It's not hard to spot Justin M. Krebs '00.

This morning's undergraduate English orator can be found in the Mather House dining hall every Sunday brunch. He's the tall guy with the long, curly brown ponytail, smothering his Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream.

"Justin runs on strawberries and whipped cream. If you take those away and cut his hair he loses his strength," jokes Krebs' roommate of four years,

Matthew N. Stoller '00. "If there's one flaw in Justin it's that he doesn't eat enough vegetables."

Krebs' "strength"--be it from his toppings of choice or a personality to match--has propelled him to the head of the Class of 2000 as the popularly-elected First Class Marshal, the voice of the undergraduates at today's Commencement exercises and a summa cum laude nominee from the Committee on Degrees in History and Literature.

Krebs hypothesizes that his more than 1,600 classmates elected him as their marshal because of his high visibility on campus as the leader of the Immediate Gratification Players (IGP), an improvisational comedy troupe. He has also been involved in several dramatic productions and served for a year on the Harvard-Radcliffe Drama Club board of directors. And he admits that he just plain knows a lot of people.

"I have a life philosophy that involves saying hello and I think people appreciate that," Krebs says, flashing a broad smile from between cheeks covered in long stubble.

"Everyone on campus either knows him or has heard of him, and that stems not as much from him having a high profile as from his knowing peoples' names," says his friend C. Larry Malm '00. "[Justin's] not someone who memorizes peoples' name in order to seem slick, rather he cares about them as soon as he meets them."