McDaniel celebrates 156th Commencement on Saturday, May 23

McDaniel College celebrates its 156th Commencement for the Class of 2026 on Saturday, May 23. More than 600 master's and bachelor's degrees are expected to be awarded during two ceremonies.

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 of both ceremonies will also be available online at mcdaniel.edu/commencement. 

Note: tickets are required for the undergraduate ceremony (no tickets for the graduate ceremony) and an on-campus viewing area for the livestream is available in Decker Auditorium, Lewis Hall of Science, for the undergraduate ceremony only.

Ochieng’ K’Olewe, the L. Stanley Bowlsbey Endowed Chair at McDaniel College, provides remarks during the graduate ceremony. K’Olewe taught social studies in public schools in Illinois, Maryland, and West Virginia before coming to McDaniel in 1997 to teach in the Education department. He has served as coordinator for elementary and secondary certification for the M.S. in Teaching program, formerly Better Educators for Students of Tomorrow (BEST), and has supervised teaching candidate interns. He currently advises undergraduate secondary education minors in addition to teaching in the graduate program. He has given back to his hometown village of Kopudo, Kenya, by renovating a primary school building, helping to establish an all-girls high school, and supporting scholarships for students.

Awards to be given during the graduate commencement ceremony include The Shelton Adjunct Faculty Award to an adjunct faculty member whose teaching demonstrates a commitment to excellence and genuine care for students, The B. Jill Brooks Hodge Professional Development Award to a graduate student who has demonstrated academic excellence with a strong compassion for individuals with special needs and an interest in serving the Deaf or disabled, and The Joan Develin Coley Award for Excellence in Education to a graduate student with the best record in the study of literacy theory and practice.

Undergraduate Commencement speaker is Robert Pick '92, P'25, executive vice president and chief information officer for Tokio Marine North America. A current member of the McDaniel College Board of Trustees, Pick graduated summa cum laude from the college in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University and completed an additional two years of doctoral coursework and reading. Before joining Tokio Marine in 2014, he worked for 16 years in major media and telecommunications, including more than a decade at publisher Conde Nast and five years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Pick and his wife, Heather, recently donated to establish the new STEM Center in the Learning Commons @ Hoover Library.

Winners of two undergraduate awards are revealed during the undergraduate commencement ceremony. The Argonaut Award, to the graduating senior with the highest cumulative grade-point average, and The Edith Farr Ridington Writing Award, to the graduating senior whose capstone paper is deemed outstanding, are presented.

The Ira G. Zepp Distinguished Teaching Award, which recognizes inspired classroom work and dedication to students, is also given to an outstanding faculty member during the undergraduate commencement ceremony.