Calling the biggest fan of “The Joe Murray Show,” 98.5 The Sports Hub’s weeknight program, might be an understatement. The sport management major estimates she tuned in to the Boston-based program nearly 300 times last year. So, when the station offered her an internship this summer, she knew it was the perfect fit.

“It’s just a really well-rounded internship, and that’s what I think is truly going to help me,” the aspiring sports broadcaster said.

While Marchand’s shift at the radio station doesn’t start until 6 p.m., she has her hands full with a wide range of duties the rest of the night. She answers incoming calls from listeners, assists with the station’s YouTube stream and creates graphics for social media. But what excites her the most is the chance to go live on the air.

“That’s probably the biggest opportunity I’ve had,” she said. “It’s really nice that they trust me to go on the radio with thousands of people listening.”

Early in the internship, the show’s producer wrote an entire segment for Marchand, giving her the chance to discuss the New England Patriots on the air. A few weeks later, she was helping the station’s social media team cover one of the most consequential days in Boston sports, following the Celtics’ blockbuster trade of Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Those opportunities grew from a connection Marchand had pursued long before the internship began.

Because internships at 98.5 The Sports Hub aren’t publicly posted, Marchand said networking is essential. In fact, when Marchand initially sent Joe Murray a message on LinkedIn during her freshman year, securing an internship wasn’t on her mind.

“Funny enough, he left me on ‘read’ the first time I messaged him,” Marchand said. “A year later, I reached out again and said, ‘Hey, I waited a year. I’d still love to find time to chat. I know you’re really busy.’ The second time, he answered.”

When he finally responded, Murray asked a question that changed everything.

“Do you know Katie Bennert?” he wrote back, referencing the 2024 Elon graduate who both interned and worked at the station. Marchand had never met the Elon alumna, but had heard positive things about her from friends involved with Elon Sports Vision. That shared Elon connection prompted Murray to invite Marchand to tour the studio over Winter Break. That’s when he offered her a spot to join his production team.

“I decided that this would be the best opportunity for me, working at a major market Boston sports radio station, and it’s been amazing,” she said.

While her internship began this summer, Marchand is no stranger to sports broadcasting. During her first two years at Elon, she has contributed to more than 50 Elon Sports Vision broadcasts as a play-by-play announcer, sideline reporter and more. This past year, she became the youngest of three student hosts to call Elon Division I football games on the radio and co-hosted her own sports radio show with Scott Katz ’26. She has also worked more than 90 shifts with Elon Athletics, gaining additional behind-the-scenes experience in game-day operations.

“Being able to have that on my resume at just 19 years old, where a lot of people may not have those opportunities … I think that that’s really what Elon has helped me with,” Marchand said. “I don’t think I would have gotten those opportunities anywhere else.”

At Elon, Marchand has sharpened her on-air delivery and become comfortable working in a studio environment. Now she’s learning how to be more creative producing content centered on sports conversations rather than live competition. She’s also learning to separate her professional responsibilities from her passion as a fan.

Growing up just an hour outside Boston, Marchand has been a fan of the city’s professional sports teams since she was young. In August, she’ll attend Patriots training camp to capture photos and create content for the station.

“You do have to separate being a fan from your professional work, so I can’t fangirl over them when I’m there,” she said. “I have to be professional.”

While Marchand’s own initiative opened the door at 98.5 The Sports Hub, she credits the guidance she received at Elon with helping her walk through it. Assistant Professor of Sport Management Khirey Walker, in particular, played an important role in her internship search.

“He is just one of the most passionate, hardworking, selfless and kind people that I know at Elon,” she said. “He will literally drop anything to help any of his students.”

This fall, Marchand will continue her journey through The Sport Experience in Charlotte, where she’ll live, intern and study while expanding her experience in one of the nation’s fastest-growing sports business markets.

As thousands of soccer fans streamed toward San Francisco Bay Area Stadium in Santa Clara, California, draped in national flags and chanting hours before kickoff, the energy was palpable.

Swiss fans dressed as cows rang cowbells, Australian fans carried enormous inflatable kangaroos, and Jordanian supporters congregated early outside the gates, waving oversized flags and singing in unison. Together, they created the spectacle that makes the FIFA World Cup unlike any other sporting event.

For , those moments were part of her daily routine during the tournament’s opening stages.

