Union College seniors Sophie Brown and Melissa Murphy became friends during their first week of college in 2019, so for them, it only made sense that they end their college career together.
On Sunday, the best friends will give this year’s student commencement speech together, the first time two students have given the speech in Union College history.
“Everyone has been pretty excited about it,” said Brown, a Connecticut native who studied Visual Arts with a dual concentration in both art history and studio fine arts.
Earlier in the year, this shared speech was not the plan. In fact, Brown and Murphy had no idea that the other was interested in giving a speech at all.
“Originally, the two of us were thinking about doing it separately and it wasn’t really a topic of discussion among the two of us — it was something we kept to ourselves,” Brown said. “It was over our spring break when we had a chance to connect and talk about the end of school and whatnot, we both expressed this common interest both of us had. We were like, why not try to do it together?”
So, the duo applied together.
The selection process was lengthy. First, the students had to send their speech to the school administration. Then, they had to undergo two audition rounds before a student committee finally selected them for the honor.
Despite the rigorous process, Brown and Murphy had little trouble writing their speech together.
“It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be,” said Rhode Island native Murphy, who will be graduating with a degree in biomedical engineering. “We had pretty similar ideas of what we wanted to do and say.”
In the speech, the two will emphasize their friendship, which bloomed quickly despite their supposed differences in academics, extracurriculars and other interests.
“I’m a visual arts major, she’s a STEM major; she’s an athlete, I’m not; I’m part of Greek life and she’s not,” Brown said.
Brown and Murphy hope to encourage others to look past “labels” and see people for who they really are rather than the “categories” they have been placed into.
“You should view people as deeper than that,” Murphy said. “Our friendship is based off of our morals and principles and how we both value our quality time together. It’s not based on what we do or what achievements we have.”
The friends credit this dynamic with the curriculum organization of Union College, which, already a small school that allows people to get to know one another quickly, boasts an interdisciplinary liberal arts education that requires students to take courses outside of their majors and fields.
Because the students are allowed to branch out in this way, Brown says they had the chance to find friends of different backgrounds and ways of thinking.
“I didn’t declare my major until my sophomore year so I wasn’t really making friends based off of my academic path, it was just the people who I thought aligned with me best,” Brown said.
Murphy went into Union with a decided major, but she still had a similar experience.
“I was forced to take classes outside of my tech, STEM, science classes so I met people I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise,” Murphy said. “[It] was really advantageous for me because I was able to see a whole different range of people.”
After their speech, the duo hopes that people will walk away with a motivation to become friends with those they would never expect.
“You might not think you have anything in common with someone, but after a 10-minute conversation, you realize you have a lot in common, or you can talk about something, or you can find some commonalities between people,” Murphy said.
After graduation, Brown will head to New York City to pursue a career in the art market, and Murphy will attend Tufts University in Massachusetts to earn a master’s degree in innovation and management. The pair, who say they have practically “lived on top of each other” and “have built their own little lives” for the past four years, are sad to part ways but are excited for what the future holds for each other.
“It’s a huge transitional period especially for our friendship and individually, ” Murphy said. “I’m excited to see where we’ll be but definitely sad.”
Union College’s commencement will take place this Sunday at 10 a.m. at Roger Hull Plaza, between Schaffer Library and the Nott Memorial. Tickets are not required, and the ceremony will be broadcast live. More details can be found at union.edu.
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