2016 Spring Undergraduate Student Speaker

at this time I'm pleased to call to the podium a member of this superb graduating class who will speak on behalf of her classmates Christmas Shriram did not venture too far from home to go to college she is a senior from Athens and is graduating this evening with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences entering UGA as a foundation fellow Karishma said she was immediately immersed in an enriching and creative learning environment a key component of her time at UGA has been her involvement with dr. Steve spices lab researching the regeneration capabilities of stem cells she even traveled to Harvard to present her research she said that being associated with this pioneering lab provided her with an academically supported family of colleagues mentors and Friends while at UGA she studied abroad and her activities included the arts society dog camp and UGA Mathcounts karishma reflects the strong spirit of achievement and commitment to excellence that I believe characterizes this graduating class please welcome an outstanding member of your class Karishma strong thank you all right UGA faculty and staff parents friends class of 2016 welcome class of 2016 we have spent over 1300 days as students of the University of Georgia how many of them do you remember yep if you're like me you have a sadly poor memory as a kid I would come home and write one or two word summaries of my day like fairyland or puppy or lost tooth I thought I outgrew this face but over the past four years without really realizing it I've been documenting my days with similar short phrases in my calendar so today I decided to share a few June 26 2012 orientation we came to UGA for orientation and mom helped me check-in despite my feeble attempts to be independent at our first orientation session the orientation leaders mentioned how we might find our future partner and we all eagerly looked around but sadly I didn't find him we spent the next two days not sleeping barely showering and getting so much information thrown at us but we were excited August 9 2012 moving we moved into our dorms I remember I set down my bags and shooed away my parents and again hungry as always I walked to a random girls room knocked on her door and asked her to eat lunch with me today she's my best friend August 13th 2012 first day the first day of class also the first visit to Snelling dining hall so the first warm hug from Miss Sandra September 1st 2012 football the first football game of the season throughout the hot and sunny day we proudly call the dogs as they crushed the buffalo bulls 45 to 23 October 14 2013 tutor Kevin I realized that sometimes kids will say I love math and it's not sarcastic June 6 2014 leave confident as ever I set off to Bolivia by myself for a summer of adventure June 20th 2014 coffee shop I called my brother and I told him I wanted to come home October 26th 2014 aluminum foil a simple dinner at Willie's evolved into me reconsidering my identity my beliefs and myself fast forward to August 17th 2015 first day the beginning of senior year on this day I decided that this year would be the year of friends and friends I hope I've made it just that the time spent at cookout drinking their Oreo milkshakes and 37-cent waters the time the time spent racing up to North deck as fast as possible to catch an incredible sunset the time spent watching and analyzing The Bachelor the time spent laughing in a cuddle puddle with your squad those are the moments that made this year so great those are the moments that make every year so great because you see these moments these years were some of the happiest some of the hardest some of the most beautiful and some of the most painful some of the years where you learn the most about yourself about people about the world May 13 2016 today not only is it my dad's birthday but today feels like the end but today is not the end it is just the very beginning while I've only shared a few moments from our past four years every day that was in between has formulated and created you you have started this amazing and beautiful narrative for yourself so friends and enemies I'm just kidding go out there and live in those small moments and share your stories and listen to other stories and that is how you can make this world better and brighter so that is the end of my speech but as many of you know today's the hundredth day my hundred happy days but for those of you who don't know I've been documenting on the past hundred days by taking pictures of anything and everything that made me happy and honestly I can't think of a happier moment than standing here in front of people that have made me the happiest for the past year the past four years and my lifetime so on the count of three I would like y'all to just smile a little that'd be great you guys are great thank you

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Keywords: uga, graduation, commencement

Id: ZAz3sz3qtFM

Length: 8min 24sec (504 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 16 2016