As a ticketing operations manager for FIFA, the �þ��� graduate spent several months helping fans enjoy the FIFA World Cup. While much of her work happened behind the scenes, Cirby handled everything from validating each seat in the stadium and accessible seating requests to one of the tournament’s toughest challenges: helping fans who unknowingly purchased counterfeit tickets.

“The more games have been played, the more variations of fake tickets have come out,” she explained.

While resolving ticket issues is part of the job, it represents only a fraction of Cirby’s experience. For all six Bay Area matches – including Team USA’s Round of 32 win – she served as the stadium ticketing manager and welcomed more than 410,000 fans to the region she grew up in.

“It’s the World Cup,” she said. “It’s once in a lifetime to be able to be part of an event like this.”

Cirby joined FIFA in January after nearly six years with the San Francisco Giants, where she built a career in ticket operations and services with her hometown team. But the opportunity to work the World Cup was one she couldn’t pass up.

“I was just kind of looking for jobs casually, just to see what was out there, and I threw in an application – and then it worked out,” Cirby said.

Her responsibilities have stretched far beyond match days. Cirby helped hire local stadium staff, prepare cross-functional training for various departments, and ensure FIFA’s ticketing spaces were ready before fans arrived. Once matches began, she moved between entrances and ticket offices, supporting staff and assisting fans whose tickets would not scan, who needed accessible seating accommodations, or who could not locate their tickets.

The role also gave Cirby a front-row view of the tournament’s global fan culture.

“It’s mesmerizing to see these fans and the passion that they have,” Cirby said. “I don’t get to see the full fan marches, but I get to see them arrive at our entrance and go through our turnstiles, and they’re still chanting and cheering.”

Cirby’s path to FIFA began at Elon, majoring in sport management. She fondly remembers attending MLB’s Winter Meetings with her classmates, where she placed resumes in the mailboxes of organizations with job openings.

“I probably put 20 to 30 resumes in and got a couple of interviews, but that’s how I got my first job with the Atlanta Braves right out of college,” Cirby said.

That first role with the Braves eventually led to opportunities with the Giants and, ultimately, FIFA. Looking back, Cirby encourages students interested in the sport industry to cast a wide net.

“Honestly, just apply,” Cirby said. “Putting yourself out there and applying can make a real difference.”

Her World Cup assignment also demanded resolution. For nearly two months, Cirby was based at a hotel in Santa Clara with other FIFA staff because of the long hours and the proximity to the stadium. The work has been especially demanding because Cirby has been doing it with a torn ACL, an injury she sustained this spring playing in a rec league kickball game. After consulting with doctors, she decided to postpone surgery until after the tournament.

“It’s really funny to be like, ‘Not only am I working the World Cup, but I’m walking like 25,000 steps a day on a torn ACL,’” Cirby laughed.

With surgery scheduled for late August, Cirby is looking forward to a well-earned break – and where her career will take her next. But this experience has reaffirmed why she chose a career in sports.

“I grew up playing soccer through high school, and I’ve continued to be a big fan,” Cirby said. “Seeing supporters from so many different countries bring that passion to every match has been the best part of the job.”

The strategic communications major is serving as a strategy and account intern, where he rotates between McKinney’s strategy and account teams. With a few weeks of the internship behind him, Arrasmith said the transition has been seamless thanks to the strong sense of community at the agency.

“Everyone here is so welcoming,” Arrasmith said. “Even though I’m the youngest person both in the agency and in my internship class, I don’t feel out of place.”

Arrasmith said McKinney has been on his radar for years. After his early exposure to the agency, he regularly checked the company’s internship page in hopes of one day earning a spot in the program.

As an account management and strategy intern, Arrasmith helps bridge communication between the agency and its clients. While the role has introduced new challenges, he arrived with a foundation built through classroom experiences and leadership roles at Elon.

For the past two years, Arrasmith has been involved with Elon’s student-run communications agency.

Arrasmith has served as an account supervisor with Live Oak and credits the organization for preparing him for the fast-paced agency environment.

“I feel I have a good grasp of what’s going on and what people are talking about,” he said.

While familiar with agency work, Arrasmith said the internship has broadened his understanding of how different departments collaborate to serve clients.

