Joseph Claghorn selected as Harvard Commencement student orator
Joseph Claghorn, who will receive his Master of Landscape Architecture degree next month, has been selected as one of three graduating student orators to address 32,000 students, faculty, parents, alumni/ae, and guests at Harvard University Commencement on June 4, 2009. Claghorn’s Oration in English, was selected from a pool of entries, which was followed by two rounds of oral auditions.
As soon as the first anthem concludes during Morning Excercises, a senior strides to the microphone and announces, Salvete omnes! What follows is one of the oldest of Harvard traditions - an oration in Latin. Then a graduating senior, followed by a representative from one of the graduate or professional schools, deliver orations in English. The original purpose of these orations was to defend one’s thesis but, over time, topics have broadened and may now address important issues, current events, or lessons learned from personal experiences at Harvard or in the wider world.
Claghorn distinguished himself by receiving the GSD Dean’s Merit Scholarship for his Studioworks project in Fall 2008 and participated in option studios in Sardinia, Italy in Fall 2008 and in Sao Paulo, Brazil in Spring 2009. He also served as a teaching fellow at the GSD for the past two semesters, assisting with studio and landscape architecture history courses and managing course web sites and course communications. He earned a Master of Architecture degree from Georgia Institute of Technology where he was awarded the Henry Adams AIA Medal and Certificate (highest ranked graduate from the program), Honorable Mention for the Portman Studio Prize, and First Place for the Big River Industries Studio Prize. Claghorn earned his Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Brigham Young University. While at the GSD, he served as a designer in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Physical Resources and Planning Department where he designed conceptual plans and images for the Harvard Urban Farm, Barker Center Garden and various Harvard FAS projects. He also devised graphical representation to document existing physical resources of the school and space allocation proposals. Two personal accomplishments include walking over 200 miles coast to coast across Northern England and climbing to the highest point in 14 out of 50 U.S. states with a goal of attaining the highest point in all 50 states.