Resilience on the mind of WPI senior Susanna Oppong as she prepares commencement speech

WORCESTER — Susanna Oppong said her college years have instilled the value of resilience, which she hopes to impart to her fellow Worcester Polytechnic Institute graduates as student speaker for Saturday's commencement.

"We may have lost a couple of years due to the pandemic and the restrictions, but we also grew a lot through it," Oppong said. "And I think that's one thing that our generation has come to notice, the strength that we've gotten through those experiences."

Oppong, 22, was born and raised in Worcester in the Tatnuck Square neighborhood. She attended high school not that far from WPI at Doherty Memorial High School on Highland Street.

Her mother, Susan, also grew up in Worcester, attending Burncoat Senior High School, and her father, James, was originally from Ghana and met her mother in Worcester at work.

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Oppong's mother works at the provost's office in WPI and her father is a pastor who started New Arising Christian Church in Millbury.

Oppong grew up singing and playing guitar and serves as worship leader for her father's church.

As a premed student, Oppong studied biology and biotechnology. She will attend medical school at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, California.

While she had a lifelong interest in being a doctor, Oppong said she had friends in Doherty's engineering and STEM technology program, which got her more interested in STEM.

Oppong said she is interested in sports medicine, particularly foot and ankle surgery. Oppong said her mother also worked with athletes.

Early dream to be a doctor

"I've wanted to become a doctor since I was little, I was always interested in experiments and learning new things through hands-on experiences," Oppong said.

Connecting with others was one of the most attractive part of pursuing medicine, Oppong said.

"I think the biggest things that I really love are human connection and STEM," Oppong said. "I want to become a doctor so I get to use both of those skills."

While Oppong said she has always had leadership schools, which she said she shares with her parents, she said she needed to develop her communication skills in college.

"In high school I was very shy, hated presenting in front of groups," Oppong said. "When I came to WPI, I was more exposed to that. I got to get involved in things like orientation leading and working in our admissions office that really got me connected with the community and taught me that I can express myself without the fear of being judged."

While Oppong said she initially looked at colleges outside of Worcester, the convincing of her parents and touring WPI helped her choose the local university.

Oppong said she was looking for colleges with a strong STEM focus that would help her with applying for medical school. WPI stood out as having a student body that was more collaborative and less competitive than students at other schools seemed to be.

At WPI, Oppong worked as a community adviser, the university's version of an orientation leader, from her second year on. In that role, she said she got to connect with fellow students as a mentor to first-year students.

As a senior, Oppong said she worked in more of a managerial role with the other community advisers.

Working in admissions also allowed her to mentor high school students, including fellow students of color or students looking to pursue medicine when they got to college.

From rowing to rock climbing

In addition, Oppong said was on the university's varsity rowing team for three years, is involved in a school spirit organization, served as president of the university's health preprofessional honor society and enjoys rock climbing.

When she was auditioning for student speaker, Oppong said she knew others who were also auditioning were strong candidates.

"I was really nervous because I actually wrote this speech in A Term, which is September. I woke up one night randomly at 2 a.m. and had this whole speech in mind," Oppong said. "I felt really honored to be chosen as commencement speaker. I think WPI has had such an impact on me and I want to leave those words with the class of 2023."

Oppongs's speech is titled "Embracing Your Ironic Resilience," where she plans to talk about the irony of the resilience of her generation, referring to how older generations tend to believe they have a lot handed to them while they actually underwent several experiences that built their resilience.

Oppong said she plans to use the Pixar movie "Ratatouille" as a reference point.

Being in the cohort whose college experience coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, Oppong said it took her some time to realize what she did actually manage to accomplish in those pandemic-afflicted years.

"A big thing that I think we all relate to is COVID did take away part of our college experience and I think that's a big thing that a lot of us still dwell on," Oppong said. "It's something that I dwelled on for a long time and didn't really know how to get rid of that feeling that I lost a lot. But it wasn't until this year where I realized how much I did in college and how much I'm still doing and how this is only the beginning."

Prior to the commencement speech with an estimated audience of about 6,000 to 7,000, Oppong said the biggest crowd she was in front of was about 200 people.

"I run info sessions that have about 100 people, so I was talking to my boss and she said just multiply by however many more and pretend it's the same room," Oppong said.

Oppong said she is looking forward to seeing her mother and father along with her brother, Henry, and his wife, Nicole.

Her best friend and roommate, Ishani Bedre, will be in the second row at the commencement. Oppong said Bedre helped her practice her speech and she will feel comforted knowing where her best friend and family are sitting while she gives the address.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: WPI senior Susanna Oppong speaks at commencement