Alexandra “Allie” Ennis ’25 has been selected as the class speaker for the graduating class of 2025. She was chosen from a group of the 12 highest-voted students in her year by a committee of faculty and her peers. She will speak on Sunday, May 25 as part of the Commencement ceremony.
Ennis is a math and sociology major alongside her roles as an Ariondack Adventure orientation leader, one of the head tutors at the QSR Center, a senior fellow for Community Outreach & Opportunity Project (COOP), a tour guide, co-chair of the senior gift committee and intramural basketball player. After she graduates, she plans to become a corps member for Teach for America.
“I’m so excited, and I’m so honored and touched that the class would elect me for this. And that, you know, I had the support of the committee to do this… I’m super honored by this, and really, really excited and humbled by the opportunity,” Ennis told The Spectator.
“My role, as I see it, is to leave the class with a message that hopefully resonates with everyone and can hopefully be a message that leaves people feeling good at the end of our four years here. And just, I really want to strike that balance between positivity and levity and also seriousness at this really pivotal point between college and adult life.”
When asked for details on what her speech may be like, Ennis said, “So like I said, a big part of it for me is just the chance to express gratitude and reflect on everything that I’ve loved about Hamilton. So I’m going to frame the speech beginning with that and sort of talk about how it felt coming here and what’s special about being here. And I’m also going to draw a lot of stories that my peers shared with me about what’s been special to them about Hamilton.”
Ennis’ selection came about after a long process of voting by both the class of ’25 and the speaker selection committee. She started her journey by being nominated by a peer for the role, and from there she received enough votes to become one of the 12 semifinalists to be selected by the committee.
Speaking on his experience as head of the speaker selection committee, Michael Ngaw ’25 said, “I’m really glad about how voting went because everyone who was nominated was great, but all those who ended up as semifinalists going through the interview process were wonderful. We had a two-hour-long discussion trying to figure out the six people out of those 12 semifinalists to go on to give potential speeches, and then when it was final speeches, again, sort of a two-hour debate.”
“The reason why Allie was such a great pick was because, I think, it was a very unifying speech, and it was a reminder of the camaraderie we had as a class,” Ngaw told The Spectator.
Giving her final remarks before the speech, Ennis said, “I feel really lucky that I’ve been able to connect with so many people across our class in many different, like, corners of our class. So I feel lucky to hopefully be in a position to [share] something that… resonates with everyone. And I just feel really lucky to be able to, once again, say thank you to my class.”