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The exemplary achievements, initiative and leadership of some of its most talented and accomplished University of Massachusetts Amherst undergraduates will be honored during Undergraduate Commencement on Friday, May 15, at 5 p.m. in McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

This year’s 11 recipients of the 21^st Century Leaders Award were chosen in recognition of their strong academic records and exemplary achievements. They also further distinguished themselves through intellectual accomplishments and will be recognized for the prestige and honor they bring to UMass Amherst, both as undergraduates and as alumni joining the larger community.

The graduating seniors who will each receive a 21^st Century Leaders Award of $1,000 from the UMass Amherst Alumni Association are:

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Eva Alexandra Bergloff, of Holliston, a Commonwealth Honors College (CHC) student, graduates with a degree in sustainable community development. Leading with empathy and vulnerability, she is committed to creating sustainable systems through community collaboration. Bergloff is an active member of the student-run Community Building Group, connecting students through civic and social engagement and systems-level change, and has led inclusive yoga and meditation group sessions on campus.

During her junior year, Bergloff served as a Sustainability Fellow in Facilities Management, helping transform the campus thrift store New2U from a biannual sale to a year-round waste reduction initiative—work that inspired her presentation at the 2025 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Conference. She later became New2U’s store manager, playing a leading role in making it the centralized donation hub for western Massachusetts in the aftermath of the Olympia Place fire.

Her leadership has been recognized with multiple awards and grants, including the 2024-25 Gerald F. Scanlon Student Employee of the Year Award, the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning’s Go Get the Sustainable World Scholarship, and the Office of Equity and Inclusion’s Campus Climate Improvement Grant.

Bergloff will continue her education through the 4+1 accelerated master’s degree program, pursuing a degree in regional planning. She hopes to travel, create art and explore integrative approaches to sustainability.

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Gessica Bonheur, of Holbrook, graduates with a degree in biomedical engineering. A first-generation college student and daughter of Haitian immigrants, Bonheur leads with empathy and humility, consistently showing up for and advocating for her community.

She has held several leadership roles during her time at UMass, including co-president of the UMass Amherst Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Despite a substantial funding reduction, she collaborated with the chapter’s executive board to secure corporate sponsorships that sustained professional development programs and fully funded the attendance of 24 members at the 2026 NSBE Annual Convention. As president of the Rho Kappa Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., she upheld her myriad responsibilities with the same level of care that she brings to her many other pursuits, equipping students with tools for financial literacy, civic engagement and self-care. She also served as a resident assistant and a peer mentor for Student Bridges. 

Bonheur was a 2024-25 Institute of Diversity Sciences Student Fellow, performing hands-on research, receiving guidance and mentorship from Professor Stacyann Bailey, and presenting at the 2025 Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference. In the summer of 2025, Bonheur moved to California for an internship in oncology research and development with the Pfizer Futures program.

After graduation, Bonheur plans to pursue an advanced degree and become a research engineer specializing in cardiology or oncology.

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Connor Casey, of Leominster, a member of CHC, graduates with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance, a Bachelor of Science in applied physics, and a Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration in quantum science and engineering.

Casey’s technical curiosity has driven his work both on and off campus. In Professor Don Towsley’s Advanced Classical and Quantum Information Research Lab, he built a numerical benchmarking framework for one- and two-way satellite quantum repeaters for his honors thesis, and over the last year, he has contributed research in the Superconducting Quantum Information Lab under Professor Chen Wang. 

His research has taken him around the U.S. and abroad. Casey presented a first-author poster at the IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering and a first-author paper at the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia. He also gained experience in finance through internships at Morgan Stanley and growth equity firm General Atlantic, and he broadened his academic perspective by studying the philosophy of physics at the London School of Economics.

One of Casey’s goals is to make quantum science more accessible. To prepare students for success, he founded the Amherst Quantum Initiative, a university organization that brings quantum demonstrations into local K-12 classrooms.

After graduation, Casey plans to pursue a Ph.D. in experimental quantum physics and start his own company.

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Joanne Charland, of West Springfield, is graduating from UMass Amherst’s University Without Walls (UWW) Department of Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in applied psychology. 

Charland followed a nontraditional path to higher education, shaped by years of life and work experience. After leaving high school in 1995, she had two sons, including one with special needs, whose birth inspired her to become an advocate for individuals with disabilities. She ultimately returned to college to rebuild her life, finding UMass’s UWW program to be a perfect fit for her educational goals and professional aspirations.

While pursuing her degree, Charland has continued her advocacy work on behalf of individuals with special needs. She is also deeply involved with Pedal Thru Youth—a nonprofit founded and run by her husband—that fixes and donates bicycles to underprivileged populations, provides adaptive bikes, supports previously incarcerated individuals returning to the workforce, and distributes supply-filled backpacks for the unhoused.

A throughline in Charland’s work, education and volunteerism has been her commitment to helping others. She currently serves as a residential service desk coordinator at UMass, where she creates a welcoming and supportive environment for student employees. 

After graduation, she hopes to further her education and work directly with students in crisis, providing resources, offering mental health support, guiding them through challenges, and encouraging them to realize their potential.

