2017 College Graduation Speakers

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, C’85, was the guest speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony for the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences, held on May 14. Egan’s most recent novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. She is the author of four other books and numerous stories, and has also received honors for her nonfiction writing.

Student speaker Ivan Sandoval, C’17, of McFarland, California, was a science, technology, and society major with a minor in Latin American studies. Sandoval is a recipient of the Wharton Innovation Fund Award and a Collaboration Conundrum grant recipient from the University of Notre Dame. He was elected to the Undergraduate Assembly and is a member of the Cipactli Latino Honor Society. Sandoval is interested in public service and entrepreneurship and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in the history of science or science studies.