On Sunday, May 17, Muhlenberg College’s Class of 2026, along with their families, their friends, and Muhlenberg faculty and staff, gathered in Allentown’s PPL Center to celebrate the class’s 431 graduates.
President Kathleen Harring, Ph.D., presided over the ceremony. Honorary degree recipient Rajiv Vinnakota, a pioneering social entrepreneur and president of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, as well as leader of the institute’s College Presidents for Civic Preparedness coalition, delivered the commencement address. In addition to Vinnakota, Kassie Hilgert, president and CEO of ArtsQuest, and Zachary Mannheimer ’99, founder and board chair of Alquist 3D, received honorary degrees.
Vinnakota’s speech drew upon his experience as the co-founder of the SEED Foundation, the nation’s first network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools. He talked about how this was only possible because other people believed in his vision and participated, as a community, in making it a reality, contradicting conventional wisdom for his generation — to distinguish yourself as an individual instead of collaborating with others.
“I’ve watched young people from completely different backgrounds come together to solve a real problem facing their community. And something changes in those moments. People stop performing and start listening,” he said. “The good news is: all of you have experienced what this looks like here at Muhlenberg. You’ve lived, learned, argued, celebrated, struggled, and grown up alongside people who see the world differently than you.”
He encouraged the graduates to get off the sidelines and the internet and to start making real change, even small change, in their own communities.
“My hope is that your generation is defined not by what you posted, but by what you built,” he said. “Not what you tried individually, but what you did as a community. Not by those who critiqued, but those who participated. Together.”
My hope is that your generation is defined not by what you posted, but by what you built. Not what you tried individually, but what you did as a community. Not by those who critiqued, but those who participated. Together.
The two graduates who addressed their classmates were Vishmitha Dsouza, a business administration and media and communication double major, and Kristin Heiss-Erbick, who received a master’s in organizational leadership from the School of Graduate Studies.
Dsouza, an international student from Mumbai, India, reflected on how she and her classmates, with the support of faculty, staff, and alumni, embraced the idea of turning their dreams into real, tangible things, including the college’s new interfaith space and The Hìtëkw Project. She expressed gratitude for the access she had at Muhlenberg — to knowledge, to opportunities, and to connections.
“A liberal arts education is one of the most quietly dangerous things you can carry into the world. Dangerous to apathy. Dangerous to ignorance. Dangerous to the idea that the way things are is the way things have to be,” Dsouza said. “You don’t need a title to change a room. You have something far more powerful, the ability to think critically, to listen deeply, to hold complexity without flinching. That is soft power. And soft power, wielded with intention, has always been what actually moves the world.”
Heiss-Erbick, a project manager for Jefferson Health and a mom of four who completed a bachelor’s degree through Muhlenberg’s School of Continuing Studies in 2024, shared that she almost canceled her interview with the School of Graduate Studies. Then, her aunt and uncle gave her a gift — a copy of “The Little Engine That Could.” It gave her the push she needed to start the master’s in organizational leadership program.
“Today, I’m not just walking out of those big red doors with a degree,” Heiss-Erbick said. “I’m walking out as someone my younger self needed to see. Someone my children can look up to. Someone who finally believed … I could.”
In her closing address, Harring noted that this class’s milestone coincides with America’s 250th anniversary. American history was shaped by the Muhlenberg family, including Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who led the establishment and growth of the Lutheran Church in America, and his descendants, who included the nation’s first speaker of the U.S House of Representatives, a world-renowned botanist who also was a college president, and a famous revolutionary war general, Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg. The history lesson was given in part to inspire the day’s graduates to think about how they might go on to lead and serve.
“Your liberal arts education means freedom — the freedom to think, to reason, and to act ethically. The freedom to transcend the trends and technologies that seem to define this moment. The freedom to understand your larger role and place in history,” Harring said. “And it means responsibility — using your talents for the betterment of the world. To live the values you have cultivated here. To be exactly what our world needs — extraordinary Mules.”
Thirteen members of the Class of 2026 were co-valedictorians: Cheyanne Beaumont, an English and creative writing and media and communication double major; Collin Boldt, a history major with minors in Asian studies and German studies; Erin DiSandro, a biology major and public health minor; Sophia Jacobson, a public health and business administration double major; Justin Khoury, a philosophy/political thought major; Grace Lessig, a mathematics and computer science double major; Dina Maltser, an English and Spanish double major; Sana Nauman, a neuroscience major; Jason Rackas, a mathematics and Spanish double major and music minor; Philip Reiner, a psychology major and creative writing and journalism minor; Danielle Sautner, a psychology major who also earned a pre-K-4 teaching certificate; Avi Soussan, a public health major and biology minor; and Cathy Tran, a biology major.
Lyam Shook, a business administration major, and Shanice Williams, a political science and international studies double major, received Alumni Association Future Alumni Leader Awards.
Christine Ingersoll, Ph.D. professor of chemistry, received the Paul C. Empie ’29 Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is given in memory of the Rev. Paul C. Empie, graduate of the Class of 1929, a member of the college’s board of trustees for many years, and its chair from 1972 to 1979.
Lanethea Mathews-Schultz, Ph.D., professor of political science, received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award. The award is given in recognition of a professor whose distinguished teaching makes a profound contribution to the intellectual growth of their students.
Photos by Kristi Morris, Littlewing Studios
