![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/12\/Ciani-Wells-fall-2021-web.jpg\")
\u201cI want to use my words to congratulate, uplift, inspire and encourage my fellow students, and everyone in the audience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wells, who hails from Philadelphia, took at an aggressive, year-round approach to carrying a heavy course load and will graduate \u2013 with honors \u2013 in 3\u00bd years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She plans to spend early 2022 focused on preparing for the law school entrance exam so she can continue her studies in the fall of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those familiar with her across the UMES campus are confident she\u2019ll achieve that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wells said she\u2019s hopeful of practicing law with a focus on social justice issues and representing those who deserve legal representation but may not have the means or know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her first three years, Wells\u2019 classmates elected her to senior leadership positions, including class president as a sophomore and a junior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also impressed peers and faculty with her work at the UMES Writing Center, where she assisted \u201cstudents with writing assignments\u201d and tutored them on \u201cwriting concepts and principles\u201d as well as conducted orientations for new undergraduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter of recommendation submitted to the speaker screening committee, classmate Leah Swindler wrote that \u201cwhen it comes to Ciani speaking, it definitely moves whoever she is talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want anyone else to give this speech than Ms. Ciani Wells,\u201d Swindler wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wells also found time to volunteer in promoting voter registration, assisting with weekly COVID-19 testing, participating in campus clean-up initiatives and as a Women\u2019s History Month project, played a key role in organizing a drive to collect and donate cash and hygiene products to a local homeless shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wells left her mark as student speaker-writer-ambassador for the university\u2019s communications office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the spring 2020 pandemic-induced lockdown of campus, Wells agreed to write an essay describing strategies she employed to cope with distance-learning. Focus on time management \u2013 \u201cme time,\u201d she called it, including binge-watching a favorite TV drama \u2013 was her shared advice to create some sense of adjusting to the so-called \u201cnew normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She accepted the challenge of representing UMES in an Instagram Live interview organized around a \u201cSupport Black Colleges\u201d theme and impressed the event\u2019s organizers with her grasp of the university\u2019s colorful history, which she researched on just a few days\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ciani C. Wells, an English major who aspires to be a lawyer, will deliver the student commentary on behalf of the class of 2021 at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore\u2019s winter commencement exercises Dec. 17. \u201cI want to use my words to congratulate, uplift, inspire and encourage my fellow students, and everyone in the…Read more \u2018Uplift, inspire \u2026 encourage\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12758"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=12758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}