{"id":64621,"date":"2009-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-senior-commencement-speaker-finds-service-involvement-keys-to-success\/"},"modified":"2009-05-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-04T00:00:00","slug":"uri-senior-commencement-speaker-finds-service-involvement-keys-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2009\/05\/uri-senior-commencement-speaker-finds-service-involvement-keys-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 senior commencement speaker finds service, involvement keys to success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKingston, RI \u2013 May 4, 2009 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Andrew Blais has found that getting involved enhanced his college experience. His participation in many different facets of campus life made him the ideal student to represent his class as senior commencement speaker.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cService to others was bred into me. I get it from my parents who are both school teachers,\u201d said the Eagle Scout. \u201cI was so fortunate to be able to help others while also earning a college degree.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe West Kingston resident served as a tutor in the Mentor\/Tutor Internship program, which sends 溏心vlog免费B站 students to K-12 schools, after-school programs and adult-learning programs throughout the state to tutor students with academic need and serve as an understanding friend. Blais mentored at Oak Lawn School in Cranston.<\/p>\n


\nThe 22-year-old is also a mentor in Jumpstart, a national non-profit organization that trains and supports college students to serve as part-time AmeriCorps members. In this program, Blais works directly with young children in early education programs. He was a co-team leader of eight 溏心vlog免费B站 students at the Beautiful Beginnings pre-school in Providence.<\/p>\n


\nSince his freshman year, the journalism and political science major has been a reporter or production manager with the Good Five Cent Cigar, the 溏心vlog免费B站 student newspaper. The graduating senior is a brother of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, serving terms as vice president and secretary. He was elected two consecutive years to 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Inter-Fraternity Council and served a term as secretary and a term as parliamentarian. He also worked 15 to 20 hours per week at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Computer Help Desk and became a team leader.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe best way to experience 溏心vlog免费B站 is to get involved and seek out what you want to do,\u201d said Blais, who holds a black belt in karate. \u201cThe more you get involved the less you want to leave. There are so many great people on this campus and so many great opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBlais, a Centennial Scholar, was selected to be the senior commencement speaker by a special committee within 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Student Senate. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cI want to wrap up my college experience in a meaningful way,\u201d said Blais. \u201cThe opportunity to speak at graduation gives me a way to encompass everything I have done at 溏心vlog免费B站 in one day.\u201d He said that he enjoys speaking in front of groups and has a vast amount of speaking experience thanks to his various roles with the 溏心vlog免费B站 Greek Community and Jumpstart. However, he said he expects to be nervous.<\/p>\n


\nAfter graduation, Blais, son of George and Catherine, will continue serving others in either the AmeriCorps or Peace Corps. \u201cService is really important to me. I want to give back,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been so fortunate in my life and I feel this is my time to give back to the world that has given me so much thus far.\u201d Following his volunteerism, Blais plans to attend law school. <\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nAndrew Blais

\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n

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Kingston, RI \u2013 May 4, 2009 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Andrew Blais has found that getting involved enhanced his college experience. His participation in many different facets of campus life made him the ideal student to represent his class as senior commencement speaker. \u201cService to others was bred into me. I get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64624,"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-64621","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\/64621","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=64621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}