As nearly 1,000 Class of 2024 graduates crossed the stage at the University of Mary Washington’s Commencement to the applause of hundreds of faculty and staff and thousands of family and friends, five students and one faculty member received top-of-class honors.
Graduates Anna Blake, Anna Czernia, Hannah Lee, Harmony Peura and Abigail Swanson earned the Colgate W. Darden Jr. Award for Academic Achievement for completing their degrees with the highest grade-point average in the undergraduate program. All five – the greatest number of grads earning this achievement in recent history – finished with a perfect 4.0 GPA, graduating summa cum laude, the highest academic distinction, and earning additional honors through their programs.
In addition, Assistant Professor of Psychological Science Marcus Leppanen was recognized with the Mary W. Pinschmidt Award for having had the greatest impact on the lives of the members of the Class of 2024.
Anna Blake, a communication and digital studies major from Pittsford, New York
A member of COAR (Community Outreach and Resources), Anna Blake also served as president of the club tennis team. She worked as a consultant in the Digital Knowledge Center, where she taught other students about digital tools, including 3D printing and podcasting.
As part of the Media Production for Social Change course, Blake led a small team to produce videos about the Multicultural Fair that were used online, and she studied abroad last summer in France, where she was a crew member of Are We Live, a team that aired a live variety show from Paris. This spring, Blake interned with the Office of University Communications to produce video content about student life at UMW and was named this year’s “Best Overall Content Producer” for her project titled “100 Things To Do Before Graduating.”
Blake’s major thesis is titled “Asian American Representation in Sitcoms” and she was recognized as this year’s Outstanding Major in Communication and Digital Studies. “She is always the type of student to put in the hard work,” a professor said of Blake, no matter what type of work she is faced with.
Anna Czernia, a conservation biology major from Burke, Virginia
In addition to her major in conservation biology, Anna Czernia completed the GIS Certificate, as well as a minor in sports management, and served as the manager of the UMW women’s lacrosse team.
An internship with Friends of the Rappahannock brought the connections between conservation biology and GIS to life. Czernia has worked to identify which hardwood forests should be placed into conservancy, used satellite imagery to analyze the impacts of bushfires on vegetation and created online maps and web pages highlighting topics such as crime in D.C., health care in Northern Virginia and vacation spots on the Great Lakes.
A faculty member wrote of Czernia: “The immediate reasons why she has achieved such an immaculate academic record are obvious, but more importantly, she is clearly driven by goals much larger than herself – to protect biological diversity and help humankind to be better stewards of the Earth’s natural resources.”
Hannah Lee, a biochemistry major from Fairfax, Virginia
Hanna Lee majored in biochemistry and minored in practical ethics. She completed the University Honors Program and received the American Institute of Chemists Biochemistry Award and the Alumni Association’s Outstanding UMW Senior Award. Lee’s dedication to academic integrity is evident in her leadership with the University Honor Council, for which she served as president this academic year, and she volunteers for the Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic. She also plays violin in the Philharmonic Orchestra.
Building on the first-year Phage Hunters experience in the Department of Biological Sciences, Lee served as a laboratory aid, investigating cell death pathways in a type of parasite. The advisor to the Honor Council shared this reflection: “She is an exemplary leader and member of our academic community. As a student leader, she demonstrates a steadfast commitment to our community of honor here at UMW.”
Lee combined her passions to study the impact of health on academic integrity, motivated by her concern for the mental health of her fellow students and a desire to promote structural conditions that will support them in times of stress. She received early admission to the George Washington School of Medicine and hopes to become a physician traveling on medical missions to provide free healthcare to underserved populations.
Harmony Peura, a computer science major from Virginia Beach, Virginia
Harmony Peura excels in both scientific and creative endeavors. She is a Washington Scholar, a member of the University’s Honors Program and a frequent soloist in the acapella group One Note Stand. Her senior research thesis, “Using Agent-Based Modeling to Simulate Political Dynamics,” involved using computational modeling to study the effect of political polarization in multi-party democracies.
She earned departmental honors in computer science for her project, which developed simulations that shed light on how polarization emerges in a society, and when it might lead to objectively irrational election outcomes. She will present this work later this month at the annual conference of the International Society for Modeling and Simulation, and it will also appear this summer at the International Network for Social Network Analysis. Her research advisor said that Peura has “a truly amazing mind” and called her a “dazzling writer” with an unsurpassed work ethic.
For her senior software engineering project, she worked with a team of peers to create a web-based tool for the local nonprofit The Fairy Godmother Project. Their final project streamlines the process of connecting pediatric cancer patients and their families to necessary supports and resources. After successfully interning for QRC Technologies, Peura will join them full time following graduation.
Abigail Swanson, a math and physics double-major from Farmville, Virginia
In addition to majoring in math and physics, Abigail Swanson completed the University Honors Program. She received departmental honors in physics, and the members of the physics faculty voted to award her the Physics Faculty Award.
As one advisor wrote “she is one of two or three students who has helped shape the physics program at UMW.” As a student officer for the Society of Physics Students in her freshman year, Swanson played an integral role in major decisions, such as who to invite for colloquia, and helped implement strategies to reach out to new students at UMW. She made her commitment to creating a welcoming and engaging environment for underrepresented students in physics a priority.
Although Swanson’s interests lie in theoretical physics, she also received the 2023-24 Oscar Schultz Award in Mathematics, which represents that department’s top academic honor. She applied sophisticated tools from mathematics to answer questions about the evolution of the universe in her 50-page honors thesis, “Classification of Topological Defects in Cosmological Models.” And she is the winner of a 2023 Goldwater Fellowship – the most sought-after STEM scholarship in the United States – and plans to attend graduate school at Stony Brook University.
Following the student awards, the graduating class awarded their own to Assistant Professor of Psychological Science Marcus Leppanen, who received the Mary W. Pinschmidt Award for having had the greatest impact on the lives of the members of the Class of 2024.
Leppanen was honored not only for making an impact on students but for inspiring them to pursue knowledge, excellence and personal growth. Through his dedication to teaching and scholarship, he fostered a culture of the enjoyment of learning.
One of his nominators described Leppanen as someone who creates a space for dialogue during lectures and makes in-classroom experiences memorable and fun. The nominator said that Leppanen made them feel supported in both their endeavors at Mary Washington and in navigating life after Mary Wash.
Leppanen’s passion for teaching and learning and commitment to bettering those around him, nominators said, set an inspiring example for everyone.
The only faculty award selected specifically by the graduating class, the Mary W. Pinschmidt Award was established in 1999 in honor of the longtime professor of biology known for her lasting devotion to Mary Washington. It goes to a professor who embodies Pinschmidt’s enthusiasm for teaching and connection with students.
