Top graduates Christine Clemmings, left, and Toni Charlton.
The writer and critic Susan Sontag once noted, “A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.” It makes sense, then, that 2026 Valedictorian Christine Clemmings has a keen interest in the nuanced mechanisms that keep New York City humming.
The Urban and Community Studies BA student recently finished her second novel and is already thinking about the next one, despite her packed schedule of work, school and, most recently, writing her commencement speech.
Being named valedictorian is not Christine’s first SLU honor. She also received SLU’s Public Service Scholarship, which made it financially possible for her to return to school.
She worked in procurement at the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for three years, but left the job last fall for another role in city government.
Christine felt that working for the city was a public service to the city and its residents, but her interest took on more of an academic slant as time went on. SLU’s courses struck a balance that appealed to her interests.
“I saw that the School is focused on social justice,” Christine says. Once she encountered SLU’s faculty in the classroom, that focus took on more dimensions than she anticipated. “As someone who lives in a city, it was really eye-opening to get into class and dig into the theory and the text bearing all of that and start to understand the factors that form the city. We observe and experience a lot of urban problems, but we don’t necessarily have the theories to go along with it or the language to describe what’s happening.” It’s a fitting consideration for a novelist.
The inequities of society – or as Christine puts it, “certain things that just don’t seem right” — came into stark relief as she delved into her coursework and started looking at how policies are rarely implemented effectively. That led her to her Capstone topic of how exclusivity in public spaces reinforces economic barriers in low-income communities. It also influenced the theme of her commencement address.
“I’m going to talk about how important it is to have personal values because I know that values really inform policies and decision-making on things that affect our lives,” she says. “I’ll touch on having personal values, and I touch on finding meaning. It comes down to focusing on the service that we provide to others, but also focusing on how we care for ourselves.”
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If Salutatorian Toni Charlton was offered more hours in a day, she would gladly take them, especially on the weekends that her 20-year-old son Cleveland has a football game. He plays on a scholarship at Towson University in Maryland and she’s committed to going to every home game, no matter how packed her week is with a full-time job at the nonprofit Housing Works, a part-time job doing door-to-door outreach for a housing survey run by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and her responsibilities as a shop steward and member of the labor management committee at Local 262.
And that’s to say nothing of her SLU coursework and Capstone research. But as someone with an instinct for mentoring and caring for others, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I think it’s very important, especially as a woman of color, to not only accomplish certain things, but also be able to support people who can’t accomplish these things,” says Toni, who’s graduating as salutatorian with a BA in Urban and Community Studies. “Even though I was raised with a big, loving family, I’m not naive to what goes on in my community. So I’m a very big advocate for children.”
The news of her being named salutatorian came as a shock, not least because she came close to dropping out at the beginning of her third semester. Curveballs started coming her way, beginning with the death of her close aunt back home in London. She succumbed to complications from sickle cell disease, but Toni was driven back to SLU by the fact that her aunt got a master’s degree while battling the disease. If she could get through school, Toni could certainly wrap up her final year. But academics was never her strong suit.
“I was actually horrible in high school. I think I graduated with a 65 average,” said Toni. She was also raising her first-born, David, who she had at 16. Cleveland and his twin sister, Bailey, now a student at Baruch College, were born 11 years later. But once David graduated SUNY Albany and the twins started college, she wanted to try school on her own terms.
“I think I didn’t do well because of the environment I was in. If I’m not in a supportive environment, I won’t thrive,” said Toni, who came to New York City from London when she was 14 and currently lives on the Upper West Side. “I don’t think I actually liked school, but in this environment at SLU, I get to learn about urban issues and the labor movement. And social justice, too! I didn’t even know that was an option. That’s really what I’ve always been into.” She’s held case manager and public-health advisor jobs at nonprofit groups and at New York City Health + Hospitals. Now, looking ahead, she’s considering either a master’s degree, or pursuing policy work, especially related to public administration.
In the meantime, she’s looking forward to her kids watching her walk across the stage at commencement. They’ve been her biggest support system, even if they’re not into studying social justice. Yet.
“My children are the total opposite of me,” she said. “I’m more social. I’m more of an advocate for my community. I think they’ll get to that one day, but they’re young right now. But they’re very supportive of me. They’re very excited. I mean: College!”