He’s also gained exposure to an industry he knew little about before arriving at McKinney. Working with the agency’s health division has required him to learn healthcare terminology, pharmaceutical companies and industry-specific concepts.

“I didn’t know anything about health or pharma, so it’s been a lot of just taking the time afterward to educate myself,” he said.

Despite the learning curve, Arrasmith said the experience has reinforced the value of curiosity and continuous learning.

“I found great success in just always asking questions, always wanting to learn the most I can about a subject, because that shows people that you are interested, you’re engaged, and you actually care about what you’re doing,” he said.

As he enters his third year at Elon, Arrasmith hopes to leave the internship with meaningful relationships across the agency, developing a network he can lean on for guidance. To make that happen, he has set a personal goal of taking at least 10 colleagues out to lunch before the summer ends.

Some lessons start with a lecture. Others begin with a camera in hand, a deadline looming, and a story waiting to be told.

That’s how Blake Pierre-Louis described his experience in �þ���’s Emerging Journalists Program, where the rising senior from Rochester, New York, joined 17 other high school students for a 12-day immersive journalism experience.

“It was like a two-week crash course in everything you might need to know if you’re getting into journalism,” Pierre-Louis said. “It’s a great opportunity to get hands-on experience and actually learn by doing instead of sitting in a classroom. You get to actually go out, apply concepts and use what you’ve learned.”

During the residential program, which ran June 15-26, the students worked as members of a functioning newsroom while reporting on stories on and off campus. Their assignments took them to the North Carolina State Capitol, the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Dash, while media tours introduced them to journalists at WUNC News and ABC11 WTVD-TV. They also produced professional web stories, a newspaper and a television news broadcast.

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“We had an incredibly cohesive and collaborative group of students join us on campus this summer,” said Colin Donohue, assistant professor of journalism and EJP program director. “They were diligent and enterprising and intrepid. As important, they were generous and kind. They possess tremendous potential, and I look forward to seeing them apply their skills in their hometowns and in their schools.”

Led by Donohue and Kelly Furnas, EJP curriculum coordinator and associate �þ��� professor of journalism, students quickly moved from classroom instruction to real-world reporting.

For Thailik McCormick, a rising senior at Central Carolina Academy in Sanford, North Carolina, the experience built on the foundation he established as a founding member of his school’s broadcasting program.

“EJP does a really good job of throwing a lot at you, but then also making sure that you can apply these things really quickly, so you can retain them,” McCormick said. “I was presented with the information, and then immediately told to go apply it.”

The experience also expanded his vision for what his future might hold.

“Two weeks ago, I might have told you I’d study entrepreneurship or accounting, but now I’m really looking into public relations or marketing – and use the hard skills that I’ve worked on here and translate them into a field of my choice,” McCormick said.

Aly McFadden, a rising senior from Clark, New Jersey, said one of the most memorable experiences came while producing a full-fledged television newscast, where students were trusted with everything from anchoring and audio work to directing and producing.

“Everybody in that room made us feel like we were professionals,” McFadden said. “Even if I made a mistake, everybody made me feel like it was OK. It was such an interesting collaboration of people that you’ve known for two weeks who are all using their skills together to create one big production.”

McFadden said working alongside classmates from across the country became one of the most rewarding aspects of her time at Elon.

“It’s really eye-opening to see so many people have so many different life experiences,” she said. “Being in a room with people who are just as passionate about journalism as you are is incredibly motivating. I can’t wait to see them on the news or read their articles.”

Established in 2021, the Emerging Journalists Program introduces high school students interested in journalism and media careers through immersive, experiential learning. �þ��� earn four hours of college credit and are paired with Elon student mentors who continue to provide guidance after the program concludes.

This year, a record 52 students from across the country applied to the program, with all applicants invited to participate in the virtual Exposure experience before 18 students were selected for the on-campus Immersion cohort.

Donohue also credited School of Communications students Charlie Crum ’28, Blair Mitchell ’29 and Emma Perman ’29 for serving as strong counselors and mentors throughout the experience.

“EJP is one of the most professionally fulfilling experiences I’ve participated in,” Donohue said. “I hope a year from now we can celebrate a sixth cohort.”

Held June 12-14 at the historic Coleman Theatre in Miami, Oklahoma, the festival recognized “Forward” with awards for Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Inspirational Film. The festival coincided with Route 66’s centennial celebration, drawing filmmakers and audiences from across the country.

