The 38th annual Graduation Speaker Contest for the Class of 2026 was held on Thursday, April 23. Speaking candidates in the contest included Lucas Avery, Amy Barbosa, Miley Fredenburg, Laurel Karp, Jeremy LaDuke, Danyella Sanders, Gavin Schmid, Mekka Vasquez and Ruby Zinnershine.
Judges for the competition included Rich Becker of University at Albany, Erin Breslin of the City Mission, Nathan Johnson from Special Olympics New York Unfied Sports and CBS 6’s Steve LaPointe.
Mekka Vasquez placed first in the competition, and will deliver keynote addresses at this year’s commencement ceremony.
This was a distinguished group of speakers this year who made the judges’ decisions very difficult. Congrats to Mekka and the rest of the competitors.
