{"id":56316,"date":"2026-05-20T12:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiawestern.edu\/bulletin\/?p=56316"},"modified":"2026-05-20T12:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:11:18","slug":"virginia-western-adds-1041-new-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiawestern.edu\/bulletin\/2026\/05\/20\/virginia-western-adds-1041-new-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Western Adds 1,041 New Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For the 2025-2026 annual year, which runs summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026, Virginia Western welcomed 1,041 people to its growing alumni network. These students earned a total of 1,304&nbsp;awards.*&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 400 graduates attended Virginia Western&#8217;s&nbsp;60th\u202fcommencement, held Friday, May&nbsp;15, 2026, at the Berglund Center in Roanoke. The ceremony honored graduates who completed their degrees and certificates during fall 2025&nbsp;and spring 2026, as well as students projected to complete during the summer 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Laura Treanor presided over her first Commencement ceremony as President of Virginia Western. &#8220;Each graduate seated before us represents determination, sacrifice, resilience, and hope for the future,&#8221; she said.&nbsp;&#8220;We&nbsp;gather not only to recognize academic achievement, but also to celebrate the journeys, challenges, and accomplishments that have brought our graduates to this important moment.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three&nbsp;Virginia Western students participated&nbsp;as speakers&nbsp;in&nbsp;Commencement events.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maureen Arthur, a 2026&nbsp;graduate who received an&nbsp;Associate of Science&nbsp;in&nbsp;Business Administration, addressed graduates before the ceremony as Student Rehearsal Speaker.&nbsp;Hagar Atef Youssef, a 2026&nbsp;graduate who received an&nbsp;Associate of Science degree&nbsp;in&nbsp;Science, was Student Welcome Speaker during the ceremony, and&nbsp;Demetrice Peerman-Forrest, a 2026 graduate who received an Associate of Applied Science in Human Services, gave&nbsp;the keynote address.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.virginiawestern.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/18\/virginia-western-adds-1041-new-alumni\/\">Read more from their speeches and see a gallery of photos.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>*\u202f<em>Spring 2026 awards have not yet been conferred; a graduation application query was used to provide Spring 2026 graduate demographics. Official AY 2025-26 graduate data will be available in summer 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the 2025-2026 annual year, which runs summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026, Virginia Western welcomed 1,041 people to its growing alumni network. These students earned a total of 1,304&nbsp;awards.*&nbsp; More than 400 graduates attended Virginia Western&#8217;s&nbsp;60th\u202fcommencement, held Friday, May&nbsp;15, 2026, at the Berglund Center in Roanoke. The ceremony honored graduates who completed their<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.virginiawestern.edu\/bulletin\/2026\/05\/20\/virginia-western-adds-1041-new-alumni\/\"> (Read the full article&#8230;)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Erica Myatt","author_link":"https:\/\/www.virginiawestern.edu\/bulletin\/author\/emyatt\/"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Virginia Western Adds 1,041 New Alumni - Virginia Western Bulletin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virginia Western Adds 1,041 New Alumni - Virginia Western Bulletin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the 2025-2026 annual year, which runs summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026, Virginia Western welcomed 1,041 people to its growing alumni network. 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