College Announces 2012 Graduation Speakers

Paul Hendrickson will be the guest speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony for the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. Hendrickson, a critically acclaimed, best-selling author, is a senior lecturer in the Department of English and affiliated with the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing. The event, scheduled for Sunday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m. at Franklin Field, will also feature Jennifer Dailey, C’12, as the student speaker.

Paul Hendrickson’s most recent book, Hemingway's Boat, was a 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for biography as well as a New York Times best-seller. His previous book, Sons of Mississippi, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in general nonfiction and the Heartland Prize presented annually by the Chicago Tribune. Hendrickson is also a recipient of the University’s Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Before joining the Penn faculty, Hendrickson worked as a feature writer for the Washington Post for more than two decades. Hendrickson has degrees in American literature from St. Louis University and Penn State. He is currently working on a book about Frank Lloyd Wright.

Jennifer Dailey, from Broomall, Pennsylvania, is majoring in physics with a concentration in chemical principles. Dailey, who is a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and University Scholar, has an extensive track record of accomplishment in science, including working in the lab of Physics Professor A.T. Charlie Johnson since her freshman year and co-authoring two scientific papers. She has also pursued independent research on the use of carbon nanotube transistors in the detection of Lyme disease—work that she presented at the American Physical Society in 2011. Daily was also a volunteer at a cancer ward at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and served as a member of the Stouffer College House Steering Committee throughout her career at Penn. Following graduation, Dailey will work in a clinical immunology lab at the National Eye Institute through an NIH research training award program and later hopes to pursue an MD/PhD. 

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