to speak at Harvard graduation
MISSOULA (AP)
Missoula native Liz Carlisle
graduates from Harvard on
Thursday with 1,600 classmates,
but she is one of only
three students chosen to given
a speech.
Carlisle, 21, auditioned for
the chance with a speech titled
“Expedition Harvard,” a
seven-minute talk in which she
compared her exploration of
Harvard to the 1804-06 Lewis
and Clark expedition.
“This is one of those things
that I threw my hat in the ring
for, but I honestly didn’t think
it was going to happen,” she
said.
Another speaker was chosen
from among those receiving
graduate degrees and a
third will deliver a speech in
Latin.
Carlisle, a 2002 Missoula
Hellgate graduate and singer
and songwriter, majored in
ethnomusicology a study of
music as culture.
Carlisle has two albums,
“Half & Half,” and “Five Star
Day.” She says giving a speech
is like
singing.
“The words live between
the performer and the audience,”
she said. “It’s not
whether I sing the right note,
but it’s about how that note
connects me to another person.
If you are tuned into that
connection, the note can’t be
wrong.”
Her parents, Lynn and Ray
Carlisle, are traveling to
Cambridge, Mass., for the
school’s 355th graduation.
They admire their daughter’s
calm.
“She’s not nervous,” her
mom said. “I don’t understand
that. I’d be terrified.”
Ray Carlisle credits his
wife for their daughter’s confidence.
“Lynn had this incredible
gift, this knowledge, about how
important it is to give positive
reinforcement to your kids,”
he said. “She was always
praising her for things that
seemed small. As a small kid,
3, 4, 5 years old, she gained so
much self-confidence from
hearing that message over and
over.
“That’s a big challenge for
parents because when your
kids are little, you want to correct
them for all kinds of terri-
ble things they do,” he said.
Liz Carlisle said she was
inspired to audition for the graduation
speech after asking herself
what she valued during the past
four years at college.
“What would I want to share?”,
she said. “People have a lot of anxiety
leading up to this transition.”
She said her thoughts turned to
Lewis and Clark, whose travels
went through Missoula.
The two men would have died if
they had been too rigid in their
exploration, she said. It will be
part of her message to her fellow
classmates.
“We don’t have to have everything
figured out,” she said.
“Everything is inherently new.”
On the Net:
Liz Carlisle:
http://lizcarlisle.com
