This Saturday, 217 Wabash seniors will receive their diplomas and proudly walk under the Senior Arch during the 188th Commencement ceremony.
In the fall of 2022, the Class of 2026 gathered for the first time at Ringing In. This weekend, they will come together one last time — with friends, family, trustees, and faculty — to celebrate the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.
In keeping with long-standing Wabash tradition, two graduating seniors will be the featured speakers at the event. The Class of 2026 Commencement speakers will be Quinn Sholar and Precious Ainabor.
Sholar is an art and economics double major from Indianapolis, Indiana. He served as a two-time chairman of the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies, captain of the football and track and field teams, and is a member of the Sphinx Club, Student-Athletic Advisory, and Sons of Wabash. He is also a class agent. He was the recipient of the David B. Greene Award for Distinguished Work in Art History, the Pete Vaughan Outstanding Athlete Award, the Malcolm X Institute Service Award, and the Senior Award of Merit. He has been named an Orr Fellow and will begin working with Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit focused on improving public education.
Ainabor is a biochemistry major with a minor in theater from Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies, the Global Health Initiative, the Public Health Organization, Soccer Club, and The Bachelor. At Wabash, he designed and oversaw costume wardrobes for every theater production since his freshman year and was awarded the Kenneth W. Kloth Design and Technical Theater Award, in addition to the Lloyd B. and Ione Howell Scholarship Award, the Underwood Award, and being named Outstanding Senior Organic Chemistry Student by the American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry. He plans to attend medical school.
During Commencement, the College will award three honorary doctor of humane letters degrees to Anne B. Walsh, William Thomas Luckey, Jr. ’82, and Reverend John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
Walsh, the chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, completed her accounting degree at Auburn University at age 19, later earned an MBA, and pursued a law degree at the University of Miami while building her career. She has been recognized repeatedly by Barron’s as one of the Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance and has participated in the World Economic Forum. She and her husband, Tom ’73 have a strong vision for a liberal arts education that encourages students to think broadly and deeply across many fields, and their generosity created Wabash’s interdisciplinary major in philosophy, politics, and economics, one of the College’s most popular majors. They have also endowed the Tom and Anne Walsh Professorship of PPE and the Outstanding Senior in PPE Award.
Luckey came to came to Wabash as a first-generation student. He was a four-year starter on the baseball team, led Delta Tau Delta and the Inter-Fraternity Council, and completed a degree in biology. He spent his first 14 years working in enrollment, development, administration, and finance — starting at Lindsey Wilson College in one of the most economically distressed regions of the country. In 1997, the board of trustees elected him president. Under his leadership, Lindsey Wilson has become the fastest-growing independent liberal arts college in Kentucky, with 4,000 students, 56 undergraduate majors, five master’s programs, a doctoral degree, and 12 locations across five states. Today, roughly two-thirds of Lindsey Wilson’s students receive Federal Pell Grants, and over one-third are first-generation students. Luckey has spent 43 years making sure the door would be open when they arrived.
Jenkins, a philosopher, priest, teacher, and the 17th president of the University of Notre Dame, was ordained a Holy Cross priest in 1983 after studying philosophy at the universities of Notre Dame and Oxford and theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He joined Notre Dame’s faculty in 1990 and found his calling in the classroom, discussing with students how to live in community. He was elected president of Notre Dame in 2005 and spent two decades growing research funding to nearly $300 million annually, increasing the university’s endowment to more than $20 billion, and doubling financial aid to meet every admitted student’s demonstrated financial need. Recognized as one of the most consequential university leaders of his generation and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Jenkins has returned to teaching, writing, and the life of the mind in service of the spirit.
Commencement day will open with a Baccalaureate sermon delivered by Reverend John I. Jenkins, the president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and a member of Notre Dame's department of philosophy.
In addition to the Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies, 26 students will be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest honorary society.
The seniors inducted this year are Evan Baker, William Boswell, Tobey Condon, Braeden Cooper, Mark Davletov, James Day, Caleb Everson, Safal Ghimire, Isaac Grannis, Benedict Grill, Min Heo, Dalton Kuhn, Dominic Litchfield, Aidan Mason, Jerry McBee, Thomas Price, and Samuel Vogel. Inductees from the junior class are Hadyn Ball, Andrew Baugh, Christopher Board, Zachary Geleott, Bryce Kinnaman, Malachi McRoberts, Ike O'Neill, Prasun Panthi, and Gregory Powers.
To close, President Feller will ring out the Class of 2026, using the hand bell that once belonged to Wabash’s first educator, Caleb Mills, and the same bell that welcomed them to campus in the fall of 2022.
Commencement Speakers Podcast
Wabash On My Mind podcast host Richard Paige sat down with Quinn and Precious, the 2026 commencement speakers, ahead of the ceremony to discuss preparing for and the responsibility of speaking for their class, their Wabash experiences, and lessons learned in these last four years. Click on the play button below to listen.