“Forward” follows U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Ashley Christman as she navigates a stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis while continuing to serve in the Marine Corps and remain fully present for her wife and young son. The documentary takes viewers inside Christman’s search for healing through medical treatment, physical training and surf therapy, highlighting both the challenges she faces and the hope that carries her forward. Since the film’s release, Christman has retired from the Marine Corps.

The latest honors build on the film’s momentum following its Audience Choice Award at the 2026 Beaufort International Film Festival and recognition in the 2026 BEA Festival of Media Arts.

“The recognition at Sunny Side Up is especially meaningful because it reflects how deeply audiences continue to connect with Ashley’s story,” Luchsinger said. “Her determination, resilience and commitment to living fully in the face of extraordinary challenges are what make ‘Forward’ resonate. I’m grateful that the film continues to create opportunities for people to engage with those themes of service, hope and perseverance.”

Luchsinger spent more than a year documenting Christman’s experience, working closely with her family to ensure the story was told with authenticity and compassion. The project also brought together a collaborative production team that included Assistant Professor of Cinema and Television Arts Max Negin and cinematographer Drew Glickman. Since its release, the film has continued to find audiences through festival screenings and awards recognition across the country.

For more information about the film “Forward,” .

Before they could create communications campaigns, students in Professor Julie Lellis’ Senior Seminar in Health Communications spent time listening.

They listened to physicians and midwives. They listened to expectant mothers. And they listened to the stories behind the data as part of a partnership with Cone Health’s program that challenged students to address real-world maternal health communication needs.

Those conversations and observations laid the foundation for the students’ semester-long projects. Working with the Cone Health Center for Women’s Healthcare at MedCenter for Women, students developed strategic communications campaigns aimed at increasing enrollment, improving retention and expanding awareness of the program among patients and healthcare providers.

As part of the partnership, students worked directly with healthcare professionals, including Dr. Kim Newton, founder and lead physician of Mom+Baby Combined Care, and Virginia Smith, CenteringPregnancy coordinator. Several students also attended the North Carolina and Virginia Centering Consortium, gaining firsthand insight into the impact of group prenatal care on maternal and infant health outcomes. During Finals Week, students presented their campaigns to Newton and Smith, who visited Elon’s campus.

CenteringPregnancy is an evidence-based model of group prenatal care that combines health assessments, education and peer support. Research has shown the approach can improve maternal and infant health outcomes while helping reduce disparities in care. At the MedCenter for Women in Greensboro, many participants are covered by Medicaid, and the clinic serves uninsured and underinsured patients throughout the region.

“The Elon students were a great part of our team,” Newton said. “They took the time to understand and engage with CenteringPregnancy and really captured how the group care feels different and meets people where they are. Their presentations were impressive to say the least and also provided our team with a roadmap for how to ensure our work to expand Centering feels cohesive and genuine.”

For Emmy Beauvais ’26, a strategic communications major with minors in health communications and business administration, the project demonstrated how classroom learning can translate into community impact.

“Participating in the Health Comm Senior Seminar class – and working with Virginia and Dr. Newton – was one of the most meaningful experiences of my time at Elon,” Beauvais said. “Unlike classroom projects, this project gave us the opportunity to develop and present a real communications campaign for an actual client. We did this through research-backed goals, objectives and strategies, and tangible deliverables that could be implemented in practice.”

Beauvais said attending the regional consortium early in the semester helped shape the team’s work and deepen her understanding of maternal healthcare challenges and opportunities.

“Overall, this experience showed me what it looks like to create work that extends beyond the classroom and truly can make a meaningful impact on a community,” she said.

The course also received a Community Partnership Initiative Grant from Elon’s Kernodle Center. The grant helped Centering providers purchase educational supplies for participants, while students assembled Baby Go! Bags filled with diapers, wipes, burp cloths and other newborn essentials for expectant mothers.

Lellis, who directs the health communications minor, said the partnership allowed students to see both the personal and systemic dimensions of healthcare communication.

“�þ��� experienced everything from the joy of hearing a baby’s heartbeat to the heartache of exploring the realities of health disparities in maternal care,” Lellis said. “They learned how Centering is changing outcomes and making a direct impact on the lives of pregnant women in our local area.”

