Ana Yoselin Bugallo '03 was announced as the Senior Class Speaker, this past weekBugallo, known as Yos to many, is currently the Student Union secretary and an active member of the Brandeis Community. "The honor is tremendous, and I hope I can capture just a few of the sentiments of my graduating class in a five-minute speech," Bugallo said.

Bugallo said she plans on focusing her speech on the histories and triumphs of the University throughout the years, to convey "a sense of the courage, bravery, fear, anxiety, hope and just plain guts it takes to incite meaningful and tangible institutional change." Calling upon the memories of Brandeis' past activist roots, of which Ford Hall was a cornerstone, she said she hopes to remind her class of campus activism, "which have gone recognized in our history."

The selection procedure used by the University to pick the senior class speaker has been in place for 10 years. The process begins with Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer, who forms a committee of faculty and student representatives in October that he chairs as a non-voting participant. Of the eight students who serve on the committee, four are predetermined student leaders: the Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees, the Senior Representative to the Alumni Board and the two senior senators. The four additional students who sit on the committee are chosen from a randomly generated list of names. "It is nice to have four seniors who are from outside the student leadership, because that was the original intent - to truly represent the student body," Sawyer said.

The committee is charged with the task of "picking an essay topic that is fresh which will hopefully create thought and creativity," Sawyer added.

The entire senior class is then informed of the procedures and is invited to submit a two-page essay on the topic for review by the committee in the beginning of the spring semester. The committee reviews the applications without knowing the identity of the authors and selects approximately 10 semi-finalists. Then, the identities of the authors are revealed and the senior class is given a 48-hour voting period where the top five vote getters move on to the final round of review. In the final round of review, the finalists come before the committee and deliver a five-minute address. That evening, the committee votes on who the senior class speaker will be.

This year's essay topic, in the words of Sawyer, was "what charge would you give the Class of 2003 given all you have been through at Brandeis University." All of the 10 semi-final essays had some commonness, according to Sawyer. "Some passion, some writing skills, some readability, and some message to the community," he said

Bugallo's essay "had an idea and a presence that caught the attention of the class - a shared feeling," Sawyer said.

Bugallo will be graduating from Brandeis with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Women's Studies. She plans on returning home after Commencement to eastern Long Island to work as a community liaison for the emerging Latino population in her school district. Before she does so, however, Bugallo said she plans on inspiring her fellow classmates to "take a piece of this Brandeis legacy with them," and to remind us all where we have come from.