Alexis Sanchez, ’25, La Salle’s 2025 undergraduate commencement speaker, found her voice by saying yes—even when life said no.

There are thousands of ways to measure success. GPA. Honors. Job offers. Titles. But for Alexis Maria Sanchez, ’25, success looks a little different: It looks like her father sitting in a VIP seat at McCarthy Stadium, completely unaware that the daughter he raised will soon step onto the commencement stage to deliver a speech that honors an entire graduating class—and her personal journey. 

It’s a fitting end to a college career built on hope, resilience, and sweating—just a few times—inside the foam Explorer’s mascot suit at events from the John E. Glaser Arena to Citizens Bank Park.  

Raised in Kensington, one of Philadelphia’s most under-resourced neighborhoods, Sanchez grew up navigating uncertainty—about safety, about access, and about whether a young woman like herself from a family unfamiliar with higher education could thrive in a space like La Salle. 

Now, four years later, she’s not only graduating as a marketing and finance double major, but she’s walking into McCarthy Stadium as La Salle University’s undergraduate commencement speaker for the class of 2025. The moment is more than symbolic; it’s deeply personal.  

Sanchez is a first-generation college student, the eldest child in a family she’s long helped care for, and someone who often kept her accomplishments to herself—not out of shame but out of a quiet determination to let her hard work speak first. While this spring, her name appeared in inboxes across campus announcing her selection, she hadn’t told anyone in her family yet. She wants it to be a surprise. Because this moment isn’t just hers, it belongs to her father. It belongs to her younger siblings, who now see what’s possible. And it belongs to the students who come from neighborhoods like hers, who deserve to see someone like themself on that stage. 

During her time at La Salle, Sanchez did what she has always done best: she said yes. 

• Yes to the Academic Discovery Program, which provided not just support but belief. 

• Yes to studying abroad, even when the airline promptly lost her luggage on her first night in Paris (no makeup, no clothes, no backup plan—but a whole new wardrobe by daybreak). 

• Yes to becoming chapter president of Gamma Iota Sigma, where she worked to rebuild a student organization from scratch while attending national conferences in Ohio and Indiana. 

• Yes to playing club volleyball, coaching younger athletes at her old high school, and making time to journal along Kelly Drive whenever the weight of it all felt a little too heavy. 

And yes, most memorably, to donning the La Salle Explorer suit—a decision that led her from dancing at Atlantic 10 Conference tournaments to ringing the NASDAQ bell in Times Square. Behind the giant mascot smile, though, there was always more. 

Sanchez learned to navigate networking events that once felt out of reach, fighting the creeping voice of imposter syndrome until it faded into confidence.  

“I used to think rooms like that weren’t built for people like me,” Sanchez said. “Now, I know I belong anywhere I choose to walk into.” 

She found joy in small wins—getting ready for her first leadership conference, mentoring students, seeing her community reflected in the bright faces of younger Explorers. She found professors who believed in her before she fully believed in herself.  

One of her funniest memories? Sitting, fully suited as the Explorer, across from President Daniel J. Allen, Ph.D., in a quiet room in College Hall and having a serious conversation about family, dreams, and Puerto Rico. 

Her final event as the Explorer took place at Citizens Bank Park in April 2025, standing in the Hall of Fame Club, the city skyline stretching out before her. For a few quiet minutes, Sanchez reflected on everything this journey had given her—the friendships, the battles fought quietly, the dreams that somehow, against all odds, had come true. This May 10, there will be no suit. No mask. She will walk onto the stage not hidden behind a costume but standing fully as herself. 

“Everything I do is not just for me,” Sanchez said. “It’s for the people who believe in me, even when they don’t fully know everything I’m working for. It’s for every kid who needs to see that it’s possible.” 

– Rafiga Imanova, MBA ’25