Lellis explained that the experience challenged students to translate research and data into actionable communications strategies for a community partner.

“�þ��� learned how to generate insights based on data and turn those insights into creative strategies that inform audiences and motivate them to act,” she said.

The “Elon Dance Team Send-Off” video, directed and edited by Peter Sillitto ’26 and produced in collaboration with the Elon Dance Team, received a Sports Video Group (SVG) College Sports Media Award for Outstanding In-Venue Video – Collegiate Student Championship. The award was presented May 27 in Atlanta during the 18th annual SVG College Sports Media Awards ceremony.

The honor came just weeks after the Elon Dance Team captured two national titles at the 2026 National Dance Association College National Championships, winning the Division I pom and Division I hip hop competitions. The back-to-back victories marked a historic achievement for the program, including Elon’s first national championship in the pom category.

Produced for the team’s trip to nationals, the video took a more narrative approach than previous send-off productions.

“Producing a send-off video is something we do every year, with the final piece being shown in the Schar Center and shared across social media,” said Sillitto, a cinema and television arts major. “This year, we wanted to take a more story-driven approach by focusing on the team’s journey to nationals. Our goal was to showcase not only their performances, but also the hard work, dedication and experiences that led them there.”

In addition to Sillitto, the student production team included Kristen Pearson ’27 and Meghan McGarrigle ’28 as producers; and Zack Golub ’26 and Colin Dorroh ’27 as creative producers and camera operators.

across multiple locations, capturing both cinematic visuals and authentic moments from practices, workouts and team activities.

“One of the biggest challenges was making sure we told the team’s real story, which meant being present and ready to film during genuine moments,” Sillitto said. “Capturing those authentic interactions and experiences was an important part of the creative process and helped make the final video feel more personal and meaningful.”

For Sillitto, the award reflects months of collaboration and effort from both the dancers and the production crew.

“I’m proud of the project because every year our goal is to create the best video possible, and we have a lot of creative freedom to experiment with new ideas and push ourselves creatively,” he said. “The final video represents months of hard work from both the dance team and the production crew, so we’re excited and grateful that the project has been recognized.”

Sillitto graduated from Elon in May and recently accepted a position with Booz Allen Hamilton as a videographer and social media content creator.

Sillitto and Dorroh attended the 2026 SVG College Summit in Atlanta alongside Anthony Bamford ’25, coordinating producer for Elon Sports Vision; Patrick Cunningham, director of live broadcast production for Elon Athletics; and students/recent graduates Philip Doherty ’26, Anthony Eppolito ’27 and Joey Marinello ’28.

This year marked another strong showing for Elon at the national competition – the university won its first-ever award in 2025. In addition to the winning Elon Dance Team send-off video, four other Elon productions were recognized as finalists in the Collegiate Student Championship division: “Football: Elon vs. North Carolina A&T,” “Strength Beyond the Game – Brodie Carroll,” “Win The Moment – Asher Cunningham” and “What It Takes – Elon Men’s Basketball Halftime Hype.”

Several of this semester’s studies center on TikTok and the platform’s growing influence on media consumption, identity and audience behavior. “The emphasis on TikTok underscores its increasing prominence in today’s media landscape,” journal editor Harlen Makemson wrote in his introduction to the issue.

Among the featured studies, strategic communications major Kyra Briggs examines how TikTok users responded to the Idaho college student murders, analyzing emotional expression, narrative construction, misinformation and collective sensemaking on the platform. Fellow strategic communications major Avery Ferguson explores how women ages 18 to 25 perceive the “clean girl aesthetic” on TikTok and how it influences their well-being, self-esteem and lifestyle choices. Elizabeth Walker, another strategic communications major, analyzes 100 TikTok videos to examine how Gen Z users expressed nostalgia, emotional memory and generational identity through references to 2016.

Several students investigated the relationship between television, fandom and audience participation. Delaney Guidi, a communication design major, studies how popular film franchises borrow principles from sports merchandising to create team identification, while also examining how fan-made merchandise attempts to establish authenticity. Sport management major Shelby Keel looks into how institutional framing and participatory fan discourse elevated the reality television phenomenon “Scandoval” into a culturally and commercially significant media event.

