PORTLAND – Sandra Hamel Rivard of Brunswick, a senior social and behavioral sciences major at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College, has been selected as this year’s student commencement speaker at the University of Southern Maine commencement.

Rivard will speak to an audience of some 1,000 graduates and 7,500 attendees, Saturday, May 15, at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Each year a committee of staff, faculty and students select the student commencement speaker to present their experiences and reflections on graduation. Students are encouraged to submit speech proposals to the committee, and a speaker is chosen from among those submissions.

Rivard also received the Lewiston-Auburn College Literary Achievement and Service Award for her contributions to the LAC student literary magazine.

This summer she will attend USM’s nationally renowned Stonecoast Writers Conference to complete her book on family histories and relationships. She also plans to pursue a graduate degree in clinical counseling from USM. In the fall, she hopes to work in the Lewiston-Auburn region as a staff member with the community service organization, AmeriCorps.

She has been a hospice volunteer for 20 years, serves as a chaplain for several local hospitals, works as a voting clerk for the town of Brunswick and is a member of the Women’s Philanthropic Educational Organization. She graduated in 1966 from St. Anne’s High School, Lawrence, Mass., and currently lives in Brunswick with her husband, John, with whom she raised four children.