Marywood University honored its best and brightest from the class of 2026 with 39 endowed medals of recognition during events leading up to and including its 108th annual commencement ceremony on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp.<\/p>\n
The endowed commencement medals each carry their own legacy and criteria, representing some of the university\u2019s most long-standing academic and service honors.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Marywood University Commencement Medalists and honorable mentions include the following:<\/p>\n
Doctoral medal recipients<\/p>\n
William G. Mc Gowan Medal For Excellence In Doctoral Studies \u2013 Ph.D.:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Shahub Toosi and Shelby W. Yeager<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Angela M. Friebolin<\/p>\n
William G. Mc Gowan Medal For Excellence In Doctoral Studies \u2013 Psy.D.:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Ryan Gardiner<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Dominique Toscano<\/p>\n
Graduate Medal Recipients<\/p>\n
Sister Saint Agnes Medal For Excellence In Business:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Paula Mesaris<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Kathleen Lynott<\/p>\n
Geffen Medal For Outstanding Performance In Practicum Education:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Jose Collado<\/p>\n
Honorable Mentions: Dawn O\u2019Donnell and Dawn Walker<\/p>\n
Haggerty Medal For Leadership And Academic Excellence In Counselor Education:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Sarah Haskell<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Thi An Hoa Bui<\/p>\n
Thomas J. Keenan, M.D. Medal For Excellence In Physician Assistant Program:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Mia Gruler<\/p>\n
Polizzi Medal for Scholarship and Community Service:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Madison Hamlin<\/p>\n
Undergraduate Medal Recipients<\/p>\n
Dolores M. Ackourey Medal for Excellence in Leadership and Human Relations:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Carl (CJ) Shygelski<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Jocelyn Hittle<\/p>\n
Barrett Medal for Outstanding Service and Scholarship in the Field of Legal Studies, History and Criminal Justice:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Joel Cali and Emily McLaughlin<\/p>\n
The Sister Regina Barrett Medal for Excellence in Early Childhood Education:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Owen Morgan<\/p>\n
Honorable Mentions: Estrella Galvan and Destiny Hallock<\/p>\n
J. Harold Brislin Medal for Distinction in Creative Writing:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Lauren O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n
Thomas and Norah Clarke Medal for Excellence in Business:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Kate Pallas<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Zachary Pramik<\/p>\n
Sister M. Eva Connors Peace Medal:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Madilyn Grose<\/p>\n
Czachor Medal for Distinction in Religious Studies:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Jocelyn Hittle<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Jacob Muth<\/p>\n
Margaret Ruddy Dougherty Medal for Academic Excellence in Special Education:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Maria Johnson<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Ellen Fago<\/p>\n
Mary Grace Loughney Flynn \u201939 Medal for Excellence in Music:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Kyle Bonham Jenkins<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Beatrice Kathryn Chindemi<\/p>\n
Edward Gayeski Medal for Excellence in Design:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Rebecca L. Cohick<\/p>\n
Sister M. Immaculata Gillespie Medal for Excellence in Secondary Education:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Joel Cali<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Kailey Stevenson<\/p>\n
The Jenkins-Colis Gilroy Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Social Work:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Emerson P. Gellert<\/p>\n
Jordan Medal for Excellence in the Social Sciences:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Mikaela Badner<\/p>\n
Kappa Gamma Pi Medal for General Excellence:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Noel Korkuti<\/p>\n
Rosemary Carroll Kazimer Medal for Excellence in Elementary Education:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Natalie Sweeney<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Sage Lesh<\/p>\n
Sister M. Clare Kelley Medal for Excellence In Music:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Mikaela Jean Clark<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Gina Nicole Sacco<\/p>\n
Sister M. Margrete Kelley Medal for Distinction in Service:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Kelsey Green<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Carl (CJ) Shygelski<\/p>\n
Sister M. Davidica Kildea Medal for Excellence in Voice:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Beatrice Kathryn Chindemi<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Jocelyn Emily Meyer<\/p>\n
Saint Luke Medal for Excellence in Art:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Abigail Wilson<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Kelsey Green<\/p>\n
Margaret T. Lunney Medal for Outstanding Performance in the Study of Communication Sciences and Disorders:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Bethany Burns<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Vanessa Bompane<\/p>\n
Lynett Medal for Academic Distinction in Multimedia Communication Arts:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Charlotte Roscher<\/p>\n
Sister Maria Laurence Maher Medal for Excellence in Biological Studies:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Emma Budnovitch<\/p>\n
Mary Pace Medal for Excellence in Philosophy:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Jocelyn Hittle<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Madison Orlando<\/p>\n
Medal for Excellence in Psychology:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Stephanie Hicks<\/p>\n
Sister M. Sylvia Morgan, IHM Medal for Excellence in Pre-medical Studies:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Carl (CJ) Shygelski<\/p>\n
Philip E. Mulry Medal for Excellence in Chemistry:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Jake Jones<\/p>\n
Nemotko Medal for Distinction in Nursing:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Morgan Mayne<\/p>\n
Dr. Wanda Persichetti Medal for Excellence in Foreign Language:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Lucia Anewalt<\/p>\n
Judith Piznar Medal for Leadership and Service to Youth:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Jade Clark<\/p>\n
Robert E. Quinnan Medal for Distinguished Service in the Alphonsian and IHM tradition:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Johanna Lettera<\/p>\n
Shaffer Medal for Nutrition and Dietetics:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Jenna Collins<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention: Marie Traverse<\/p>\n
Tama Medal for Excellence in Mathematical Sciences:<\/p>\n
Awarded to: Noel Korkuti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marywood University honored its best and brightest from the class of 2026 with 39 endowed medals of recognition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[182,139,178,180,179,729],"class_list":["post-194697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}