Additional research focuses on representation and identity in television storytelling. Jenna Moylan, a cinema and television arts major, analyzes four contemporary animated television programs to study trans characters’ narrative roles, the centrality of transness and the visual legibility of character design. Strategic communications major Evelyn Ealey compares portrayals of the Strong Black Woman archetype in television series before and after 2000, finding that more contemporary programs tend to offer greater complexity and depth to those characters.

The issue also includes Halli Harwood’s examination of how three cruise lines frame port communities through excursion descriptions. The strategic communications major found that cruise lines often present selective portrayals of destinations that result in limited diversity, equity and inclusion representation.

“These articles, produced in collaboration with faculty mentors, each represent exceptional achievements in �þ��� research,” Makemson said.

To assemble the spring 2026 edition, Makemson worked with an editorial board of 21 School of Communications faculty who participated in a blind-review process to select the strongest submissions. Since launching in 2010, the Elon Journal has published 33 issues, with each research article on its own dedicated webpage.

Among more than 200 �þ��� research journals cataloged by the Council on Undergraduate Research, the Elon Journal remains one of the few focused exclusively on student work in journalism, media and communications.

As �þ��� honored its first-generation graduates during the annual stole ceremony on May 20 in McKinnon Hall, Assistant Director of First-Generation Student Support Services Kenneth Brown Jr. ’19 turned to the words of American poet Lucille Clifton to capture the significance of the moment.

“‘Won’t you celebrate with me what I have shaped into a kind of life? I had no model,’” Brown recited from Clifton’s poem, “Won’t you celebrate with me,” using the passage to reflect on the journeys of the 70 students – including 10 graduate students – recognized during this year’s ceremony.

In his welcome, Brown explained to the soon-to-be graduates that the university was honoring not only their academic accomplishments, but also their spirit, commitment and resiliency.

“Today, we celebrate the paths each of these students has created – a path that took shape as they walked on it,” he said. “We celebrate the legacy they are leaving on this campus as remarkable leaders and scholars, a beacon of light in a dark world. We celebrate all they have given to Elon and how they have made us a stronger, more inclusive institution.”

Organized by First-Generation Student Support Services, an initiative within the Center for Access and Success, the ceremony marked the largest group recognized since the stole ceremony was established in 2020. The milestone served as a point of pride for participants, their families and the university.

Brown thanked gathered faculty, staff, mentors, family members and friends for supporting the students throughout their Elon journeys, emphasizing that the celebration reflected a shared commitment to first-generation student success.

Following Brown’s introduction, the ceremony transitioned to reflections from student keynote speaker Asia Green ’26, a presentation of the first-generation stoles, a charge from Luis H. Garay, director of the Gender and LGBTQIA Center, and the announcement of this year’s 1891 Awards recipients.

Finding the perseverance

During her keynote remarks, Green reminded fellow first-generation graduates that every student’s route to Commencement looked different – and that those differences deserved to be celebrated.

“Every person in this room has a different story, a different struggle, and a different journey that brought them to this moment,” said the exercise science major. “Some of us barely made it through certain courses. Well, we’re here today! No matter what your journey looked like, you made it here, and that alone is something to be proud of.”

The La Crosse, Virginia, native spoke candidly about overcoming fear and uncertainty throughout her college experience, urging students to move forward with confidence even when the future feels intimidating.

“To be a first-generation student means more to me than I can fully explain because it’s more than receiving a degree – it’s about traveling without a road map,” she said.

Despite moments of self-doubt, Green flourished at Elon, carving her own way. She built an impressive record of academic achievement and campus involvement while pursuing �þ��� research opportunities, leadership roles, and a study abroad experience in Costa Rica. Following graduation, Green said she will continue her education after being accepted into a doctoral occupational therapy program in Florida.

“Success does not always require knowing all the answers or having everything planned,” Green said. “For me, it often meant intentionally choosing to stay despite significant challenges. Many of us have experienced times of uncertainty when giving up felt easier than continuing. However, by persevering through these difficult moments, we find new opportunities and directions that redefine our paths.”

“My time at Elon taught me that where you come from does not define where you are going.”

After Green’s keynote, graduates crossed the stage to receive their first-generation stoles from mentors, family members and supporters who shaped their Elon experiences.

Fittingly, the stole was designed by first-generation student Daisy Martinez-Jimenez ’26, and “symbolizes the unique and complex journey that you all have taken to be in this moment,” Brown said.

