Student Commencement Speaker Lyndea Kelleher: 'They make you believe in yourself here'

Lyndea Kelleher has a big grin and warm eyes, and seems totally comfortable in the half-dozen roles she fills as a 23-year-old born and raised Alaskan.

She jokes that one day she wants to be mayor, and she's only half-kidding. She wants to do the work that a mayor does, with or without that title. Her goal: Be a force to transform her hometown with progressive policies that bring more and more people to the leadership and decision-making table.

Lyndea (pronounced Lindee) is a graduating senior finishing up a major in economics and a minor in philosophy. But she won't just walk across the stage and pick up a diploma this May; she's speaking at the event, honored as the singular student commencement speaker. Stress city, right? Relax ... Lyndea's speech is already written, and it is as authentic and personable as she is. She's using the moment to reflect on how UAA transformed her from a wary and drifting college student to the focused Seawolf she became, leading or representing her peers across campus and across the state.

So let's take a look at some of those demanding roles - juggling responsibility and commitment to campus and community causes she believes in deeply.

Volunteer for the hard stuff

At the apex of her college career, she's working as the USUAA assembly business manager while holding down two internships - one with the Anchorage Assembly, researching bike lane costs and transportation best practices as an intern with Assembly member John Weddleton, and another with a research group at the state's Department of Revenue, Tax Division. That work, which continues through summer, has meant doing ad hoc financial analysis for legislative revenue ideas. It also included organizing and presenting at the state's annual all-day oil price forecasting session held every October. For an oil state like Alaska, this is D-Day.

"I was terrified!" Lyndea said, eyes wide. "My boss from Juneau was there; my boss's boss, the commissioner, all my department professors, the chair of the department ... every important person in my economics career was right there in that room, judging me."

So, here's a little insight into Lyndea and how she works: She volunteered for that very professional, very nerve-wracking role. As she told me later in the interview, she advises students to try for hard things, "because that's where the biggest rewards are."

So how does one go from that wary, retreating college student to the Lyndea we see today?

Her backstory includes the hardship of losing her dad while she was still in her teens. She felt his absence, deeply. This one event began to define her young life, she said; it was what people first thought of when they saw her.

While always academically astute and committed, she felt so burdened in high school that going to class became almost too hard, landing her on attendance probation. She pulled through, though, and won acceptance at a range of East and West Coast schools. A full-ride scholarship to the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit university, pulled her there. "I needed a fresh start," she says.

A second start

But this was when the going got even tougher. While she loved much about the tiny island city (and imagines bringing some of its creative economy ideas home to Anchorage), she didn't click with the school. "It was so business-like," she said. "I never really felt like they cared about me." At home during winter break, she faced the truth: "I don't want to go back." Instead that January, she flew down for two weeks just to retrieve her stuff. Then it was home again, to a job, and wondering - what's next? Should she reapply to some of those ivies she'd turned down?

Reconnecting with West High classmates who'd stayed in-state and attended UAA, she got good reports about their classes and experiences. Conversely, other classmates who'd also left Alaska for their "dream college experience" in New York or elsewhere - some of them came home, too, disenchanted. So she decided to give UAA a try.

At first she just felt lost. "I'd go to class, and go right home," she said. "I was scared to make friends, and feeling like I had gotten such a late start."

A good friend noticed and "took me under her wing." In the span of a single semester, her world opened up. What followed was one good experience after another. "I was welcomed so warmly and easily into everything that I decided to go to. People invited me to things. Professors talked to me."

She remembers deciding to try and get into a class she didn't have the prerequisites for. She emailed the professor ... and nothing happened. "I was shy and scared, and I didn't say anything," she said. Two weeks passed, and then came a phone call - from the professor! Her email had ended up in his junk folder, he said; he couldn't believe she hadn't said anything more. So he wrote a letter to the registrar, and she was in. Lyndea thought, "People want me here!"

In fact, experiences just like that built her confidence. "They make you believe in yourself here," she said. "It happened to me so many times. So now, I feel like I AM capable and confident, I CAN do these things..."

Combining campus life and the real world

And oh, the things she's done. She worked as a lead teacher and office assistant at the Boys and Girls Club, bringing science, math, arts, engineering and technology into lesson plans. She interned in Mayor Ethan Berkowitz's administration, mapping public art and writing reports on creative economy funding and economic impact.

She had an equal presence on campus, active in USUAA, serving as president of the Economics Club and as scholarship chair for the sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha, where she coached and incentivized students to improve academically. She even had time to serve as Homecoming Queen and join a student delegation to Juneau to lobby for legislative support. Hard work earned her many scholarships and honors, and a frequent seat on search committees hiring staff professionals with significant impact on student life.

Alexander James, an economics professor advising the student club, called Lyndea "smart, confident, always ... smiling, and ridiculously well organized. She'll be missed by the Economics Club and faculty of the Economics Department alike. We are anxious to see what she is able to accomplish post-graduation."

Well, get ready, because she's been getting ready. Lyndea won a scholarship to the eight-month long Alaska Women Ascend training program that grooms progressive women to run for public office. "I am one of the youngest members and one of the only women of color," she said.

The course explains what goes into a campaign and how to run one. "They give you this giant binder full of everything you could ever need ... how to create your three main points, how to file paperwork to run. It's for managers and treasurers, too - it covers all aspects of a campaign."

Lyndea says she loved growing up in Alaska and navigating the Anchorage School District. "If I have a family, I'd love to raise them here," she said. But she also has community issues she wants to fight for.

Growing into an agitator for change

"For me, I really, REALLY love the economic empowerment of women. I just feel like that is such a key issue, and not focused on nearly enough. And a lot of it can be applied to immigrants and minorities and children, and any underrepresented communities."

Once she became aware of so many unaddressed racial and social issues here, "I realized I would have to be an agitator," Lyndea said. "...I am very dissatisfied. I don't want it to keep being the same way it is now. We have to apply pressure so things change."

Whether she ever runs for mayor of Anchorage, you can bet Lyndea will be in the trenches, fighting for transformative change. As she went through her own loss and struggles as a teen, she says it was really her personal values that carried her through. She believes community values can do the same thing for the hometown she loves.

Written by Kathleen McCoy for UAA.