University News

Emily Przybyla Named Student Speaker for 2022 UMass Amherst Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony

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Emily Przybyla
Emily Przybyla

AMHERST, Mass. – Emily Przybyla, a biology major from Ellicott City, Maryland, who spent her college years not only immersed in her studies but also reaching out to help the surrounding community, has been chosen as the UMass Amherst Class of 2022 student speaker. Przybyla will address her classmates at the 2022 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 13, at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

Przybyla loves helping people and volunteered many hours of her time supporting others both in Amherst and at home during periods of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Przybyla attained the Dean’s List every semester and worked as a research assistant in a psychology laboratory. She took advantage of the many opportunities to advise and support her fellow students as a resident assistant, a tutor for the Athletics Department, a teaching assistant in biology and as a peer leader in chemistry.

Her volunteer activities include working for the Amherst Survival Center food pantry and for a food bank in Baltimore. She also spent a summer volunteering in the intermediate care unit of a Maryland hospital. Since January 2021, Przbyla has worked as an EMT in Holyoke, Mass.

While helping others, Przybyla acknowledged that she and her fellow graduates have lived through extraordinary times. “Just think about it – in the past four years, we have lived through the events that will one day populate history books,” she observes.

Following graduation, Przybyla plans to move to Boston and apply to physician assistant programs.