Along with the stole, students received an Elon lapel pin, sponsored by the Office of Alumni Engagement, signifying their entry into the Elon alumni family.

Pay it forward

The event continued with an inspirational charge from Garay, drawing from their own experiences as a first-generation college student and current doctoral student.

Garay reflected on the significance of the moment not only for the students being recognized, but also for the families and communities who supported them along the way.

“My cultural roots are in the ranchos of Zacatecas, Mexico,” Garay said. “My family, like many immigrants, came to this country for the opportunity and a better life for their kids. So, my college graduation was not only mine but my parents’ and my family’s graduation, too. Maybe this is something some of you relate to as well.”

Garay structured their remarks around three invitations for graduates as they move into the next chapter of their lives: honoring mentors, sharing knowledge, and paying it forward.

As part of their remarks, Garay encouraged graduates to recognize the mentors who helped them reach Commencement. Garay recalled a former supervisor who encouraged them early in their career and challenged graduates to think about the people whose support and encouragement sustained them throughout college. Garay even paused their remarks to invite graduates to send a text message thanking a mentor, family member or friend who helped guide them to graduation day.

“My last invitation to you all … take the knowledge you have gained and pay it forward,” Garay said. “By paying it forward, I mean using your knowledge, skills, expertise, social connections, or financial means to shift the reality for someone. As you go and leave Elon and enter your careers, I want to encourage you to find ways to give back to those who are coming after you.”

Recognizing this year’s 1891 Awards recipients

Following the stole presentations, organizers recognized the recipients of the 2026 1891 Awards, honoring individuals who have advanced first-generation student success at �þ���.

Named in honor of Elon’s first graduating class in 1891, the awards celebrate members of the campus community who embody the values of First-Generation Initiatives: empowerment, celebration, community, passion and authenticity.

This year’s recipients included:

• 1891 Award of Community: Emily Menjivar ’26
• 1891 Award of Celebratory: Jana Lynn Patterson, associate vice president for student life/dean of student health and well-being, and Paula DiBiasio, associate professor of physical therapy education
• 1891 Award of Passion: Selma Marić ’26
• 1891 Award of Empowerment: Daniella Alonzo Lopez ’28
• 1891 Award of Authenticity: Jo-Rae Jennings G’26, associate director of communications for Student Professional Development Center

Closing the ceremony, Cici Salazar ’23, G’26, encouraged graduates to reflect on the resilience and determination that carried them throughout their time at Elon. The graduate apprentice for First-Generation Initiatives reminded students that the challenges they faced throughout college had already prepared them for the uncertainties that lie ahead.

“Take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come,” Salazar said. “Each challenge, setback and moment of uncertainty has shaped the strength and resilience that you brought to the stage today.”

Salazar emphasized that graduates’ journeys at Elon were marked not only by personal achievement, but also by resilience, community and the responsibility to support future generations.

“As first-generation students, we have already proven that we can do hard things,” Salazar said. “We’ve broken barriers, created opportunities, and paved the paths for ourselves and those who will follow after us. More now than ever, we must continue showing up for one another with compassion, strength and authenticity.”

Pendleton’s article, “,” is available through Taylor & Francis Online.

Published in May, the study explores how journalism and communication students navigate questions of belonging, institutional support and identity as colleges and universities across the country reevaluate or scale back DEI initiatives. The research highlights the tensions students experience between feeling connected to their academic communities while also confronting isolation and uncertainty about institutional commitment to inclusion.

Pendleton, whose scholarship focuses on authenticity, relationship management and equity in strategic communications and higher education, said the project reflects her broader interest in how institutions shape relational dynamics and student experiences.

“Understanding how students experience belonging during moments of institutional and cultural change is critical for communication educators and university leaders,” Pendleton said. “This research examines the complexities students face as they navigate identity, support and community in evolving educational environments.”

Pendleton joined �þ��� in fall 2023. Her scholarship has appeared in several journals, including Public Relations Review, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Journal of Health Communication, Social Responsibility Journal and The Journal of Social Media in Society.

is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on communication studies, media, culture and social issues. It is published by Howard University and is especially known for scholarship examining race, identity, representation, gender, politics and marginalized communities in media and communication.