April 5, 2021 with a final decision announced April 9, 2021. If you are selected, you will write and submit your written speech (3-5 minutes delivered) to the Graduate School by Friday, April 16, 2021 for approval. Videotaping of you delivering the speech will be scheduled during the week of April 19, 2021. Prior to the videotaping, you will rehearse with the Dean of the Graduate School who will offer any support and encouragement you might need.

Good luck to you in applying for this wonderful opportunity. Being selected as the 2021 Virtual Hooding Ceremony Student Speaker will be an outstanding experience. Not only will you be a treasured speaker at this important academic ceremonial event, you will be interviewed for UAA website news sources. This will be a memorable moment and an excellent enhancement to your professional resume.

Good luck!
Dean Finney

Mary Jo Finney, Ph.D.
Dean, Graduate School
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive
ADM 214
Anchorage, AK 99508

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