{"id":58384,"date":"2016-04-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2016-communication-studies-major-to-be-uri-commencement-student-speaker\/"},"modified":"2016-04-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2016-communication-studies-major-to-be-uri-commencement-student-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/04\/commencement-2016-communication-studies-major-to-be-uri-commencement-student-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2016: Communication studies major to be 溏心vlog免费B站 Commencement student speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 29, 2016 \u2013 Caitlin Runyon said she was suffering from the sophomore slump when she was walking through the Ram\u2019s Den and saw a fellow student sitting alone in the depths of sadness. Instead of walking past him and not saying anything, Runyon decided to sit down and talk. That conversation changed both of their lives. Runyon decided to get more involved on campus, and her lunch partner shook off his homesickness and began to thrive at the 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\nNow well out of her slump, Runyon has been selected as this year\u2019s student commencement speaker. She will present her speech to about 15,000 people \u2013 including roughly 3,000 fellow graduates on Sunday May 22, at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 130th Commencement. <\/p>\n


\n \u201cBecoming the student commencement speaker is a great way to wrap up my experiences at 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d said the Clifton Park, N.Y., native. \u201cI have been asked many times as to why I want to be the student speaker, and it is because I love public speaking. I will never say that public speaking is easy for me; I am always nervous, but I love a challenge, especially one that involves communicating and speaking,\u201d Runyon said. <\/p>\n


\n\tAs a freshman and sophomore, Runyon said she was unsure of her major and had no sense of her future beyond graduation. \u201cI knew that I was going to find my major, I just wasn\u2019t sure how I was going to do it,\u201d she said. \u201cBy exploring different disciplines, I was able to take classes with different professors, and figure out that communication studies was best for me,\u201d Runyon said.<\/p>\n


\nShe has maintained a 3.97 GPA as a communication studies major, with a minor in leadership studies and international relations.<\/p>\n


\nRunyon was able to incorporate her public speaking ability into a leadership minor. During her years at 溏心vlog免费B站, she was also able to travel to other countries for volunteer work as well as feed her passion for helping others.<\/p>\n


\nDuring the summer of 2015, Runyon traveled to Austria to participate in the Salzburg Academy on Global Media and Social Change. There, she worked with peers from around the world to develop media-based solutions for the United Nations, Red Cross, and Global Voices. <\/p>\n


\nOver spring break, she traveled to Santa Fe, N.M., where she worked for Habitat for Humanity, rebuilding houses and working for food depots.<\/p>\n


\nRunyon was also an assistant instructor\/peer mentor for first year leadership development courses at 溏心vlog免费B站 where she also found some of her best friends. <\/p>\n


\n \u201cI am so thankful for the people I have met through my mentoring program. My Ram Family has been there through the ups and downs of my college career,\u201d said Runyon. \u201cMy peers supported and believed in me when I didn\u2019t believe in myself, and I am forever thankful for that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n


\nAfter graduation, Runyon will run a 4K for Cancer, a 49-day, 4,000 mile relay from San Francisco to Baltimore to raise money for the Ulman Cancer Fund for young adults.

\nRunyon hopes to teach and work abroad, and can see herself one day going back to college to pursue a masters in higher education. <\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 photo by Nora Lewis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 29, 2016 \u2013 Caitlin Runyon said she was suffering from the sophomore slump when she was walking through the Ram\u2019s Den and saw a fellow student sitting alone in the depths of sadness. Instead of walking past him and not saying anything, Runyon decided to sit down and talk. That conversation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}