We celebrated the accomplishments of our Class of 2023 students at the May 13 Awards and Diplomas Ceremony held in the Washington Duke Inn. We began with the awards section. In the Director’s address, Mark Oldham PhD challenged the graduates to embrace uncertainty and paradox, stay connected to the program and fellow graduates, and focus on service in their professional and personal lives. Numerous awards were presented to faculty and students, which are listed below. In the words of reflection from a graduating student, Kevin Filip shared his gratitude and admiration for his classmates. He credited their shared experiences and challenges with forming strong bonds, and he encouraged them to continue to be exceptional. In the second part of the program, graduates came up individually to receive their hard-earned diplomas from their advisors and to express their thanks. Finally, the ceremony ended with a touching slideshow that highlighted memorable moments from the students’ journey. Afterwards, everyone adjourned to a festive lunch. Congratulations to all our graduates and award recipients on their achievements, and we wish them the best in their future endeavors!
Scholarships and Awards
James T. Dobbins III Leadership Award
- Carolyn Eckrich
- Trevor D. McKeown
Zachary D. Shrock Memorial Scholarship
- Spencer Lynch
Carey E. Floyd, Jr., Graduate Fellowship
- Cindy McCabe
Director’s Award for Exceptional Contributions
- Isabel Montero
- Patrick Sansone
- Justus Adamson, PhD
- Dean Darnell, PhD
- Anna Rodrigues, PhD
- Timothy Turkington, PhD
- Chu Wang, PhD
- Jackie Wu, PhD
May 2023 Graduating Class:
Masters of Science
- Haoran Dai
- Carolyn Victoria Eckrich
- Nicholas Dante Felice
- Kyle Shey Ferguson
- Kevin T. Filip
- Mercedeh Khazaieli
- Casey Marie Miller
- Isabel Seraphina Montero
- Charlotte Elizabeth Read
- Patrick Rodman Sansone
- Markus Theodor Sprenger
- Jack Bradley Stevens
- Millicent Tysinger
- Kyle David Williams
- Dongrong Yang
- Jingtong Zhao
Doctor of Philosophy
- Xinyi Li
- Ke Lu
- Yixin Ma
- Jayasai Ram Rajagopal
- Thomas Justin Sauer
- Hananiel Setiawan
- Zhenyu Yang
- Zeyu Zhang