Campus & Community

On Friday, May 15, graduate student speaker Sejal Popat and undergraduate student speaker Mason Shaver will join Chancellor Andrew D. Martin, honorary degree recipients and Commencement speaker Andy Cohen at WashU’s 165th Commencement ceremony. Here, they look back on their journeys to and through WashU.

The late James McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of WashU Arts & Sciences, founded the Ervin Scholars Program and, along with his wife, Clara, challenged the WashU community to know each student “by name and by story.”

Images from on and around the WashU campuses.

After an EF3 tornado ripped a milewide path through St. Louis and St. Louis County, Amanda Kesler, a master of landscape architecture candidate in the WashU Sam Fox School, combined aerial data and firsthand observation to map tree canopy damage.

Goldwater Scholar and biology major Noah Kabbaj is on the front lines of research aimed at helping people overcome treatment-resistant mental health conditions, including severe depression. After graduating from WashU, Kabbaj plans to earn his PhD in neuroscience.

Ruiqi Wang is set to graduate from WashU McKelvey Engineering and next will work for Google the improve machine learning.

In celebration of Commencement, WashU Class Acts spotlights 2026 graduates who have engaged in meaningful research at WashU. They have created knowledge and mastered research skills — especially important at a time of funding cuts and public skepticism.

In May, Ariel Hernandez-Leyva is set to achieve his goal of becoming a physician-scientist by earning a medical degree and a PhD in computational and systems biology from WashU Medicine. He is first author on a study — published in the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism — revealing that breath can carry clues to gut microbiome health, particularly among children.

GP Worley applied to the WashU Brown School because they were inspired by the work of the Sexuality, Health and Gender (SHAG) Center. Today, Worley is one of the center’s most committed contributors, pursuing multiple projects that explore the role of sexuality and gender in health.

A passion for motorcycles and a background in neuroscience drove Catalina Bernabé Correa to join the lab of Ismael Seáñez at WashU McKelvey Engineering, where she is studying different neuro-rehabilitation strategies for individuals with spinal cord injuries. Bernabé is set to graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering.