[NEW] Commencement 2026!

Rewatch the Live Stream on YouTube!!

  • WHEN: The 2026 '[NEW] Commencement took place on Thursday, May 21st, at 6:00 pm (doors open at 5:00 pm) EST

  • WHERE: Sarasota Orchestra’s Holly Hall once again hosted this special event!

Commencement Speaker: Brianna Cea

Executive Director and Founder of Generation Vote (GenVote)

Brianna Cea (she/her) is the Executive Director and Founder of Generation Vote (GenVote), a national youth-led organization building a youth movement for voting rights and a just democracy for all in the United States. A proud New Yorker, Bri has been on the frontlines of the fight for voting rights in New York since 2017, including passing the first on-campus poll site law and advancing the first statewide voter reforms in over 100 years. As Executive Director of GenVote, she oversaw the organization’s relaunch as a national entity, expanding its chapter network to 10 states (including Florida), mobilizing young voters in critical Secretaries of State elections, and building the largest nonpartisan youth election protection program in the country.

Brianna also served as President of OCA-Asian Pacific Advocates NY from 2021-2023, where she was on the frontlines of the movement against Anti-Asian violence in NYC, organized the first Songkran celebrations in NYC City Hall and the NY State Capitol, led the first oral history project for Thai Americans in the Library of Congress, and co-founded the largest coalition fighting for AANHPI histories to be taught in NY public schools. She now serves as the National Vice President of Public Affairs for OCA-National, where she supports chapters serving Asian communities across 30 states. A skilled youth voting rights organizer and advocate for the AAPI community in NYC, Cea has been featured in Good Morning America, WNYC, NPR, Vox News, USA Today, and Ms. Magazine, among other outlets.

As of March 2024, Brianna also has the honor of representing her neighbors as a Community Board Member of Queens Community Board 4. In her free time, she serves as a Trainer with the Momentum Community, where she has trained hundreds of young leaders across the United States and internationally to hone their organizer skills in shifting public opinion and building social movements.

She is a former Senior Research and Program Associate at the Brennan Center for Justice, where she co-authored several prominent reports on the 2020 Census and redistricting. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Atlantic, SCOTUSblog and other outlets. Brianna graduated summa cum laude with a BA in political science and philosophy, politics and law from Binghamton University in 2018.