This year, the graduation commencement speaker will be Pacific University’s own Dr. Juliet Brosing. Brosing, a professor of physics, was awarded Pacific’s Distinguished University Professor award in 2015 and will retire at the end of this 2016-2017 school year.
“This is most definitely an honor,” Brosing said. “It will be my second time in nearly 20 years I will be able to give this speech.”
She is excited to be the one to send off the graduates this year and be the speaker on behalf of the faculty. Normally commencement speakers are limited to giving a five to seven minute speech, but Brosing is not worried about going too long.
“My plan is go short,” Brosing said. “No one is interested in what we have to say, I know that. They just want to get to the graduates.”
Brosing said she is not too worried with this type of public speaking.
“After 30 years of teaching, you’re doing it all the time,” Brosing said. “There is definitely still an adrenaline rush though.”
Though she was rushed to get the final draft of her speech in on time, Brosing was able to get her entire speech planned out and written in just one week.
“I would just leave it up on my computer desktop and work on it whenever my thoughts hit me,” Brosing said. “I feel prepared and ready.”
However, Brosing said she is not excited to sit through the beginning of graduation because before every speech, the speaker is introduced and their awards are read off.
“Who is actually good at sitting there quietly while taking compliments or having their awards read off,” Brosing said. “It gets awkward.”
Aside from the many different awards given to her by the university, Brosing was proud to receive the Professor of the Year award for the state of Oregon in 2012. Competing against professors from schools all around Oregon each year, Brosing is the only Pacific professor to ever be given the award. In the end, only one thing worries Brosing.
Due to her impending retirement from Pacific, she is worried she will be overcome with emotions.
“This is the best job in the world,” Brosing said. “I am so happy I got to do it for so long.”
Leave a Reply