Spring 2023 Commencement

Throughout her career at Virginia Tech, she has achieved academic excellence integrating multicultural issues, politics, and Spanish studies while often serving as a peer mentor in her classes. Grace’s other academic achievements beyond Hispanic studies emphasize her dedication to inclusivity as demonstrated by her projects focusing on data analysis of marginalized communities with the goal of identifying ways to improve access and understanding of crucial social issues. Her capstone project researched the impact of adverse childhood experiences on children and adults in the United States, with the aim of providing key solutions in Southwestern Virginia. Grace’s work in data analysis and cultural research has provided her with a nuanced ability for capturing the interconnected thread across politics, history, and cultures, which is evident in the quality and innovation of her academic work.

Grace spent a summer in Guatemala engaging in outreach and serving local communities. She also has been trained and works as an EMT and as the Risk Management Officer, overseeing calls for other first responders for Sports Club practices and games at Virginia Tech. In addition, she works as the Afterhours Coordinator of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is the Vice President of the Women’s Water Polo organization, coordinating all of their activities.

Grace was accepted into the Accelerated B.A./M.A. Hispanic Studies program beginning Spring 2023 and was enrolled in two graduate classes while completing her undergraduate degree. After graduation, she will continue with the M.A. in Hispanic Studies and begin her teaching assistantship in Fall 2023.

 The German faculty have come to know Madeline as a very diligent and actively engaged student, whose in-class contributions and written work are impressive proof of her excellent German skills and her insightfulness with regard to culture, literature, and society. When the pandemic made study abroad impossible, Madeline chose to interact with native German speakers through the Tandem.MINT program with the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Through regular Zoom meetings with a German partner, she improved her language abilities and learned about German culture and university life first-hand while honing her intercultural communication skills. Madeline also has served as a leader and volunteer while giving back to the community. In Spring 2022 she joined Teach for Jamie, a student-run after-school program teaching German in Blacksburg elementary schools, and during the past academic year she has served as the program’s president. Since 2021 Madeline has been the secretary of the Student Chapter of the Wildlife Society at Virginia Tech and has led a student team that designed and installed 24 informational plaques about birds at Nellie’s Cave Park in Blacksburg. She also has been a co-coordinator of the Bird Reflection Impact Monitoring (BRIM) project at Virginia Tech, documenting bird mortality due to window collisions on our campus.

This summer Madeline is working as an avian point count technician with the University of Delaware and the National Parks Service. In the near future she hopes to be employed by the Smithsonian Institute; her long-term goal is a graduate degree in wildlife conservation with a focus on birds, and she would like to study in Germany while working towards her M.A.

She has gone above and beyond in the completion of her final projects for Arabic classes, some of which she has taken for honors credit. In class discussions Dana has demonstrated outstanding critical thinking skills. She is also very engaged on campus, including actively working with the Arabic Language Student Club, in addition to other student clubs. Dana also participated in the Open Mic event at Mozaiko, the intercultural Living-Learning Community at Virginia Tech, reciting a poem by Mahmoud Darwish. At the Arabic Poetry Night Dana served as both an emcee and reciter, which contributed to making the event truly successful. Dana’s instructors describe her as “excellent, thoughtful, compassionate, and attentive.”

She is a student in the Virginia Tech Russian Flagship program and has been an active participant in Flagship workshops and events, especially enjoying the Russian theatre workshop conducted by artist-in-residence Alexander Nordstrom. In Summer 2022 Grace studied in Daugavpils, Latvia.

Grace has been accepted as a participant in the 2023-2024 Russian Flagship Capstone program at the Overseas Center in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Throughout her career at Virginia Tech, she has achieved academic excellence integrating multicultural issues, politics, and Spanish studies while often serving as a peer mentor in her classes. Grace’s other academic achievements beyond Hispanic studies emphasize her dedication to inclusivity as demonstrated by her projects focusing on data analysis of marginalized communities with the goal of identifying ways to improve access and understanding of crucial social issues. Her capstone project researched the impact of adverse childhood experiences on children and adults in the United States, with the aim of providing key solutions in Southwestern Virginia. Grace’s work in data analysis and cultural research has provided her with a nuanced ability for capturing the interconnected thread across politics, history, and cultures, which is evident in the quality and innovation of her academic work.

Grace spent a summer in Guatemala engaging in outreach and serving local communities. She also has been trained and works as an EMT and as the Risk Management Officer, overseeing calls for other first responders for Sports Club practices and games at Virginia Tech. In addition, she works as the Afterhours Coordinator of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is the Vice President of the Women’s Water Polo organization, coordinating all of their activities.

Grace was accepted into the Accelerated B.A./M.A. Hispanic Studies program beginning Spring 2023 and was enrolled in two graduate classes while completing her undergraduate degree. After graduation, she will continue with the M.A. in Hispanic Studies and begin her teaching assistantship in Fall 2023.

Jennifer Miller has exceeded expectations in all areas of classwork, teaching, and research during her two years in the master’s program at Virginia Tech. Multiple professors praise her contributions in the classroom and the outstanding quality of her work. Dr. Vinodh Venkatesh notes: “her performance in class discussions and written work was absolutely stellar.” Jennifer was awarded one of the very few graduate assistantships offered in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures; as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA), she has proven herself consistently engaged, and her students appreciate her communicative classes and her positive, energetic attitude. 

Jennifer’s outstanding performance as a GTA is exceeded only by her excellent scholarship.  She possesses outstanding language and analytical skills. She took on the extra challenge of writing her thesis in Spanish, titled “Problematización de la memoria histórica: intertextualidades y transiciones políticas en Insensatez de Horacio Castellanos Moya y La dimensión desconocida de Nona Fernández.” Her thesis advisor Dr. María del Carmen Caña Jiménez applauds the high quality of her research and notes: “Jennifer proposes an entirely new reading that adds to the very important line of inquiry of testimonial literature in the region.” In short, Jennifer embodies what excellence looks like at the graduate level. 

After graduation Jennifer will teach Spanish to high school students at an independent school in Virginia.