Kate L. Rakoczy ’04 describes the experience of preparing for her speech today much in the same way as she describes her experience as a top editor of The Crimson—immensely challenging but unparalleled in its satisfaction.

It’s fitting then that The Crimson provides the fodder for the English Oration she will deliver today as one of three student speakers at Commencement Exercises.

Rakoczy says her speech is about discovering what you are passionate about and pursing it, come what may.

“Life is about finding what you love and making sacrifices for it,” Rakoczy says. “This is something that we should be trying to do for the rest of our lives.”

UNEXPECTED LEADER

Rakoczy’s road toward personal discovery and Harvard began in Staten Island, NY where she was born and raised.

Rakoczy enjoyed the sweeping New York skyline as she took the ferry daily to Manhattan, where she attended Stuyvesant High School.

While Rakoczy says her primary extracurricular commitments in high school were basketball and soccer, she says that she always wished she had written for her high school newspaper.

When Rakoczy got to Harvard she joined the junior varsity soccer team before picking up The Crimson comp mid-semester.

“I did JV soccer my freshman fall, and when that was over I kind of realized that I didn’t know how to make friends and socialize outside of teams, so I was looking for a new activity,” Rakoczy says. “I just went into [The Crimson] looking for something to do with myself. I wasn’t looking for a 60- hour-per-week commitment or anything like that.”

But what Rakoczy eventually found was exactly that. As a reporter, she covered everything from Harvard’s presidential search to former professor Cornel R. West’s flap with University President Lawrence H. Summers.

After three years as one of The Crimson’s most prolific writers—at latest count her byline has appeared 136 times—Rakoczy was tapped to lead The Crimson’s news operations as its associate managing editor.

The job brought the 60-hour weeks as well as a new appreciation of the Cambridge sunrise—she wrote in The Crimson yesterday that 5 a.m. is her favorite time of day.

While Rakoczy admits that the job was often incredibly frustrating, she says that the benefits “absolutely” outweighed the negatives.

“On top of the writing and reporting, managing a staff of people is mind-boggling because people act in a way you don’t expect,” Rakoczy says. “But it is ten times more rewarding, too.”