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Danish Humayun, of Belchertown, a CHC student, graduates with dual degrees in economics and public health sciences and a minor in biology. 

While at UMass Amherst, Humayun has contributed to research on the efficacy of edible clay in mitigating the toxic effects of forever chemicals, and he helped evaluate programs that provide access to treatment for opioid and other substance use disorders in jails and courts in Massachusetts. For his achievements in health promotion and policy, Humayun received a 2024-25 Gerald F. Scanlon Student Employee of the Year Award. 

Humayun’s care and concern for others extends to his extracurricular activities. He is a medical assistant with University Health Services, where he provides direct patient care. It is through this work that he became more aware of the health challenges college students face, which fueled his passion for health equity. He also experienced firsthand the interconnectedness of public health issues and everyday life in his role as a resident assistant.

As president of the Pakistani Students Organization, he organized Chaand Raat, a large-scale Ramadan celebration and community-building event co-hosted with the Muslim Students Association in 2025.

Humayun has secured a postgraduate internship at biotechnology company Xilio Therapeutics, and he will continue his education with a Master of Public Health in epidemiology through the UMass 4+1 accelerated master’s degree program.

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Margaret Nikolay Lepeshkin, of Westford, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in design and technology. An artist and designer at heart, she is admired by peers and faculty members alike for her work ethic, collaborative spirit and interdisciplinary artistic practice. 

Lepeshkin’s creative work merges public art, scientific data and environmental stewardship. Her innovative projects include a bird-friendly window retrofit on the facade of the UMass Studio Arts Building—a collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the UMass Bird-Friendly Project. Earlier this year, she was commissioned to design and produce a three-panel mural featuring illustrations of native plants and seed-dispersal modes for the Mass Aggie Seed Library. She also works as a scientific illustrator for the Figueroa Lab in the Department of Environmental Conservation and as a digital print lab technician in the Department of Art.

Her artistry extends beyond scientific illustration; she was one of 40 AXA Art Prize U.S. finalists in 2025. Her figurative portrait, titled “Gravity,” was chosen from more than 600 entries for inclusion in the finalists’ exhibition in New York City.

Lepeshkin will continue investigating the human impact on the natural environment with a master’s degree in architecture at Cornell University. Her long-term goal is to open her own design firm, integrating research, material intervention and environmental responsibility on a larger scale.

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Marielsa Will McBride, of Lexington, a CHC student, graduates with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. 

As a Black and Indigenous queer athlete, McBride centered their multifaceted identity in their work on campus. They started working at the Stonewall Center to pursue their passion for social justice and community work almost as soon as they joined UMass. As a sophomore, they founded the UMass Amherst chapter of Athlete Ally—fostering a community for queer athletes and allies through panels and fundraising events as president—and later joined the e-board of UMass Students for Justice in Palestine.

In their junior year, McBride joined the Josephine White Eagle Cultural Center as an undergraduate program assistant, which led to their academic interest in Black/Native ethnogenesis. They completed their honors thesis on Indigenous cultural revitalization via the Land Back movement, and they are two years into their research project on how Black/Native ethnogenesis in eastern Georgia was integral to enslaved people escaping plantations.

An NCAA Division I student-athlete on the Women’s Track & Field team, McBride is a recipient of the Kenneth L. O’Brien Scholarship and finished third in New England in the women’s collegiate high jump. They are currently applying to graduate programs to continue their research in anthropology. 

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Aaria Prakash, of Lexington, graduates with dual degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology and psychology. A thoughtful and compassionate leader with a scientific mindset, Prakash has dedicated her time to caring for others both in and out of the classroom.

She is the co-founder and co-president of MedConnect, a healthcare-focused nonprofit organization that offers pre-health students hands-on experience in the medical field. She hopes to expand MedConnect—which already has 12 partnerships in the Amherst area—and is opening four chapters in the coming year.

Prakash has been involved with the Boltwood Project, a student-run civic engagement and leadership program designed to provide enrichment, recreation and socialization for community members with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition, she has served as a patient advocacy volunteer at Tapestry Health and as a resident coordinator at Carleton-Willard Village, a continuing care retirement community in Bedford.

Outside of direct patient care, she has contributed to studies on rare diseases at Mass General Hospital and investigated how hormones influence physiology and behavior through lab research at UMass.

After graduation, Prakash hopes to work in life sciences while applying to medical school. She is particularly passionate about studying the neuroscience of developmental disabilities. Ultimately, she would like to combine her interests in research, health care and community engagement into a career as a physician.

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Jimena Pueyo-García, a CHC student, was born in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and raised in Salem. Graduating with dual degrees in political science and legal studies and a minor in Spanish, she is proud to be part of the second generation of women in her family to attend college—and to do so with no student debt. Her honors thesis focuses on the political, gendered and long-term psychological effects of Francoist Spain, integrating legal analysis, feminist history and memory studies.

Pueyo-García’s passion for public service emerged as a high school student in an urban school district, where she regularly witnessed race- and gender-based discrimination. During her time at UMass, she has committed to bettering the lives of others, particularly marginalized communities, through internships and extracurricular activities. 

