Joshua Kuntzman, who is about to graduate from the Gevirtz School’s Department of Education with his Ph.D., has been chosen to be the 2017 Graduate Division Commencement Student Speaker. The event will take place on Sunday, June 18, 4-6 pm on UCSB’s Faculty Club Green.
According to an article on UCSB’s GradPost, Kuntzman desired to speak at commencement “because the state of our world right now has left a lot of people feeling insecure, fearful, and uncertain.” He explained this his commencement speech, entitled “Our World,” is meant to inspire. “I think that people like myself and my fellow graduates need to be reminded regularly—by ourselves and those around us—that we are fortunate to be positioned as leaders in these times: that the world needs our passion, our knowledge-bases, and our good intentions in moving this world toward positive and sustainable directions.”
In addition to finishing up his work focusing on Writing Studies in the Department of Education, Kuntzman is also Program Coordinator of The Crossroads Project, an interdisciplinary research-into-pedagogy program intended to give faculty, graduate students, and undergrads experience with conducting and disseminating research among various academic disciplines and non-specialized audiences.
Kuntzman follows in a tradition of Gevirtz School students honored as UC Santa Barbara Commencement Speakers, including Mario Galicia Jr. in 2015 and Rusha Al-Rawaf in 2013.