Boise State will continue its tradition of featuring student speakers at commencement — finance and accountancy major Clancy Johnston for the morning celebration, and Rhodes Scholar finalist Rachel Elena Gallina in the afternoon.
Gallina graduates with honors from Boise State with a bachelor’s in multidisciplinary studies, focused on economics political science, gender studies, and an Arabic studies minor. During her tenure at Boise State, Gallina has worked as an Albanian refugee interpreter; she worked with the Mary Ellen Ryder Linguistics lab to help launch a communication app designed to help local service providers better engage with Boise’s refugee community; and she returned to Kosovo where she was raised, to develop an English language curriculum and teach women’s empowerment classes. Gallina won the prestigious Boren Scholarship and was a 2017 Harry S. Truman Scholar for Idaho.