USC communication major and football player Kash Amos will deliver the student address for the Class of 2026 at this year’s commencement ceremony, the university announced Monday morning.
Amos will speak Thursday night at the main stage commencement ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. This marks the second consecutive year a committee has selected a student speaker through applications and interviews.
In an interview with Annenberg Media, Amos said he got the call from Provost Andrew T. Guzman about two weeks ago.
“At that point, it felt surreal,” Amos said. “I was always optimistic, but on the call it hit me that it was official.”
Amos began his college football career playing at NCAA Division III Whittier College, roughly 20 miles southeast of USC. When Whittier discontinued its football program at the conclusion of his freshman season, Amos transferred to Fullerton College to continue his football career, where he ultimately graduated with five associate degrees.
Amos joined USC’s football team in 2024 — the culmination of a plan he made years before.
“Throughout that journey, I visited USC my freshman year of college and I knew I wanted to come here,” Amos said. “Being so far away from my actual hometown, being at USC felt like home the moment I stepped on campus.”
Originally from Chicago, Amos said the move across the country shaped his outlook on opportunity.
“A lot of people called me crazy … I moved out here with my whole life in six suitcases,” Amos said. “Being from a marginalized community in Chicago, coming out here, a lot of people look up to me. I hope there’s people looking at me saying, ‘Hey, if he can do it, I can do it.’”
Beyond the classroom and the football field, Amos served as a USC Annenberg Ambassador, a Student-Athlete Senate liaison and partnered with USC Athletics and USC Shoah Foundation to promote mental health awareness.
Amos said he hopes his involvement on campus makes his speech relatable to many people, and gives the crowd a message to hold onto. He plans to return to USC in the fall to begin his master’s degree in social entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business.
“I’m glad that I’m able to be a part of so many communities,” Amos said. “This honor is bigger than me. It’s a representation for a lot of people.”
Two years ago, he delivered the student commencement speech at his graduation from Fullerton College, an experience he said changed the way he approached this year’s address.
“First off, [I’ll work on] annunciation,” he joked. “But this time around, my speech is not about me at all, it’s about everybody else. This is about all of us.”
Amos said he hopes to be interactive, engaging and fun to listen to, but most of all to bridge people together.
“Everybody is going through things,” Amos said. “No matter your background or culture, we’re all in the same school, we all go up on the same stage, this is a big moment.”