USC announced business administration student Meghan Anand as its 2025 commencement student speaker Monday morning.
Anand will give the student address at the commencement ceremony May 15 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A committee of faculty, staff and student representatives selected Anand after they reviewed applications and conducted interviews with students who applied. The committee then made its final recommendation to Provost Andrew T. Guzman, who made the final decision.
In an interview with Annenberg Media and the Daily Trojan, Anand said she was honored to be selected to represent the class of 2025, adding she hopes to bring her peers together under a uniting message.
“My primary theme throughout the speech is focused on community,” Anand said. “We look at people with our dream job, and we reach out to them and have all these coffee chats, but oftentimes we forget to just talk to the person sitting next to us.”
“We sometimes forget about how far the Trojan family can take us,” she added.
Anand said that the commencement speaker committee reviewed her speech as part of the process. She added that when developing the speech, she met with professors going back to her freshman year to best conceive of a message for her peers.
The university announced in February that it would forgo the traditional valedictorian in favor of a new process seeking to “recognize academic achievement along with other abilities, opening the process to graduating seniors with varying backgrounds, experiences and degree programs.” USC invited graduating seniors with a 3.50 GPA and above and good academic standing to apply and asked them to write a 550-600 word original speech to be considered.
Unlike this year’s approach, USC’s previous valedictorian selection relied on an almost perfect GPA, strong campus and community involvement, and an interview process. Candidates were required to submit a reflective essay, instead of a speech, and demonstrate readiness to deliver a commencement speech.
This change followed the university’s controversial decision last year to cancel the commencement speech of 2024 valedictorian Asna Tabassum. The university cited safety concerns as the reasoning behind the decision after Tabassum faced criticism for linking a pro-Palestine landing page in her personal Instagram bio.
When asked about the controversy surrounding the removal of Tabassum as last year’s commencement speaker, Anand said she was grateful for the opportunity to speak this year and was “focused on the present.”
“There’s a lot of things that can be out of your control, but right now, I’m just feeling very grateful and excited to be giving this speech this year,” Anand said.
A representative from USC PR was present for the entire interview and directed Annenberg Media and the Daily Trojan to their office for any further questions regarding the process behind selecting a speaker.
Anand did not respond directly to last year’s controversy of USC cancelling Tabassum’s speech and students’ dissatisfied response, but offered that she could only control her own thoughts on the matter.
“I honestly can’t really speak to other people’s perspectives that much,” she said. “Obviously, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”
When asked how her identity shapes her experience on campus, Anand said she sees being a student as her primary identity.
“The one thing we can all bond over is being a college student,” Anand said. “In today’s world, it’s just so important to appreciate what can connect all of us.”
Anand grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, a small city southwest of Houston. She will graduate with a minor in legal studies, serves as president of USC Club Golf, and is a member of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, a pre-law professional fraternity.
She said these experiences prepared her to address thousands of Trojans at the Coliseum, alongside director Jon M. Chu, whose original 2024 commencement appearance was canceled following the suspension of USC’s Main Stage ceremony last year. Her most influential moments at the university included switching majors midway through college, going on a Spain Maymester, and taking inspiring courses (she noted Dramatic Arts 421 (Public Speaking as Performance: A Course for Non-Actors as a favorite).
“I learned so many transferable skills and met people in these types of electives that really come from every different discipline,” Anand said. “[It’s] the small things like that that can really change your path, especially in college and at a place like USC, where there’s so many different opportunities.”
After graduation, Anand said she plans to use the skills she learned at USC in the workforce and the community. Professionally, she said she is joining PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a consultant as she prepares to take the LSAT. While back in Texas, she hopes to give back to her community by helping grow regional and economic accessibility to golf with the organization First Tee.
“I just want to be able to build a foundation that’s able to give back to all the organizations, people, and communities that have poured into me, to help me get to where I am and where I’m going to go.”
For Anand, making this commencement speech will culminate her four years in University Park.
“It’s more of just reinsurance that I’m on the right path and doing the right things,” Anand said. “None of this would have been possible without all of the resources I’ve gotten from being a student at USC, and all of the professors I’ve met.”
“Don’t be afraid to reach out to a fellow Trojan,” she added as a final piece of advice for fellow students.