{"id":21525,"date":"2026-04-17T09:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=21525"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:33:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:33:36","slug":"elizabethtown-college-announces-2026-commencement-student-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/elizabethtown-college-announces-2026-commencement-student-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Announces 2026 Commencement Student Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Alysse Smith ’26<\/p><\/div>\n

Alysse Smith, who will continue her education at the Howard University College of Medicine, will address classmates and guests at Etown\u2019s Commencement ceremony on May 9<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Alysse Smith ’26 has been selected to serve as Elizabethtown College\u2019s 2026 Commencement student speaker. A Biology major with a Health Professions concentration and minors in Spanish and Chemistry from Silver Spring, Md. \/ Wheaton High School<\/span>, Smith will address her classmates and guests for the <\/span>123rd exercises <\/span><\/a>on Saturday, May 9, at 10 a.m., held in the Dell located on the College\u2019s campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently named the recipient of the 2025\u201326 Points of Distinction Award<\/a>, the highest Student Life honor at Etown, Smith was chosen from a pool of senior applicants who submitted and presented a draft of their speeches for consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n

The audition process was conducted by a selection committee composed of student and employee representatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

About Alysse Smith ’26<\/strong>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Smith is an engaged leader on campus who is passionate about amplifying voices and inspiring meaningful change. She has served on executive cabinets for both the Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and the Honors Program, and is actively involved as a Blue Jay Ambassador, Peer Mentor, Peer Tutor, and Ubuntu Mentor.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a Stamps Scholar, Smith completed a medical internship in Cusco, Peru, during her sophomore year, expanding her understanding of global healthcare and service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her academic achievements include receiving a competitive grant from the TriBeta Research Foundation to support her undergraduate research project, “Establishing Reliable DNA Extraction Methods for Microbial Analysis of Embalmed Cadaveric Gastrointestinal Tissues,”<\/span> conducted with Professor of Biology Debra Wohl and Professor of Biological Anthropology Elizabeth Newell.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Following graduation, Smith will continue her education at the Howard University College of Medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elizabethtown College\u2019s Commencement ceremony will honor graduates of all six of its Schools, including the School of Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS). The ceremony will also be livestreamed on <\/span>etown.edu.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alysse Smith, who will continue her education at the Howard University College of Medicine, will address classmates and guests at Etown\u2019s Commencement ceremony on May 9 Alysse Smith ’26 has been selected to serve as Elizabethtown College\u2019s 2026 Commencement student speaker. A Biology major with a Health Professions concentration and minors in Spanish and Chemistry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":21530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,775],"tags":[233,1182,2650,197,1350],"class_list":["post-21525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-research","category-campus","tag-biology","tag-commencement","tag-commencement-student-speaker","tag-elizabethtown-college","tag-etown","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21625,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21525\/revisions\/21625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}