May 9 , 2005 Print this page

Senior Julie Pompizzi is La Salle’s Commencement Speaker

Julie Pompizzi, like any college senior, knows a little something about change. She and her fellow La Salle University graduates have watched each other grow from wide-eyed freshmen to seasoned seniors. So it’s no wonder that when it came time to compose her entry in the competition to deliver the University’s commencement speech, Pompizzi reflected on that theme of transformation. “I wanted to tell my fellow graduates to have courage and hope in the face of change and to take what we have learned and keep it with us while things around us are changing and as we ourselves are changing,” Pompizzi said. “We shouldn’t be scared of that.”

Pompizzi graduated from La Salle on May 15 with a degree in Communication and English. She was selected as the University’s commencement speaker after a competition during which about 10 graduating students delivered their speeches before a panel of La Salle faculty and staff. She said she decided to submit a speech for consideration after several professors and students suggested that she would be a good representative for her class.

While at La Salle, Pompizzi has taken part in the Resident Student Association, served as a chair of the Judicial Board, been co-editor for the commentary section of the student newspaper, the Collegian, worked as a writing fellow, and served on the Communication Department’s Student Board. She’s also been a peer educator, held a part-time job at Old Navy, and served as both the director of public relations and a local director for National Student Partnerships, a volunteer service organization that provides communities with resources on jobs, housing, benefits, child care, and other issues.

“Julie’s voice, on behalf of her fellow students in all her leadership and service roles in the University community, has been a very effective one,” said
La Salle Dean of Students Joseph Cicala, Ph.D. “I’m confident that her voice and her message will be inspiring as she speaks on behalf of her fellow students at our Commencement exercises.”

For her many accomplishments at La Salle, Pompizzi was awarded the 2005 Joseph F. Flubacher Award for Outstanding Leadership.

“What I’ve loved about La Salle is being able to participate in so many activities and take a leadership role,” she said. “I’ve developed a lot of skills and watched myself grow.”

Pompizzi, who grew up in Upper Darby and attended Archbishop Prendergast High School, is considering graduate school or a job in event planning after graduation. She’s also been hard at work creating a nonprofit organization that would introduce a unique after-school program to high schools.

The idea for the nonprofit came from Pompizzi’s experiences in courses for her minor in Leadership and Global Understanding, through which she has traveled to Thailand, Hong Kong, and Chile. The nonprofit would introduce the concepts of service, intercultural studies, and travel to high school sophomores and juniors, culminating in a travel-study experience during the first week of summer. She and two other La Salle students, junior Beth Myers and sophomore Mike Farrell, are now working on fundraising and on finding a school district willing to participate in the nonprofit’s pilot program.

Of her speech Pompizzi said, “It’s written specifically for the students, because it’s their day,” she said. “I wanted to keep the focus on the students, to keep the limelight on the people who have done the hard work to get to this day.”