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Class Day Orators Selected

Four seniors with plans to deliver speeches with styles serious, humorous and melodious have been named Class Day speakers, the Class Day speeches committee announced yesterday.

Sharmil S. Modi '99 will deliver the Harvard Oration, which is always given by a male undergraduate, and Molly J. Hennessy-Fiske '99 will deliver the Radcliffe Oration, its female counterpart.

Noam I. Weinstein '99 will deliver the traditionally humorous Ivy Oration, and George W. Hicks '99-'00 has written the Class Ode, which will be sung to the tune of "Fair Harvard" on Class Day.

A seven-member speech committee chose the orators from a pool of about 40 applicants, according to selection committee co-chair Danielle A. Hootnick '99.

Writers of the Harvard and Radcliffe speeches had carte blanche in choosing their topics, Hootnick said.

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"They can be about just about anything," she said. "There was a range of topics from people's personal experiences to their families to world issues and religious issues."

Modi said his oration is about "humility and staying true to things that were important to you as a child" and will reflect on the lessons he learned during his time at the College.

"I came here on top of the world, like I think a lot of people come here, and like most people I was very quickly humbled to the point where I absolutely hated life here," said Modi, who originally hails from Cleveland, Ohio.

"You come out of that slowly and find your little niche," added Modi.

At Harvard, he has served as president of the South Asian Association and is senior class treasurer.

Hennessy-Fiske said her speech would touch on women's issues, in particular.

"It's mainly dealing with the challenges that women are going to have to face in leaving this school that are to face in leaving this school that areparticular to our point in time," saidHennessy-Fiske, who said her speech will touch onthe upcoming millennium and Radcliffe's changingrole in the University.

Since Class Day planners said they do not knowwhether the tradition will continue now that thecolleges have announced their intention to merge,Hennessy-Fiske's speech may be the last Radcliffeoration.

"No one's really sure, but in case this is, itwill probably say something like 'This could bethe last one,'" said speech selection committeeco-chair Kimble Poon '99.

Hennessy-Fiske, who is also a Crimson editor,said her speech will speak to students like a"voice in the crowd."

"I really wanted it to be something that wouldappeal more to people's personal experiences andto their unguarded selves than to their finelytuned academic minds," said Hennessy-Fiske, asocial studies concentrator from Albany, N.Y.

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