Meet some of the notable UW–Madison graduates of spring 2025

So many mortarboards, so many impressive students. This weekend, thousands of University of Wisconsin–Madison graduates will become the newest members of the worldwide Badger alumni network. Many have already left a lasting impact — on campus and far beyond. Here are just a few. Consider them a small subset of the excellence of the UW–Madison Class of 2025.

His podcast landed on a national Top 10 list

Jack Ohly is fascinated by technologies that no longer exist. He explores those histories on his podcast “All Good Things,” as in “all good things must come to an end.” His podcast was selected by NPR as one of the 10 best college podcasts in America in 2024, from more than 500 entries. Ohly, a communication arts and mechanical engineering double major from Middleton, Wisconsin, also is the founder of OhlyProps, a for-hire shop that creates replica props for movies and theater productions. He earned awards for the idea from the campus Bolz Center for Arts Administration in 2022 and 2023. The effort helped Ohly land his first post-graduation job: a six-month internship as a special effects designer at Walt Disney Imagineering in Orlando, Florida.

Her prestigious fellowship honors a UW Nobel Prize winner

During the summer of 2018, Shruthi Magesh, an undergraduate in India at the time, traveled to UW–Madison and studied microbial communities in the Handelsman Lab through the Khorana Program for Scholars. The prestigious fellowship is part of the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum and named in honor of Har Gobind Khorana, who won a Nobel Prize in 1968 for his transformative work on the genetic code while a UW–Madison faculty member. The trip would prove prophetic for Magesh, a standout biotechnology undergraduate. Impressed by UW–Madison and the city, she returned to the university and is earning a PhD in microbiology this May. Fun fact: She had thousands of words from her thesis printed on a shirt that she wore to defend her dissertation. Post-graduation, she will be working as a microbiologist in the baby care unit at Procter & Gamble.

A new UW initiative gave him a second chance

Daniel Schuyler was driving in his car in Milwaukee in December of 2023 when he heard a news report on Wisconsin Public Radio about a new initiative at UW–Madison that covers costs for Native students. It was just the motivation Schuyler, an enrolled Oneida Nation citizen, needed to return to campus. He had dropped out of UW in 1999 due to depression, just 21 credits shy of a bachelor’s degree in history and art history. He will now earn that degree this May at age 46 as a member of the first cohort of graduates of the Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise Program. “This degree, and the fact that I was able to obtain a certificate in Indigenous Studies along with it, means the world to me,” Schuyler says. “My teachers and advisors have been so supportive, and the Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise made it all possible. I have gained so much knowledge and confidence this past school year, and I can’t wait to continue on to graduate school at the Institute of American Indian Arts.”

As a high school senior, 45 colleges wanted him

Jadius McGhee made news as a high school senior when word spread that the Milwaukee teen had been accepted to 45 colleges and universities and had been offered a total of $1.6M in scholarships and financial aid collectively from those institutions. In the end, he chose UW–Madison, in part because of the Lumen Scholarship, a merit-based award designed to attract the most talented students. Any regrets on his choice? “None,” says McGhee, who is earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism with certificates in sports communication and history. “My time on campus has been a truly wonderful adventure.” Highlights for McGhee included serving as a video production assistant for UW Athletics and as a student broadcaster for the Big Ten Network.

For this Badger, the forecast is sunny

Emma Hietpas was 11 years old when she witnessed a tornado tear through her neighborhood in Verona, Wisconsin, damaging 19 homes and the elementary school where she had just completed fifth grade. It awakened her to the power and the peril of weather. Today, she alerts viewers to potential harm — or a beautiful day on the Memorial Union Terrace — as a member of the 27 Storm Track Weather Team at WKOW, the ABC affiliate in Madison. Since December, she has been forecasting the weather numerous times a week, including weekend mornings and evenings, while also finishing her senior year at UW. Hietpas is earning a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences with a certificate in data science. Post-graduation, she’ll continue to work full time for WKOW.

Returning student to use his voice in social work field

Avenash Pernankil left a career in the service industry to pursue his true calling, social work. He’s earning a master’s degree in social work and intends to practice clinical social work, engaging in psychotherapy and counseling and performing research on medication-resistant mental illness. Using his voice as one of the few Asian American men in the social work field, he hopes to contribute to destigmatizing mental health treatment among men and among Asian Americans. Pernankil started in the university’s Badger Ready program, which offers access for returning adult students with previous academic barriers to traditional transfer admission.

She founded a wildly popular community chorus

Liz Olson, a doctoral student in conducting at the UW School of Music, wanted to build on the Wisconsin Idea by using her talents to spread the joy of singing. In the fall of 2023, she founded “Cheers, Madison!” — billed as “Madison’s Happy Hour Choir.” It’s a low-commitment, low-threshold choir that is open to everyone, no audition needed. (Singers can drink a beverage of their choice during rehearsals if they wish.) The concept has proven wildly popular, growing from 60 singers in its first cycle to now more than 170. The choir’s concerts routinely draw hundreds to the Garver Feed Mill. “The buzz has been so surprising and so gratifying,” Olson says. “Turns out there are a ton of people of all ages and at all skill levels who want to get together and sing for fun.” Olson, who is earning her doctor of musical arts degree this spring, is now the associate director of choral activities at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, “Cheers, Madison!” lives on, a legacy to Olson’s time in the city.

