WATERVILLE – A student from rural Zimbabwe will serve as class speaker for the 465 seniors at Colby College’s 185th commencement beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 28, on the lawn of the campus’ Miller Library.

Known campuswide for his sense of humor, Francis Tapiwa Chapuredima is an economics major with a concentration in financial markets and minor in mathematics. An active volunteer, Chapuredima hopes one day to return to Zimbabwe to “be part of the change that my country needs.”

Novelist and essayist Anna Quindlen, Colby’s 2006 commencement speaker, has written columns for leading American newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and Newsweek magazine, for which she continues to write the “Last Word.” She has written four best-selling novels, and a collection of her New York Times columns titled Thinking Out Loud was on the New York Times Best Seller List for more than three months in 1993. She will receive an honorary degree.

The valedictorian and class marshal, Matthew M. Meredith of Tabernacle, N.J., is a biology major with a concentration in cell and molecular biology-biochemistry and a Japanese minor. The marshal is the senior with the highest grade point average at the start of the final semester.

In the event of inclement weather the ceremony may be moved into the field house, in which case tickets are required.

The ceremonies will be available for viewing through a live Webcast. For more information, visit online: www.colby.edu/commencement.