Schools

UConn's Commencement Was Deja Vu For Waterford Students

At the School of Engineering's commencement, Kelsey Boch gave the speech and Christine Nykyforchyn sang the national anthem—just as they had at Waterford High School's graduation four years earlier!

On May 11, Waterford student Kelsey Boch stood in cap and gown at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs and delivered the commencement speech for her fellow graduates from UConn's School of Engineering. Her classmate, Christine Nykyforchyn, also from Waterford, opened the ceremony by singing the national anthem. 

That both students are from Waterford might be considered remarkable. That both are women graduating with degrees in engineering might, as commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, Elizabeth Shananan, Executive Director and CEO for the Society of Women Engineers noted, be considered a sign of progress.

But what makes this event really unusual is that, four years ago, Boch gave the student commencement speech and Nykyforchyn sang the national anthem at Waterford High School's graduation ceremony. Talk about deja vu.  

Both students were selected independently by a different group of faculty to be the featured speaker and singer at commencement. 
 
"We found out a week after the whole selection happened," said Boch. "We told our professors and they were pretty taken aback. They didn’t think they’d have two individuals from the same high school who happened to both speak and sing at their high school graduation." 

In preparing her speech for Saturday, Boch said, "I did look back at my high school speech to see the growth that I went through. I used that growth as a way to inspire me to write the new speech about how much we had gone through at UConn and where we can go in the next two decades." 

Although she's not one to predict the future, for the next few years both Boch and Nykyforchyn know theirs will involve more school. Boch is currently deciding whether to go to University of Virginia or stay on at the University of Connecticut for medical school. Nykyforchyn is going on to get her PhD in biomedical engineering at Boston University. 

Who knows, perhaps they'll have another chance to reprise their roles for one last encore performance.  
 
Congratulations Graduates!

Here's a list of all the Waterford students who graduated from UConn this past weekend: 

Lauren Baxter, Bachelor of Science in Engineering; Adam Bienkowski, Bachelor of Science in Engineering; Kelsey Boch, Bachelor of Science; Kelsey Boch, Bachelor of Science in Engineering; Aimee Bourassa, Bachelor of Science; Jason Chan, Bachelor of Science in Engineering; Mary Colonis, Bachelor of Science; Abigail Dyson, Bachelor of Science; Meika Freeman, Bachelor of Arts; John Gallie, Bachelor of Science; Lauren Golden, Bachelor of Science; Sarah Grout, Bachelor of Science; Vivianne Hage, Bachelor of Science; Laura Hong, Bachelor of Science; Matthew Jones, Bachelor of Arts; Renata Kamburi, Bachelor of Science; Muhammadmustaqeem Khatri, Bachelor of Science in Engineering; Thomas Lacey, Bachelor of Arts; Mary Murphy, Bachelor of Science; Christine Nykyforchyn, Bachelor of Science in Engineering; Jon Peterson, Bachelor of General Studies; Shruthi Reddy, Bachelor of Arts; Beth Rogers, Bachelor of General Studies; Mikhail Shapiro, Bachelor of Arts; Marilyn Spera, Bachelor of General Studies; Michael Stroneski, Bachelor of Arts; Michael Stroneski, Bachelor of Science; Sean Terry, Bachelor of Arts; Amanda Trehern, Bachelor of Arts.


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