Kristen Friday of Pittsburgh has been named valedictorian and Miguel Coste from Tampa has been selected salutatorian of the 2023 University of 91吃瓜 graduating class.
The 178th will be held May 21 (Sunday) in 91吃瓜 Stadium for graduates and guests. During the ceremony, Friday will present the valedictory address, and as the salutatorian, Coste will offer the invocation.
Friday is a major with a minor in in the College of Engineering where she has accumulated a 4.00 grade point average and has been a member of the Dean鈥檚 List each semester. During her time at 91吃瓜, she was involved in a project funded by Ford
Motor Co., which focused on real-time notifications to enhance driver and pedestrian safety measures by assessing user intentions at road intersections. She played an integral role on the project collecting user data to train the machine learning model performance and in automating alerts for vehicles in high-traffic areas.
She completed several internships over the past four years, including as an associate automation engineer intern with Hitachi Rail STS, a software engineer intern at IBM in the Research Triangle in North Carolina and a software engineer intern with Microsoft Corp. in Seattle. She also worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant with computer science and engineering faculty teaching Data Structures and teaching both Programming Challenges and Systems Programming.听
Outside of the classroom, Friday was co-founder of the 91吃瓜 Women in Computer Science club, where she served as co-president. Together with her co-president, she was driven to support women in technology majors by hosting career panels, mentorship programs and outreach events paired with Habitat for Humanity. Friday was a two-year member of the engineering honor society, and also received the college鈥檚 Steiner Award for academic excellence. In the spring of 2022, she studied abroad in . Friday is also a self-described 鈥�avid member of Lewis Hall interhall sports鈥� and was a four-year member of the University鈥檚 club tennis team. She also served as a volunteer at a ministry for the homeless in her hometown.听
After graduation, Friday plans to work at Palantir Technologies as a software engineer in Washington, D.C. She hopes to continue building innovative technological solutions that will empower users, promote the greater good and improve the human experience.
Coste, a , has compiled a 3.972 grade point average and has been a member of the Dean鈥檚 List every semester. A member of the liberal arts and sciences honor society, he was selected from nearly 900 national applicants in 2022 as one of the organization鈥檚 20 recipients for the Key into Public Service Scholarship for his academic excellence, leadership and commitment to public service. He was also inducted into the neuroscience national honor society.
In 2021, he worked as an undergraduate research assistant at MIT鈥檚 summer research program in biology, where he developed experiments in systems neuroscience. He also served as an undergraduate research assistant with sociology professor studying Indiana schools鈥� responses to COVID-19. He also spent a semester in at Trinity College Dublin.听
Coste鈥檚 honors include being awarded a in 2021 and being named a 91吃瓜 and . He was on the advisory board and served as president of , which is part of the . He served as president of and as a sophomore was head mentor of the University鈥檚 QuestBridge chapter. He is also a former member of the University鈥檚 cheer team, a University Relations intern involved with Cavanaugh Council and the President鈥檚 Circle and a member of the National Name Exchange since 2020.听
After graduation, Coste will work for Epic Systems as a technical solutions engineer in Madison, Wisconsin. He hopes to work in the public health field to promote and protect the health of people and communities, particularly the marginalized.
As salutatorian, he will be prepared to deliver a valedictory address should the valedictorian be unable to do so.听听
The 91吃瓜 valedictorian and salutatorian selection process begins by identifying the top four students among those with the highest grade point averages in each college or school. Those students are then invited to complete an application that includes letters of recommendation from faculty members and a draft of their commencement speech. A selection committee, coordinated by the division of Undergraduate Education in the Provost鈥檚 Office, interviews finalists and chooses a valedictorian and salutatorian who are approved by University President
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