Since February 2026, Pueyo-García has been a legal assistant at the UMass Amherst Student Legal Services Office, serving as a primary point of contact for clients with active legal cases. She has completed internships with the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction, Governor Maura Healey’s Office, and the Massachusetts Trial Court. A 2024 UMass Women into Leadership Fellow, she has also worked as an office clerk at the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success throughout her undergraduate career.

After graduation, Pueyo-García plans to work in public interest law, helping vulnerable populations navigate the U.S. legal system.

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Marcos Genao Sánchez was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and grew up in Lynn. He graduates with a degree in pre-veterinary science.

Genao Sánchez, a first-generation college student, is the founding president of the Arcane Kavari Chapter of Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc., UMass Amherst’s only Latino-based fraternity. In this position, he led two service trips to Latin America—the first in support of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico and the second in collaboration with The Gift of Soccer Foundation to provide sports equipment to young athletes in Honduras. 

He has created a welcoming, inclusive environment on campus through his involvement with New Student and Family Programs as an orientation leader and student office assistant, and he has continued to support his fellow students as a residential assistant. 

In addition to his studies and on-campus activities, Genao Sánchez is a certified veterinary assistant providing seasonal help to North Shore Animal Hospital in Lynn and a volunteer with the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth.

Genao Sánchez’s future plans include attending veterinary school at St. George’s University in Grenada and owning his own veterinary practice in Essex County, Massachusetts. He hopes to use his skills not only to heal animals but to expand access to care, strengthen communities, and mentor students in search of connection and belonging.

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Charles Elijah Walker-Hoover, of Springfield, graduates with a degree in Afro-American studies.

Walker-Hoover is dedicated to youth organizing, civic advocacy, and uplifting his community. His academic interests inform his approach to community-building, both on campus and in Springfield, where he is committed to dialogue and civic engagement. 

While at UMass, Walker-Hoover has served as a senator in the Student Government Association and president of the university’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He has also been an undergraduate peer advisor in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and has worked as an undergraduate apprentice with the Black Healing, Joy, and Justice Collective at the UMass Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Leadership. 

Since his first semester at UMass, Walker-Hoover has qualified for the dean’s list. He has been the recipient of several awards, including a 2025 Certificate of Leadership from the NAACP Youth & College Division. In 2025, he was one of 55 students nationwide to be selected for an internship with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he realized the importance of congressional staff and their role in our democracy. 

Despite the loss of his beloved mother 10 years ago, Walker-Hoover has persevered. He continues to honor her legacy by pursuing a career in public leadership and policy.
 

Jack Welch Scholars

Jack Welch Scholars, chosen for their academic achievements, social responsibility and leadership by a faculty and staff committee during the admissions process, receive scholarships funded by a gift from the GE Foundation in honor of former GE CEO and UMass Amherst alumnus John F. “Jack” Welch ’57, ’82H. The scholarships provide full funding for undergraduates throughout their years at UMass Amherst, including support for summer research and study abroad. 

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Tre’ Allen-Robinson, of Boston, a CHC student, is graduating from UMass Amherst with a degree in electrical engineering. 

When Allen-Robinson first toured the university as a prospective student, he was especially intrigued by the M5 makerspace, an educational initiative of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It reminded him of the engineering space at his high school, where his interest in studying the discipline at the collegiate level first took root. He chose UMass because it is close enough to Boston to visit on occasion but far enough away to experience living somewhere new.

His honors thesis focused on quantum computing, an emerging technology that utilizes the laws of quantum physics to solve complex computing problems that are beyond the scope of classical supercomputers. Beyond his academic work, Allen-Robinson was involved in the National Society of Black Engineers, the Film Production Club, and the Archery Club over the past four years.

As Allen-Robinson looks to his future, he is excited to return to UMass Amherst to study electrical and computer engineering through the university’s 4+1 accelerated master’s degree program before beginning his career as an engineer. He is grateful to his professors and to the staff at the Career Development and Experiential Learning Center for valuable support and helpful career and industry advice.

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Andrew Silva, of Somerville, is graduating from UMass Amherst with a degree in accounting.

Silva was initially drawn to the innate structure and multiple topics of study within accounting, but a volunteer opportunity eventually steered him in a different direction. During his time at UMass, Silva participated in the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program as an administrator, providing free tax preparation services to qualifying students and local families. Silva’s work with VITA helped him understand how classroom concepts translate to real-world scenarios, and he soon realized how fulfilling the client-facing side of accounting can be.

Since his second year on campus, Silva has been an active and dedicated member of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) at UMass Amherst, where he has engaged in regular faith-focused and community-building events, including church carpools, guest lectures, festivals, dinners and hikes. His participation in OCF gave him the opportunity to explore his faith, prioritize self-improvement, and connect with members across generations. Silva was baptized in the Orthodox Church in 2024.

Silva completed an internship with KPMG, one of the “Big Four” accounting firms, during the summer of 2025. Following graduation, he will pursue a second internship with KPMG and hopes to attain a full-time position with the company. He also plans to study for the certified public accountant exam.