At McDaniel’s 2026 Graduate Commencement Ceremony, 332 students celebrated the achievement of earning their master’s degrees, conferred from 17 programs. Three special awards were presented during the ceremony: two student awards were given to master’s degree recipients, while a faculty award was presented to a senior online graduate adjunct lecturer in Educational Leadership.
In honor of Military Appreciation Month, McDaniel has once again earned a silver Military Friendly® Schools designation and been recognized as a Military Spouse Friendly® School. McDaniel has been consecutively recognized among the nation’s top schools for military and veteran students since 2009.
Seven McDaniel graduating seniors, who served as members of the Green Terror Battalion, received commissions as Army officers on May 22. The keynote speaker for the ceremony was retired Col. Andrew R. Dziengeleski ’96, an associate professor at the College of Strategic Security Cooperation at the Defense Security Cooperation University.
All 720 of them. A diverse group, they have 34 different undergraduate majors and are from 17 graduate programs. They traveled from 29 countries and 30 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Want to know more? Top majors? How many are College Scholars? What was the most popular study abroad destination? Read on!
Leonard Arvi, Ph.D., who most recently served as department chairperson of Finance for the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University, has been selected as the inaugural dean of McDaniel’s new School of Business and Technology following a national search. He assumes the role at McDaniel for the fall 2026 semester, effective Aug. 1.
McDaniel College celebrates its 156th Commencement for the Class of 2026 on Saturday, May 23. The graduate ceremony begins at 10 a.m., followed by the undergraduate ceremony at 2 p.m. Both ceremonies take place in the college’s Gill Center. A livestream is available online at mcdaniel.edu/commencement.
McDaniel’s Class of 2026 is compassionate, bold, and ambitious. Through their time on the Hill, they’ve grown into confident leaders who craft their own opportunities while simultaneously guiding their peers.
Two seniors majoring in Biology, Kaitlyn Braun and Anna Kale, presented at the 2026 Benthic Ecology Meeting in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Anna Kale, who is also majoring in Environmental Studies, was awarded "Best Student Poster Presentation," among other undergraduate and master's students, as well as Ph.D. candidates.
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