They rose to the top nationally as scholars

UW–Madison students routinely land top national awards and scholarships. As juniors, Scott Chang and Katarina Aranguiz received Goldwater Scholarships, the premier undergraduate award in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering in the United States. Aranguiz is from Hartford, Wisconsin, and earning a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. Chang is from Hartland, Wisconsin, and earning a bachelor’s degree in biology and Spanish. Axell Boomer, a history and religious studies double major from South Beloit, Illinois, was awarded a 2024 Beinecke Scholarship, which provides exceptional students with funding for graduate study in the arts, humanities or social sciences.

Their popular student organization vaulted to the front

In the spring of 2023, friends Melina Zarboulas and Marlo Pulliam had an idea for a student organization that would expand fashion far beyond the runway. So they co-founded The Vault, which blends design, business, technology, marketing and so much more. In two years, The Vault has become one of the most successful student organizations at UW–Madison, boasting hundreds of members and redefining the meaning of community and inclusivity on campus. “They are incredibly creative, and they’ve been able to establish a very engaged, participatory community from all different majors, which is not easy to do,” says Laura Hensen, executive director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing and Office of Strategic Partnerships at the School of Human Ecology. Zarboulas, of Manhasset, New York, is an information science major. Pulliam, of Glenview, Illinois, is a double major in international studies and consumer behavior and marketplace studies. Watch a video about The Vault.

She juggled coursework while serving her country

Before beginning her studies at UW–Madison in the fall of 2022, Mira Tcherneva had other important responsibilities to attend to. As a flightline crew chief in the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing, the Madison native served a four-month deployment that took her to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. As a UW nursing student, she continued balancing coursework with military responsibilities and in-country trips. “Juggling military service commitments with school required discipline, dedication and time management skills,” Tcherneva says. “It was a demanding path, but a worthwhile one, where coordinating drill weekends, classes, and studies meant every hour had to count. Staying in close communication with my instructors and leaning on the support of both the university and my military supervisors made all the difference.” Tcherneva has re-enlisted for another six-year stint with the 115th Fighter Wing and accepted a position with the Neuro Intermediate Care Team at UW Health. Read more about Tcherneva’s military service and time at UW.

His campus internship will improve EMT response times

Emergency responders need accurate addresses to get to people quickly in a crisis. This issue had become a concern over time at the sprawling UW–Madison Arboretum. Some features of the 1,200-acre property had no assigned addresses, while other addresses contained discrepancies or errors. As a student intern with the UW–Madison Police Department, Brock Prough reinvigorated and eventually completed a stalled project to improve these addresses. Prough is a double major in legal studies and cartography and geographic information systems from Verona, Wisconsin. “His mix of technical skills, police knowledge, personal communication and solid work ethic yielded almost immediate results,” says UWPD Officer Jeff Kirchman. By the time Prough’s internship was over, he had succeeded in getting buildings, parking lots and other significant locations properly addressed on city and county maps and UWPD dispatch software. On April 2, the UWPD presented Prough with a Professional Service Award for extraordinary service to the UW–Madison community.

Her research highlights the impact of sibling relationships

In her undergraduate research, Jenna Innab, a graduating senior in consumer behavior and marketplace studies, investigated how childhood sibling relationships influence individuals’ life trajectories. Working with Professor Megan Bea, she designed a study examining this understudied family dynamic. Innab’s research revealed that high levels of sibling closeness moderately increase college enrollment rates while significantly reducing the likelihood of romantic cohabitation between ages 18 and 23. Her work demonstrates that both the quality and emotional intensity of sibling relationships during childhood can profoundly shape important decisions and outcomes in young adulthood. Innab recently presented her findings at the prestigious annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Washington, D.C.

For doctor-to-be, rural roots run deep

It would be hard to take the country out of Shane Hoffman. Growing up, he showed beef cattle at the county fair, got his first snowmobile as a pre-teen and shot his first buck at 12. Those deep roots will now figure into his career. He’s passionate about rural healthcare and on track to be part of the solution to the physician shortage in rural Wisconsin. On May 9, he will be the first graduate of a program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health that reduces the time it takes to train doctors interested in serving rural parts of the state. Students in the accelerated program take all the same required courses but graduate in three years instead of four through a combination of factors. “Hospitals are going under because they can’t attract people to these rural communities,” says Hoffman, who grew up near Lake Mills, Wisconsin. “I want to live in a small town or in the country. It’s where I feel most at home.” Read more about Shane’s story.