May 19, 2015

The Oregonian shines light on student’s message to fellow grads

The Oregonian, the state’s largest daily newspaper, took to its Sunday pages to share student commencement speaker Yash Desai’s message to the Class of 2015: We must lift up those less privileged than we.

Following his remarks as student speaker at this year’s College of Arts and Sciences commencement ceremony, Davis United World College Scholar Yash Desai ’15 spoke with The Oregonian’s Richard Read about his journey to—and through—Lewis & Clark, and what the ambitious grad has planned next.

As Read writes, “Desai, 21, a student from south of Mumbai, India, captured the heady emotions of pride, gratitude, humility, and idealism that fill the hearts of many students graduating across Oregon this season. But as one of the 9 percent of international students in Lewis & Clark’s Class of 2015, Desai brought a perspective that may have surprised some of his 499 classmates.”

According to Desai, who has accepted a position with a financial-services firm in the Portland area, Lewis & Clark played a profound role in shaping his evolving worldview, all while giving him opportunities to build relationships, have fun, and work with stellar faculty.

“Prior to college, I attended a boarding school in the middle of a 150-acre biodiversity reserve in rural India—and it’s difficult to find anything more tight-knit than that,” the economics major shared in an interview with Lewis & Clark. “But I’m proud to say that the relationships I’ve made here are far stronger than the ones that I made there, and have resulted in some of the happiest moments of my life.”

 

Read The Oregonian article Davis UWC Scholars Interview with Yash Desai