Vikram Singh, Patricia Feraud-King Named Student Speakers for UMass Amherst Commencement 2023

A computer science major with a passion for using his technical expertise to benefit the community and a doctoral candidate and mother who advocated for family-friendly workspaces for her fellow graduate students will represent the undergraduate and graduate classes of 2023, respectively, as student speakers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 26.

UMass Amherst re-envisioned this year’s Commencement so the campus can celebrate the entire Class of 2023 — both undergraduate and graduate students — at one ceremony that begins at 9 a.m. at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

Undergraduate Speaker

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Vikram Singh, of Antioch, Calif., is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

While qualifying for the dean’s list every semester, Singh applied his considerable technical expertise and his passion for mobile technology and programming to lead two software-centered student organizations and win top prizes in university hackathons.

He founded the UMass Mobile Development Club and was the president of BUILD, an organization through which students hone their professional skills while offering pro-bono computer services to benefit the community.

Singh has developed several apps, including PullUp, which allows users to create and join secure real-world study groups. PullUp was recognized at HackUMass as best mobile app and best use of Google Cloud. Singh’s latest app is Evolve AI, a goal-planning tool that lets users skip the planning phase for their goals by using AI technology to do it for them.

While at UMass, Singh worked as a resident assistant and had summer internships at Liberty Mutual Insurance and at Lyft. After Commencement, he is excited to begin his career in iOS software engineering with the goal of creating intuitive and impactful applications that people love to use.

Graduate Speaker

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Patricia “Tita” Feraud-King of Worcester earned her doctorate in higher education and a certificate in social justice education while becoming a mother and vigorously advocating for the success of her fellow students through her activism in graduate student organizations.

Feraud-King received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and her Master of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

At UMass Amherst, she helped create a more family friendly workspace for graduate students who are parents, demonstrating that parenthood and scholarship can coexist. Having presented her research on social justice in education at many conferences, she spoke at the prestigious annual conference of the American Educational Research Association with her three-month-old in her arms. Her daughter later accompanied her to dissertation boot camp.

Prior to the pandemic and before such programs were widely available, Feraud-King conducted anti-racism training for 500 UMass Amherst resident assistants and peer mentors. For this and related efforts, she received the UMass Amherst Commitment to Diversity Graduate Student Award.

After graduation, she plans to continue to work for diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education.