Mary Anne Marks

H/T: J.P. Sonnen.

In April, Harvard’s Commencement Office holds an open speech-writing competition for graduating seniors. Long ago, these orations were given in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, and were mainly thesis defenses. But times have changed, and students now address current issues and events, or speak of lessons learned from their years at Harvard — all in just five minutes (and only one speech is in Latin).

Final auditions involve a live reading in front of an audience and take place in late April. A panel of professors, deans, and other officials measures each candidate; after all, these are the only speeches delivered during the Morning Exercises ceremony, and they have to be good.

Fun fact: Only graduating seniors are given translations of the Latin speech. So unless you’re versed in the ancient language, you’re out of luck.

Mary Anne Marks, Latin oration

Mary Anne Marks (Photo by Kris Snibbe | Harvard Staff Photographer)

Queens, N.Y., native Mary Anne Marks is a classics and English joint concentrator who fell in love with the Latin language by studying Cicero’s Catilinarian Orations. “The links between Latin and Romance languages are fascinating, and, at the same time, Latin has the ability to say things in ways that are not available to Romance languages or to English,” said Marks. “I mused about ideas for the speech for weeks before setting pen to paper, and, once I’d picked a topic, I consulted with friends and acquaintances from various departments to make sure it spoke to their experiences at Harvard.” In the fall, Marks is headed to Ann Arbor, Mich., to enter a community of Catholic teaching nuns called the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, where after three years of classes in the convent on theological and ecclesiastical topics, she’ll attain a teaching certificate at a local university and teach in Catholic schools. “I’ve always thought about being a nun but came to Harvard planning to go to graduate school and perhaps also do some other things before entering,” she recalled. “I decided in January of last year to enter right after college, but a master’s or Ph.D. is still a possibility. One of the exciting things about being a nun is that one never knows what the future holds!”

So wonderful! God bless her! :)

Read more about the Harvard commencement here.