UGA graduation student speaker to say college should not be 'best four years of your lives'

It wasn’t until Trent Nesbit was a senior at nearby Clarke Central High School that he decided he wanted to continue his education in his hometown.

“Growing up, I never pictured myself coming to (the University of) Georgia, ever,” said Nesbit, 22, who was born at St. Mary’s Hospital. “I love Athens so much and I think it’s the best town in the world, but growing up, I wanted to leave. Then senior year rolled around and I actually started looking at colleges and realized that the best school in the world was just down the street and I had to go there.”

A senior majoring in economics with a minor in sports management, Nesbit will be the student speaker at Georgia’s commencement exercises on Friday evening at Sanford Stadium. UGA alum and 10-time Olympic medalist Allison Schmitt will also speak Friday evening.

Encouraged by a friend who wanted to speak at UGA’s winter commencement, Nesbit applied to be the spring speaker and was pleasantly surprised when he learned he’d drawn the assignment.

Olympic speaker: UGA undergraduate ceremony set for Friday in Sanford Stadium

“I didn’t even know you could do that. I never even really thought about it,” he said. “I wrote in my phone that one of my goals before graduating was to speak at graduation. I figured there was no way. I applied to do it and kept getting emails that I had advanced and it got to the point where I had to write a speech and present it to a Student Government Association committee, which made the decision. I was on a plane to Jamaica on a mission trip in early March when I got the email congratulating me.”

According to UGA Marketing & Communications, Nesbit is the first Athens student to speak at commencement since Trey Sinyard, who went to Athens Academy and spoke at fall undergraduate commencement in 2011. Taylor Maggiore, from Watkinsville and a graduate of Oconee County High School, was the fall 2019 undergraduate student speaker.

The son of Dale and Ryan, Nesbit admitted he has little public speaking experience but is more than enthusiastic about the opportunity.

“The only word to describe it is I was so honored that a group of students selected me to be the speaker,” he said. “To me, it was the biggest honor in the whole world. … I’m a pretty confident guy, but I’ve never done something like this. It will test me, for sure.”

While Nesbit has been involved in many student-centric organizations and activities while on campus, he pointed to two experiences as being especially memorable. He has been active as a small group leader at the Wesley Foundation at UGA and he’s worked behind the scenes as a video assistant for the Bulldogs football team.

“I’ve led at Wesley since my sophomore year,” he said. “I was a small-group leader my sophomore and junior years, and this year I did outreach and still led a small group on the side. I led probably 15 guys my sophomore year and 20 to 25 last year. Getting to know them and lead them has been incredible.”

Nesbit’s tenure with the football team began when he was a freshman shooting video and evolved into working with the team’s place-kickers, punters and long snappers as both a videographer and manager. In his senior year, he moved across the hall to the creative video department and helped create pregame hype videos for social media.

“The two national championships were incredible and I couldn’t have been more fortunate to be a part of that,” said Nesbit, who has a gleaming pair of national title rings. “Going into my senior year, I knew this had been a cool experience but I wanted to get into the creative side of video, which I did a lot of in high school. I loved being at practice and being with the guys, but what I really found pleasure in doing was making those videos this year and it was such a blessing.”

Nesbit, who is also a student in UGA’s Morehead Honors College, said his speech – which should clock in at about seven minutes – will ruminate on the concept of “the best four years of your life.”

“I’ve heard forever the phrase that college is going to be the best four years of your life and I think it would be tragic if college turned out the best four years of our lives,” he said. “My message is to not let college be the best four years of our lives, but to build on the experiences we’ve had at UGA. There’s always more for us to get out of life and that’s the theme I want to go for. I also want to talk about some of the lessons I’ve learned at UGA.”

However, when asked if at this point college has been the best four years of his life, Nesbit did not hesitate when he said, “Without a doubt.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Trent Nesbit will be the student speaker at the UGA Spring 2024 graduation