Shenandoah University celebrated the largest group of eligible graduates in its 150-year history at its 2025 University Commencement on May 24 at the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics and Events Center.
The ceremony honored the accomplishments of 1,520 graduates from the 2024-25 academic year, including 239 August 2024 graduates, 363 December 2024 graduates and 918 candidates for May degree conferrals. The total number of May 2025 graduates will not be official until 30 days after commencement.
“Today we celebrate you, and we launch you in the most important of years here at Shenandoah. You are a special class among special classes because this is our 150th anniversary,” Shenandoah University President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., said to open the ceremony, before describing the institution’s “bold move” from Dayton, Virginia, to Winchester in 1960 that saved the university.
Shenandoah’s 2025 University Commencement also included remarks from Kyle Feldman ’11, ’14, president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and member of the Board of Trustees; James Imoh, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees; and outgoing Student Government Association President Nick Markovina ’25, who graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration and served two years as SGA president.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I congratulate you. We celebrate you,” Imoh said. “We are thrilled about the successes that you’ve already had, but we anxiously look forward to seeing the contributions and the difference that you’re going to make in your communities. This is a special place, and you all are now our living brand. You all will always be Hornets, and we hope that you will continue to succeed and thrive in every environment that you find yourselves in.”
The ceremony included a surprise Wilkins Award given to Shenandoah Conservatory Lighting Designer and Associate Professor of Theatre and Lighting Design Andrew Carson, M.F.A., whom Fitzsimmons lauded for going “above and beyond” to provide support to student Katie Forbes ’25 as she faced – and continues to face – tremendous adversity.
Days into her senior year in Fall 2024, Forbes was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and treatment necessitated that Forbes be hospitalized in Houston, over 1,300 miles from Shenandoah’s campus. Carson led an effort to ensure that Forbes was not only able to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre design and production this year, but also able to serve as the lighting designer for Shenandoah Conservatory’s production of “Spamalot” in late February and early March.
Forbes did it all remotely from her hospital room in Houston, her lighting design role in “Spamalot” made possible by the efforts of Carson, Forbes and her fellow students, who devised a system for Forbes to fulfill her role in real time during the live productions. It was a feat that Fitzsimmons said is rarely performed, even at the highest levels of theatre production.
“Professor Carson’s entrepreneurial spirit and can-do attitude set the tone and ensured success. He has kept Katie moving forward in the profession she loves. Coupled with Katie’s amazing resilience and determination that the show must go on, it did, and to rave national reviews,” Fitzsimmons said. “As Katie’s mom wrote, ‘A huge shoutout to Professor Carson and the educational environment he creates. He has given tangible purpose and hope at a transformative juncture in my child’s healing journey.’”
Forbes was able to attend Shenandoah’s commencement in person and received a rousing ovation — and shared a hug with President Fitzsimmons — as she walked across the stage to receive her diploma.
Fitzsimmons also awarded the President’s Medal to 1956 alumnus Robert “Bob” Crawford for his outstanding dedication and service to the university. Crawford, who was a member of one of the final Shenandoah classes to study in Dayton before the university moved to Winchester, has served as president of the Dayton Alumni Society for over 20 years. Under his leadership, the Dayton Alumni Society has established the Dayton Gallery, Dayton Alumni Hall of Fame, and the Dayton Alumni Endowed Scholarship.
The ceremony also commemorated an honorary doctorate that Shenandoah University recently bestowed upon Anwar bin Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia. In April, a group consisting of President Fitzsimmons; Board of Trustees member M. Yaqub Mirza, Ph.D.; Eric Leonard, Ph.D., Henkel Family Endowed Chair in International Affairs and professor of political science; Younus Mirza, Ph.D., director of the Barzinji Institute for Global Virtual Learning; and six political science students traveled to Malaysia to present Anwar with an honorary Doctor of Laws. A three-minute video from the April ceremony in Malaysia was shown during commencement.
Shenandoah’s full 2025 University Commencement is available on SU’s YouTube channel.
