When student speaker Priya Parkash took the stage in Wallace Wade Stadium at Sunday’s Class of 2022 Commencement ceremony, she dubbed the University as its own “Duke nation.”
That metaphor, as well as other elements of the language and structure of Parkash’s speech, bears striking similarities to that of a 2014 Harvard University Commencement speech by Sarah Abushaar.
In her speech, Parkash, Trinity ’22, an international student from Pakistan, described her experience of embracing her “Duke citizenship” over the last four years. Parkash, who previously served as a university news editor for The Chronicle and was a 2022 Undergraduate Young Trustee finalist, called on her fellow graduates to use their Duke education to “spur revolutions.”
