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Wendell Phillips Address at Baccalaureate Ceremony

2026-2027 Nomination Process

Faculty, staff, and students may nominate seniors to apply to be the Wendell Phillips Speaker, and seniors many self-nominate. All nominated students will be invited to submit an application, including a letter of application, a resume of leadership and service activities, and a recorded speech.  Applications are reviewed by the Committee on Student Life (CSL) and finalists will be invited to present brief speeches at an open audition during the spring semester. A winner will be selected and speak at the Baccalaureate Ceremony. This award also carries a cash prize.

The Office of Religious and Philosophical Life (RPL) assists the CSL in the administration of the award. For more information, please contact wendellphillips@tufts.edu.

Timeline for the nomination and selection process   
Monday, November 16, 2026  Nomination form opens 
Monday, December 7, 2026  Nomination form closes at 11:59 p.m. ET 
Tuesday, December 8, 2026  RPL notifies all nominees 
Monday, January 18, 20267   Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. ET 
Monday, February 8, 2027  RPL notifies all finalists and non-finalists 
Monday, March 15, 2027 at 4:00pm  Finalist auditions. All friends and family of the finalists, and anyone in the Tufts community is welcome 
Friday, March 19, 2027  Committee votes, and the Wendell Phillips Speaker is chosen and notified by 5 p.m. ET 
Saturday, May 22, 2027 at 3:00pm  The selected finalist will speak at the 2027 Baccalaureate Ceremony 

 

2026 Wendell Phillips Finalists

Four people smile at the camera

Left to right: Aria Ma, Dhruv Sampat, Jasmine Zoha, Mishaal Hussain

History of the Award

Wendell Phillips was a nineteenth-century attorney, orator, abolitionist, and advocate for women's and Native People's rights. The Wendell Phillips Address is intended to deliver a message to inspire the graduating class and all who are gathered to reflect on how a Tufts education, and specifically the experiences of the graduating senior class, might help make the world a better place through constructive civic engagement.

The Wendell Phillips Award was established in 1896. The award is given annually to a senior who demonstrates both marked ability as a speaker and a high sense of public responsibility. Selected by the Committee on Student Life, the winner is the one graduating senior invited to offer a speech as part of Commencement, and the speech takes place during the Baccalaureate Ceremony. The speech is intended to deliver a message about civic engagement in our time.

 

2025 Wendell Phillips nominees at their audition, Monday, March 10, 2025 at Goddard Chapel. Left to right: Alison Cedarbaum, Nikhil Vooter, Krystal Mutebi, and Ayomide Oloyede.

Previous Wendell Phillips Award Winners

  1. Lawrence H. Parker, 1898
  2. Forrest S. Lunt, 1900
  3. Leon Ryder Maxwell, 1902
  4. Ralph Winfield Currier, 1904
  5. Howard Crandall Mason, 1906
  6. William Andrew Sargent, 1908
  7. Ernest Siegfried Swenson, 1910
  8. Albert W. Swenson, 1914
  9. David Crockett, 1917
  10. Edward Albert Reece, 1923
  11. James Eldridge Nickerson, 1925
  12. Hugh F. McKenna, 1927
  13. Joseph M. Thornton, 1929
  14. Francis J. McNiff, 1932
  15. Edward W. Brouder, 1933
  16. David D. Rose, 1935
  17. Francis S. Doody, 1936
  18. Arthur William Carney, 1937
  19. Winslow W. Blanchard, 1938
  20. Lawrence Freedman, 1939
  21. Donald Bedell, 1940
  22. Albert J. Lewis, 1941
  23. Ralph L. Tucker, 1943
  24. Evelyn M. Tedford, 1945
  25. John Alden Brown, 1946
  26. David E. Townsend and Albert S. Brigham, 1948
  27. Donald W. Morgan, 1950
  28. John A. O’Brien, 1951
  29. Frederick Breitenfeld, Jr., 1952
  30. Dick Goodwin, 1953
  31. Oswald Morris, 1954
  32. William Francis Taylor, Jr., 1957
  33. Paul Perito, 1960
  34. Richard Nisbett, 1961
  35. Donal Tobin, 1963
  36. Deborah Ann Holmes, 1964
  37. Henry Buckley, 1965
  38. John Crawford and Peter Pardo De Zela, 1966
  39. Ellen Frankel, 1967
  40. Stephen Wermiel, 1971
  41. Elizabeth A. Phelan, 1975
  42. Ann Palmieri and Keith Wright, 1976
  43. Otis Holloway, 1978
  44. Ted Tye, 1979
  45. Kent Alexander, 1980
  46. Tom Alperin, 1981
  47. Ricanne Hadrian, 1982
  48. Kevin Thurm, 1983
  49. Mark Ferri, 1984
  50. Eve Lynn Dubrow, 1985
  51. Michael Obadia, 1986
  52. Manar Zarroug, 1987
  53. Michael Epstein, 1988
  54. Dan Feldman, 1989
  55. Myra Frazier, 1990
  56. Jonathan Cutler, 1991
  57. Sharon Wachsler, 1992
  58. Randall Ravitz, 1993
  59. Adam Tratt, 1994
  60. Sarah McGinley, 1995
  61. Ancy Verdier, 1996
  62. Eric Pliner, 1997
  63. Andrea Friedman, 1998
  64. Alex Shalom, 1999
  65. Keshia Pollack, 2000
  66. Thea Lavin, 2001
  67. Michael Ferenczy, 2002
  68. Elaine Wang, 2003
  69. Candace Gomez, 2004
  70. Eitan Hersh, 2005
  71. Mauricio Artinano, 2006
  72. Casey Beck, 2007
  73. Alex Pryor, 2008
  74. Anjali Nirmalan, 2009
  75. David Mok, 2010
  76. Brian Agler, 2011
  77. Allister Chang, Katie Greenman, Sadie Lansdale, and Erin Nicolle, 2012
  78. Kristen Ford, 2013
  79. Jessica Wilson, 2014
  80. Michael Maskin, 2015
  81. Sharad Sagar, 2016
  82. Isabella Kahhale, 2017
  83. Anna Del Castillo, 2018
  84. Ria Mazumdar, 2019
  85. Aram Lee, Kella Merlain-Moffatt, and Leticia Priebe Rocha, 2020
  86. Atrey Bhargava, 2021
  87. Rene LaPointe Jameson, 2022
  88. Isabelle Charles, 2023
  89. Saffiyah Coker, 2024
  90. Ayomide Oloyede, 2025
  91. Dhruv Sampat, 2026