Matt Quainoo is used to speaking in front of a crowd. In fact, his congregation has been growing for two years now, as he has helped create and cultivate a growing membership in Sankofa, a campus ministry that started with a dozen members and now sometimes sees as many as 200 in attendance. But Matt addressed the largest crowd of his life at the URI commencement ceremony as the student speaker representing the class of 2015.

At age 19, Matt is younger than most of his classmates, but his college experience has been rich and diverse. He began working toward his college degree while still in high school, and worked relentlessly taking online courses, J-Term classes, summer classes, and full course loads during the fall and spring semesters to earn his degree in just two years.

While some students enter college unsure of their career path, Matt has been on the path to becoming a pastoral scholar for most of his life. Following graduation, he will pursue his master’s degree in theological studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.

“I was 6 or 7 years old and my family had a tradition of praying on Christmas morning before we opened our presents,” he said. “I was frustrated, like why are we delaying the climax of Christmas, the most important thing, opening presents? When my parents explained the narrative of Christmas to me, and what it really means, it suddenly became real. It wasn’t about me coming to the altar. It was about the experience of letting God alter me. That’s when I knew I wanted to preach.”

At URI, he took classes and completed a research project in his ancestral home of Ghana in West Africa, where he reconnected with family members to learn about how they view family life. The experience helped shape his views not just on religion, but on how to live life. He dons traditional African garb, such as a dashiki, and wears it over a perfectly pressed Western button-down shirt with a bow tie, reflecting a bicultural fusion he considers central to his upbringing.

Before being selected to speak at commencement, Matt wasn’t sure he was the right one for the job. But friends and professors convinced him. “My message is the idea that we need to engage in love,” he said. “If you can defend love in the face of injustice, you can restore and affirm our humanity. You don’t need a pulpit or a stage. Wherever you are, just be an agent of love and justice.”

See video of Matthew Quainoo’s commencement speech on May 17, 2015.