Class of 2026 Graduates Washington College

In all, 189 students received their degrees on a beautiful spring day, moving across the stage and into a future full of promise, prepared and with purpose, together.

Whether listening to the speakers or talking with the graduates as they lined up before the ceremony, two themes emerged from the 243rd Commencement Exercises of Washington College. Students not only found a close and empowering community on campus, they would also be taking it with them as they move into the world. And continuing a long tradition, they would be using what they had learned to make their own positive contributions to society.

“The people I’ve met here and the way we bonded together as students just emphasizes the sense of community and togetherness at Washington College,” Kiara Buruca ’26 said of her four years. “I know I’ve made important, lifelong relationships.”

Some of those relationships were reflected in the small personalizing elements layered on graduates’ caps and gowns. Buruca and many of her friends wore colorful stoles representing their leadership in the Latinx Student Union, as well as honor cords representing society memberships, student employment, and other aspects of their time as Washington College students.

President Bryan Matthews ’75 M’86 P’12 was the first speaker to address the graduates and while he also started off talking about community—among the students but also with the faculty, family, friends, and others who supported them—he soon pivoted to a few examples from the year of how the students had done good work and how he had no doubt they would continue to do so.

“As you graduate, you will take what you have learned and use it for the betterment of our world. You will become healers, inventors, artists, and advocates. In this Class of 2026 there are future teachers, lawyers, engineers, executives, and politicians,” Matthews said. “And all of you will do your own bit of good in the world. You are the latest people to continue the legacy of this institution in producing well-educated, thoughtful, and constructive citizen leaders.”

Several psychology majors saw direct connections from their Washington experiences to their next steps towards careers in counseling or research. McKenna Smith ’26 and Ben McCumber ’26 will both be attending graduate school in the fall and credited their professors with helping them prepare.  

“The psychology department has a very special place in my heart,” Smith said. “The professors are very encouraging. It is a very supportive environment.”

Their friend and classmate Catherine Parker ’26 will be working as a behavioral technician for ABA Therapy, which helps improve quality of life for kids with autism. She said her experience as a wellness advocacy coach at Washington gave her a chance to try out providing support while still a student.

“It gave me the opportunity to get a feel for peer-to-peer support,” she said. “It is a really good way for psychology majors and minors to get a feel for what it might be like in a clinical setting and practice talking with people who may be going through something.”

Experience that leads directly to that first job after graduation and illustrates the day’s second theme: the good Washington College graduates go on to do in the world. That was a major theme of the day’s Commencement speaker, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

“You are graduating from an institution with a purpose, the first college chartered after the Declaration of Independence, named for the man who set the standards of leadership, service, and citizenship for every generation that followed,” Hogan said. “Today as you begin the next chapter of your lives, that founding purpose becomes a part of your own story.”

In all, 189 students received their degrees on a beautiful spring day, moving across the stage and into a future full of promise, prepared and with purpose, together.

“We leave here as something more than classmates. We leave here as a community,” said senior class speaker Mia Snyder '26. “We leave here as one. Where we are is who we are. And now, wherever we go, Washington College, and Chestertown, goes with us.” 
 

Award Winners

Alumni Citation — Dr. Phillip LeBel 
Honorary Doctor of Laws — Gov. Larry Hogan 
 

Senior Awards

Jane Huston Goodfellow Memorial Prize — Ella Elizabeth Jendrek and Lauren Elizabeth Paules 
Gold Pentagon Awards — Logan Isabella Monteleone and Sara Clarke-De Reza 
Sophie Kerr Prize — Jaya S. Basu 
Louis L. Goldstein, Class of ’35 Award — Mia Nicole Snyder 
Eugene B. Casey Medal — Celia Long 
Henry W.C. Catlin, Class of 1894 Medal — Rachel Christine Morgen 
Clark-Porter Medal — Zoe Lurae Brookbank 
George Washington Medal and Award — Stevie Estelle Cecilia Lyles 
 

Faculty Awards

Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award — Rachel Durso, sociology 
Carolyn Emory Golding ’74 Junior Faculty Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award — Daniel Kochli, psychology 
Stephen T. Golding ’72 Faculty Leadership Award — Sara Clarke-De Reza, education