Sweta Giri had never heard about Nicholas Kristof, but one bit of information from a friend told her all she needed to know.

“He writes about Cambodia,” her friend told her. “You’ll like him.”

That was enough for Giri, a senior sociology major with a minor in Southeast Asian studies, to get excited about Syracuse University’s choice for the 2013 commencement speaker.

Kristof, a New York Times columnist, will give the 2013 commencement address to SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students on May 12 in the Carrier Dome.

Kristof has worked for The New York Times since 1984, and has won two Pulitzer Prizes: one in 2006 for his columns on the genocide in Darfur and one in 1990 for his joint coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn.

During his career, Kristof has reported on six continents and lived in four. He has also visited more than 140 countries, all 50 states, every province in China and every main island in Japan.

This international perspective is why Giri said she thinks Kristof will make a good speaker.

“If he talks not just about America, but the whole world and highlights different events in other countries, I think it will be good,” she said.

SU has many students from around the world, and if Kristof is able to touch on a variety of different countries in his talk, it will bring the senior class together, she said.

But other SU seniors think Kristof is a good choice for only a small group of students on campus.

“It’s really exciting for Newhouse kids, but if you’re an engineering major, you might not be as happy,” said Jessica Alessandra, a senior advertising major.

Aaron Sorkin’s commencement speech last year will be hard to top, but Alessandra said Kristof is “still cool.”

Sam Marji, a senior health and exercise science major agreed, and said she had never heard of Kristof. However, she said she thinks Kristof’s talk can still be successful and reach a lot of students if it’s more general.

“It depends on what he talks about,” she said. “If he talks about life after college, I can relate to that, but if he talks about journalism, then for my major, it wouldn’t really apply.”

Jen Camasso, a senior health and exercise science major, said she didn’t know who Kristof was and would have preferred Ellen DeGeneres or Jimmy Kimmel as the commencement speaker, though she admits her picks would be hard to arrange.

Said Camasso: “I just hope he’s funny.”

Published on March 5, 2013 at 12:20 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta