Meet some of our notable grads for spring 2026

Above all, he values bringing people together

Ryan Schwartz was selected from a wide range of talented applicants to be the Spring 2026 Commencement student speaker. A soon-to-be graduate of the Wisconsin School of Business with a double major in finance, investment and banking, plus real estate and urban land economics, Ryan grew up in Naperville, Illinois, and has always believed in the power of interconnectedness — a theme that serves as the foundation for his commencement speech.

“Coming from an inter-faith household, I have always strongly valued bringing people together,” he says. “I live through the belief that human connection strengthens our perspectives both personally and professionally.” At UW–Madison, Ryan served as vice president of Engineering, Business and Entrepreneurship, the first undergraduate student organization affiliated with both the College of Engineering and the School of Business.

He was also a refounder and president of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, which under his leadership raised thousands of dollars for charity and contributed more than 2,000 service hours toward various causes. Attending a “Lunch with the Chancellor” event this winter got him thinking even more about ways to bring people of different backgrounds together, Ryan says. “I feel that this school has continued to bring people together in a world that has a lot of divisions.” Writing his speech “made me think a lot about what it means to be a Badger. This university has meant everything to me, and I want to ensure that all my fellow graduates hold it dear to themselves as they go on and accomplish great things.”

From a small town to big events

Adeline Wood grew up in the small, close-knit rural town of Hillsboro in southwest Wisconsin. But there was nothing small about the role she took on at UW–Madison. As a freshman, she signed up to volunteer for the Wisconsin Union Directorate, the student-led board for the Wisconsin Union, which organizes more than 1,000 events annually in Memorial Union and Union South, and outdoors through Hoofers. By 2025-26, she had worked her way up to becoming Wisconsin Union president.

“Throughout my time in WUD and at the Union, I’ve been able to see students plan and participate in thousands of events,” says Adeline, now graduating with a degree in human development and family studies. Not only did she find — and help create — a sense of community through WUD similar to the closeness she’d experienced in her hometown, “but I was able to help others do the same,” she says. “Whether that be through programming events or supporting other students, I knew that the work that I was doing was going to impact somebody on campus. Almost all the events that are hosted by the Union are done completely by students, for students. It was truly a unique experience to be able to work alongside these student leaders and to see these amazing, educational, once-in-a-lifetime events come to fruition.”

Champions for Wisconsin

It’s been a senior year in the international limelight for Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey and Kirsten Simms, all of whom brought home an Olympic gold medal from Italy this winter as part of Team USA. The entire hockey world was watching as Laila thrillingly connected with Badger alumna Hilary Knight’s game-tying goal against Team Canada in the championship match-up — and later, as Caroline earned Olympic MVP, becoming the first Badger ever to take home the honor. The three are part of a legendary senior class for Wisconsin women’s hockey during a legendary year, when the team also won the 2026 National NCAA Championships. Fellow teammates in the Class of 2026 include Lacey Eden, Claire Enright, Vivian Jungels, Marianne Picard, Chloe Baker and McKayla Zilisch.

Nursing is more than a job — it’s his calling

Brandon Kreger had a different major in mind when he visited campus the summer before his freshman year for SOAR, UW–Madison’s student orientation program. During that visit, and for reasons he can’t explain, Brandon decided to drop by the School of Nursing. It immediately felt like home — and prompted him to change his academic and career plan. “I don’t know what it was. I felt like I was being pulled” toward the school, he says. “They said ‘nursing,’ and I had this feeling I had to go there.” His encounters with health care had started earlier: In 2021, Brandon was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 16 years old. “It was a shocker to me. You take a lot for granted when things work normally in your life, and when you hit a rough patch, you kind of reassess and think about what’s important to you. I thought back to that during SOAR and the impact that nurses have had on my life,” he says.

Brandon went on to excel in his studies and will graduate in May 2026 with honors. He was named a student nursing ambassador, helping with engagement activities for alumni, prospective students and friends of the school, and was selected by his fellow students to speak at the 2026 spring School of Nursing commencement ceremony. Post-graduation, the Stoughton, Wisconsin, native will stick with UW, working in the vascular and cardiac surgery unit at UW Hospital. “I’ve made a lot of good memories on campus,” he says. “It’s just a really great place to be.”

Seeking a key to genetic mysteries

Evelyn Browning jumped into research the spring of her freshman year at UW, determined not only to gain the scientific foundation she needed for graduate school, but to help people like her older sister. “I’ve known Tori has the rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder Prader-Willi syndrome since I was about five years old,” she says. “Seeing the impact on her — her struggles with developmental delays and emotional control — and the way she has persevered through it all gave me a drive to not only find a way to help those like Tori, but to support those around me in everything I do.” That drive pushed Evelyn to pursue majors in both genetics and genomics and data science, earning a bachelor’s degree with honors from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the 2026 Herfurth-Kubly Award for Comprehensive Undergraduate Excellence, the Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship and other honors. She is a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Marshall Scholarship and will next pursue a PhD at the University of Cambridge in England. First, however, she has her eyes on another goal: Already a Taekwondo black belt, Evelyn will test soon for her black belt in Okinawan karate.

Carrying the flag for community, family and fellow students

When Louis Jason Aquino was asked to serve as flag bearer for the Graduate School at commencement, it was not only an immense honor — it was a chance to reflect on the two years he had spent at UW–Madison to earn a master’s degree in agroecology. “When I took a step back, I realized what made my time here stand out was the accumulation of everyday accomplishments,” he recalls. “Rather than one defining moment, my journey was shaped by many experiences” such as helping to organize the FEED Summit in Eau Claire with UW–Madison’s Division of Extension and working as a farm to school evaluator through the School of Human Ecology. Through an exchange program with medical students in Colombia, Louis collaborated on a project online to develop a prototype cosmetic face cream from coffee waste streams. For his master’s thesis, he journeyed to Puerto Rico and partnered with an agroecological, community-based organization while conducting independent research. Louis received the Crowe Scholarship for Graduate Student Thesis Research Award, among other honors, and became a certified research mentor through the Delta Program. Graduation day will be an important moment for all his family, he says. “I am a first-generation American, college graduate, and now a master’s graduate,” he says. “I am honored to carry the flag for my family, my community and the many graduate students who have worked hard to reach this moment.”

From science to writing science fiction

At first, Devin Guthrie felt hesitant about enrolling in a large university, but he soon found that the many opportunities within the environmental science and environmental studies majors at UW allowed him to thrive. A Milwaukee native, Devin served in top leadership roles of five student organizations dedicated to helping create an equitable environmental future. He founded the university’s Science Fiction Club, combining his interests in science and science-fiction writing to approach environmental concerns. Devin co-founded the national coalition The Fruits of Metal Flowers to explore the overlap between the environment, community and eco-futurism. He served as a greenhouse assistant for the Birge Botany Garden and Greenhouses and applied his skills to four internships in botanical research, land stewardship, horticulture and beekeeping.

Devin logged more than 200 hours of volunteering in areas such as paleontology, prescribed burns and astronomical science communication, and he was named a scholar of the Community Environmental Scholars Program and a Dean’s Ambassador for the College of Letters & Science. He sat on the board of advisors for the Morgridge Center for Public Service and was a fellow of Newman Civic Fellowship, a national program dedicated to civic engagement. After graduation, he’ll serve as a scholar of the CLIME program, a conservation leadership program with the University of California, Santa Cruz. “I honor my teachers, family and friends, as without them I never would have been in this position,” Devin says. “They demonstrated the importance of community as a source of collaboration, support and joy. I want them to know how much their being means to me.”

Building support for women in their financial lives

It was by joining a handful of student groups at UW–Madison that Morgan Beyer discovered where she truly thrived — in “spaces centered on connection, impact and empowering others,” she says. Those experiences led Morgan to found a new student organization, InvestHer, which is focused on making financial education more approachable and empowering for women and underrepresented students. Within a year, InvestHer was named UW–Madison’s Best New Student Organization at the Bucky Awards.

“What started as an idea has grown into a community where students can build confidence and feel supported in their financial lives, whether that is through understanding student loans, opening a credit card or thinking about retirement planning early on,” she says. With majors in both personal finance and communication sciences and disorders, Morgan also served as vice president of community development for the Panhellenic Association, was a member of Best Buddies, worked as a teaching assistant within the School of Human Ecology Personal Finance Program and volunteered as a tax preparer for the UW Extension Richard Dilley Tax Center. “My experience at UW–Madison has been shaped by getting involved and saying yes to opportunities early on,” the Green Bay, Wisconsin, native says. “One thing I’ve learned is that confidence doesn’t come from before you start; it comes from doing. That’s something I hope more students, especially women, can take with them when it comes to money, careers and leadership.”

Understanding grief, and helping others find their way

Molly Gerrish belongs to a family of Badgers: Her husband, son and two daughters are either alums, current undergraduates or incoming students at UW–Madison. Molly herself has a PhD in early childhood education and is a professor at UW-River Falls, with 18 years of experience in higher education. Her own journey to further her studies at UW–Madison, however, was complex: She began work toward a master’s degree for professional educators just months after her daughters’ father died in a tragic accident. “Returning to higher education as a nontraditional student to join the MSPE program was overwhelming and a bit humbling,” she says. “However, I made a deliberate choice to show my children and myself that we can do hard things, even in the face of profound challenge. My decision to attend UW–Madison was a meaningful step on a healing journey as a mom trying to navigate the one thing every parent dreads — having to save their children from pain — and as a professional seeking to add to the body of knowledge that might help others facing their own mountains, whatever they may be.”

Molly chose to write her master’s thesis on the impact of grief on the higher education experience, “with the hope of better supporting students like my daughters — students navigating loss, transition and uncertainty while trying to persist and succeed,” she says. She’s now working to create a grief-informed professional development program for faculty and staff and hopes to develop a student-forward grief program. “We never truly know what someone else is facing, and that realization has reinforced how much the way we show up for one another, both in academic and personal spaces, matters,” she says.

Giving a boost to tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

If a triple major in data science, entrepreneurship and philosophy did not keep him busy enough, Ben Lukszys, a Rath Merit Scholar in the Wisconsin School of Business, has spent much of his time at UW–Madison empowering fellow students to launch entrepreneurial careers. A native of New Glarus, Wisconsin, Ben started his entrepreneurial journey in fall 2023, operating a student startup accelerator called ramp100 with Professor Jon Eckhardt, special advisor to the chancellor for entrepreneurship, and entrepreneur Jack Koziol. In ramp100, Ben sourced and supported more than a dozen student founders who have since done millions in revenue and even been featured on the TV show Shark Tank. Ben also co-led Transcend UW, running the largest pitch competition on campus with $42,500 in prizes for students. In fall 2024, he turned ramp100 into a student entrepreneur community and has since run more than 20 meetups and three startup job fairs, serving over 500 students and 30 local startups. Most recently, Ben co-founded Breakout, a recruiting agency that has placed 15 UW students and recent grads into roles at local startups. “All in all, I’m most proud of the community I have built during my time at UW,” says Ben. “The people I’ve met and been fortunate enough to connect with for professional opportunities or as friends have been the most fulfilling part of my professional life over the past four years.” After graduation, he’ll join BlueDot Impact, working to identify exceptional entrepreneurs and support them in founding companies in AI security and biosecurity.

Creating a flourishing community for ASL

“She is one of the most engaged, motivated, and involved students I’ve ever met,” says Holly Fosher of the School of Education Career Center about Heaven Williams. Throughout her UW–Madison career, Heaven could often be found signing American Sign Language as the co-founder and president of Badgers Sign, the first ASL student organization on campus. The Kenosha, Wis. native also served as co-president of the Health Promotion Health Equity Learning Community while simultaneously interning at the Wisconsin Department of Public Health’s Birth to 3 Program, the Morgridge Center for Public Service and the centers for Pre-Health and Pre-Law Advising. As a Badger Volunteer team leader, Heaven has tutored students at Madison East High School in ASL. She is a recipient of the Tom Shick Award, given to students “who have maintained a high academic standing and who have demonstrated an intellectual vigor and concern for racial equality.” UW–Madison gave her a place to develop her interests in ASL and has been her “dream school” since she was little, says Heaven, who is receiving a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and health equity, with certificates in African American studies and disability rights and services. Why Wisconsin? “Because of the Wisconsin Idea,” she says. “We have humility, empathy and the encouragement to be relentlessly curious, which is really beautiful.”

A drive to build civic education

As a first-generation Latina student, coming to UW–Madison as a freshman “meant stepping into spaces I wasn’t always sure I belonged in,” says Roselyn Pacheco, a Racine, Wis., native. She struggled her first year on campus but soon realized that “the beauty of Madison is that it can become whatever you make of it,” she says. So, Roselyn stepped up and co-founded the award-winning student organization VOCES: Voices of Courage for Equity and Social Justice, where she helped lead voter registration efforts, Know Your Rights panels and civic education workshops. In her sophomore year, Roselyn ran her first marathon and, wanting to share that experience with others, formed the Wisconsin Marathon Team for UW students (and then ran two more Madison Marathons after that). Initially shy about public speaking, she uncovered the strength of her voice as a civic engagement organizer with Voces de la Frontera. Last month, the psychology major won the Miss Great Lakes pageant, leading her to qualify to compete at Miss Wisconsin in June, where she hopes to continue to promote civic education and participation. “Beyond competition, I see this as a launching point,” says Roselyn, who in the future plans to attend law school. “I want to grow my voice beyond campus,” she says, “speaking in classrooms, communities and across the nation about civic education, access and the power of understanding the systems that shape our lives.”

Choosing a future in engineering

After her graduation in May, Jacknetson Naw plans to pursue a master’s degree in structural engineering at UW–Madison. That decision grew out of experiences she had as an undergraduate civil engineering major and the unique research she was able to participate in in the lab of Hannah Blum, a professor of structural engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Coming in, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do because civil engineers can go into so many areas,” says Jacknetson, “but Hannah’s lab has really helped me find what I want to do for the future.” Jacknetson, who grew up in Waukesha, Wis., is a first-generation Karen (an ethnic minority from Myanmar) refugee and a first-generation college student. After helping to found the Myanmar Student Association at UW–Madison, she organized the first campus Myanmar Culture Night, drawing more than 150 attendees for an evening of traditional dance and other cultural practices of various ethnic communities in Myanmar. “I’ve advised engineering students for nearly 14 years, and ‘Jenet’ stands out to me as truly exceptional,” says her advisor. “She is talented, hard-working and engaged. It’s been a joy to get to know her over the years.”

An animated film on top of two majors

“My time at UW–Madison was defined by expanding my relationship to art,” says Anna Bitonti, who is graduating with dual bachelor’s degrees in art and creative writing. “What made my experience here unique was the number of art forms I was able to move through: painting, creative writing, animation and design, and how each one opened unexpected opportunities for me.” As a visual artist, Anna participated in many gallery shows on campus and worked with the Wisconsin Union, where she served as a marketing and graphic design intern and designed the visual identity for the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s 2025–26 season.

A large-scale public installation she created for WUD won an honorable mention from the Association of College Unions International’s “Steal This Idea” competition. Outside of classes, Anna served as lead animator for Bittersweet, an independent animated film created by a team of artists across the country and that premiered at the Madison Film Festival. The film went on to screen at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth and the L.A. Animated Film Festival, among others. Anna completed a semester-long creative writing thesis, developing a 150-page fiction manuscript that she plans to expand into a full-length novel. On campus, “I never felt confined to one medium or identity,” she says. “UW–Madison helped me build momentum by saying yes to opportunities that continue to push me into real-world creative environments.”