Annual Honors Convocation celebrates faculty and student achievements

May 22, 2015

Carleton College will hold its annual Honors Convocation on Friday, May 29 at 3 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. A yearly celebration of faculty and student academic achievement and civic engagement, this year’s Honors Convocation address will be delivered by Grace Ogilby, Carleton Class of 2012. 

A cherished tradition at Carleton, Honors Convocation begins and ends with a full academic procession, including emeriti faculty. Following remarks by President Steven Poskanzer, Dean of the College Beverly Nagel and Dean of Students Hudlin Wagner, the ceremony will honor students and recipients of awards and grants. Honors Convocation is free and open to the public; the event will also be streamed live and archived for future viewing online.

At her own Honors Convocation as a Carleton senior in 2012, Grace Ogilby was the recipient of a prestigious Watson Fellowship. Ogilby’s project, entitled “Breaking the Silence: An Exploration in Women’s Oratory and Activism,” was designed to help women find their own voices to make change in societies that traditionally marginalized them.

With her Watson Fellowship, from July 2012 to July 2013 Ogilby traveled to India, South Africa, Liberia, Romania, Moldova, and Nicaragua. In these places, she worked to help women at a grassroots level, helping women to learn to use public speaking to get what they wanted or needed—whether it was clean water, education for their children, or the right to vote. Her goal, she said, was “to be a culturally sensitive advocate for women and work with them to harness to their voices to make change in their own communities.”

Ogilby’s Watson Fellowship stemmed from her own successes in public speaking. As a student at Carleton, she won numerous international debating tournaments in persuasive speech and was a member of the forensics and mock trials teams.

A month after she returned to the United States following her Watson Fellowship, Ogilby began working on Capitol Hill for Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. Today, she continues to work as a legislative correspondent for the senator, involved in telecommunications and commerce policy and women's rights, helping manage and respond to the thousands of pieces of mail that the Senator gets, and directing his internship program. 

Originally from Massachusetts, Ogilby received a BA in political science and government in 2012. While at Carleton, Ogilby was a student senator, resident assistant, and the president of the rugby team.

This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Convocations Committee. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on the corner of First and College Streets in Northfield.