Graduate students Matthew Lyddon and Alberto Morales, both the first members in their families to earn college degrees, will deliver commencement addresses for their peers in the Graduate School at Brown University.
“We are both extremely proud to be
first-generation college graduates,” Morales said. “We often pinch ourselves
about this tremendous honor, given our similar backgrounds. Being
first-generation is crucial to my identity; it has shaped my understanding of
the world and provided me with a sense of urgency.”
Brown has a tradition of
selecting commencement speakers from its graduating students, and Lyddon and
Morales were chosen by the Graduate Student Council. Lyddon will receive his
doctorate in political science and address his fellow doctoral students at the
Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle with a speech entitled “On Making It, and What to
Make of It.” Morales, the son of Mexican immigrants who is earning his master’s
degree in public affairs, will deliver his “Bridging America’s Racial Divide:
Our Privilege in Writing the Next Chapter,” speech to the master’s graduates at
Pembroke Field.
“There are some deep ways that forging on into education changes you,” Lyddon said. “You travel in different circles, and develop different ways of thinking to those predominant in your home community.”
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