West Virginia University Institute of Technology graduate Alexis Sexton is ready to take on the engineering world, a graduate program and an assistantship at Virginia Tech thanks to connections she’s built during her time in Beckley.
From the Utah Valley to the mountains of West Virginia, Hayley Trotter is a non-traditional undergraduate student at West Virginia University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies in the Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She's also a mom working to be a living example for her children that education is an important part of life, no matter what stage you decide to pursue it.
West Virginia University Foundation Scholar Laya Chennuru will graduate May 17 with dual bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and psychology, leaving campus as a “Mountaineer for life.” She said her time in Morgantown was rich with opportunities to learn, to serve others, to lead and to make countless memories.
Graduating May 17, members of the West Virginia University Literacy Fellows cohort are earning their master’s degrees in literacy education at the WVU College of Applied Human Sciences and completing a new approach to professional learning. Many have called the experience “transformational” for how their students are learning to read and write.
Paige Bradley, a senior graduating from the West Virginia University School of Nursing during Commencement on May 15, said a combination of things drew her to nursing including a heart for serving others, deep faith, and her “Nana” who was her best friend growing up and who she helped care for when she was sick.
Carl Smith is a man who believes in starting what he finishes. He never finished college. It’s the one project he never completed. And it didn’t sit well with the now-83-year-old. After 65 years, all that will change as he earns his degree and attends the 2026 Commencement ceremony at West Virginia University Potomac State College.
West Virginia University senior Grace Terlion is pairing her supply chain management studies with applied artificial intelligence and data analytics training to prepare for a career at the forefront of modern business. Through hands-on coursework, machine learning projects and faculty mentorship in the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, Terlion is building the technical skills she said she believes will be essential in the AI-driven future.
The latest generation of Payne family lawyers — Beckley native Chris Payne — will walk across the West Virginia University College of Law Commencement stage at 9 a.m. May 15. Also the president of the WVU Law Class of 2026, Payne may be among the first, fourth-generation Black lawyers in the country.
For Reilly Rollman, a senior civil engineering major with a minor in applied mathematics at West Virginia University, an early exposure to construction helped shape a long-term academic and professional path in engineering.
Inspired by his own family tragedy, West Virginia University School of Medicine graduating senior Jonathan “Tucker” Bennett is on a mission to save others through emergency medicine.