The University of Chicago will celebrate the newest graduates of the College one day before the 540th Convocation with its annual Class Day event.
The accomplishments and achievements of the Class of 2026 will be on full display when the event kicks off a celebratory weekend on Friday, June 5, at 2 p.m. on the Main Quadrangles. Matteo Caloia, Ana Emilia Davalos and Vincent Li were selected by their peers to speak on behalf of the graduating class while the keynote address will be delivered by award-winning playwright David Auburn, AB’91.
We talked to the three College Class Day speakers to learn more about them and the message they hope to deliver.
Matteo Caloia
What would incoming first-year Matteo Caloia have wanted to hear before beginning his UChicago journey?
Four years later, as he prepares to speak on Class Day, Caloia hopes to offer an answer: seek out people who challenge you, stay open to being changed and let the College shape not just what you think, but how you think.
Hailing from Washington, D.C., Caloia came to the University to play men’s soccer and was rewarded with a historic national championship after just four months in Hyde Park. But as memorable as that achievement was, the people he encountered across campus have left the deepest impression.
“The quality of the people here, and the diversity of their interests and passions, is incredible,” Caloia said. “People are willing to have real discussions, but they are also open to those conversations changing their own perspectives. That is what makes this place special.”
That spirit will be central to Caloia’s Class Day remarks. In his speech, he hopes to explore the difference between becoming a college graduate and becoming a graduate of the College.
“Receiving a degree, no matter where it is from, is an incredible accomplishment,” Caloia said. “But at UChicago, you spend four years surrounded by classmates and professors who push you to refine how and why you think. That is a skill you carry for the rest of your life.”
Caloia is also among the first students to graduate from the College with a minor in entrepreneurship, a path he has already put into practice as the co-founder of (P)RIND, a parmesan-rind-based snack company. For him, the venture has become a way to bring together the intellectual rigor of the classroom with the practical challenge of building something from scratch.
After graduation, Caloia plans to stay in Chicago and focus on growing the company. Still, he does not expect to drift far from the University.
“I’m staying in the city and hope to remain involved with UChicago in some capacity, whether that means serving as a teaching assistant at Booth or helping with the club soccer team,” Caloia said. “I truly love UChicago, so there is no way I can stray too far from this place.”
Ana Emilia Davalos
Ana Emilia Davalos vividly remembers her first tour of campus. Now she is the one that gets to create those special moments for future students of the College.
“My first time on campus was over four years ago but it feels like it was just yesterday,” she said. “One day I’m listening to the guides share their experiences and the next I’m telling prospective families about how amazing and magical this school is.”
Being a tour guide is just one example of how Davalos has tried to get as much out of her UChicago experience as she can. Over the past four years, she served as the co-president of the campus consulting club Pareto Solutions, was involved with the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and was a member of Model UN. Davalos took on so much out of her desire to get to know her fellow classmates and to give back to the campus community through mentorship.
When she thinks about the time she has spent at UChicago, her first thought goes to the family she has formed here. The people she became close to always supported her through tough times but also celebrated every win.
“Sometimes I think that the world just waits to introduce you to people who are going to be in your life forever, and UChicago was that place where I got to meet all of them,” she said.
Davalos will focus on that as part of her speech—but also wants to shine a light on how impressive each single person on campus is.
“This is a place where you can look back at the end of a quarter and realize the amount of work you’ve been able to produce or the thoughts you’ve developed or the relationships you built,” she said. “Knowing how impressive the people around you are with achievements that could be very different from yours is something that has always left me with a feeling of wonder and awe.”
Davalos will use that sense of wonder as she travels the globe for the first few months after graduation before diving into the professional world back here in Chicago as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group.
Vincent Li
Vincent Li didn’t know what to expect when he arrived at UChicago. He knew he’d enjoy the intellectual rigor that the College was known for, but he was pleasantly surprised by what he experienced from the get-go.
“I realized early on that when you come to UChicago, you have a community form around you almost instantly,” he said.
Originally from China, Li found this helpful as it allowed him to develop a home away from home. He took that one step further when he became a resident assistant (RA) in his second year, fostering that same kind of environment for students living at Max Palevsky Residential Commons.
“I loved to host study breaks as an RA and always found myself having fun conversations with everyone that lived in Max P,” said Li. “Being able to serve as a mentor for my residents was one of my favorite things to do on campus.”
Serving as an RA also allowed Li to get to know everyone as an individual, not just a number or a nameless dot in a picture. It’s this lesson that he is going to try and convey to the audience come Class Day.
“On our first day on campus, we took a photo where everyone pretty much looks the same,” said Li. “However, we’re all vastly different. Those dots disappeared over our four years here and turned into a mosaic where you have individual pieces that form a beautiful image when put together.”
Li will be staying in Chicago after graduation and will put his economics and laws, letters and society double major to work as a consultant at Econic Partners. Until then, he wants to savor the last few days spent with the community that has helped him call UChicago home.
“We’re all so busy and caught up with work, so I’m going to slow down and enjoy this,” he said. “This is going to be my way of saying thank you to everybody.”
Class Day is planned with input from the graduating class, which also assists in choosing the student speakers on a multi-round submission process. The event will be webcast on the UChicago News site, as well as on the College’s Facebook page.