Carleton celebrates Honors Convocation for 2025–26 academic year
The Carleton community gathered for its annual celebration of students.
The Carleton community gathered in Skinner Chapel on Friday, May 29 at 3 p.m. for Honors Convocation, a celebration of Carleton students’ academic excellence and the culmination of the 2025–26 academic year. Honors Convo is the final event in the convocation program, a weekly Carleton tradition that this year featured speakers such as Star Tribune CEO Steve Grove ’00, ice cream scientist (and Amazing Race winner) Maya Warren ’07, and Indigenous activist and engineer Danielle Boyer. Honors Convo also features the Bubble Brigade at the beginning and end of the program, where Carleton students blow bubbles from the Chapel balcony over the faculty’s processional and recessional.
In a further celebration of Carleton talent, this year’s Honors Convo featured two musical performances by senior student musicians: Max Kingston ’26, Nishant Mistry ’26, Luca Araujo ’26, Alek Pochan ’26, and Samuel Iribe ’26. Multiple ensemble members were at the event both to perform and receive awards.
In her welcome remarks, President Alison Byerly spoke of the breadth of Carleton achievements.
“While their accomplishments differ, what these students share are the qualities that make Carleton students special: intellectual curiosity, energetic engagement, and commitment to the hard work of learning,” she said. “You make our community stronger through leadership and service. You represent the true promise of higher education, and the reason it’s worth supporting.”
Carleton students were the recipients of more than 80 prizes, fellowships, honor society inductions, and awards in 2026. Due to the scale of achievement, this piece will only highlight some awards; the full list of honorees is available on the Honors Convo website.
This year, nine Carls were awarded Fulbright Fellowships, a prestigious program that enables graduating seniors and recent graduates to pursue independent research, graduate study, or English teaching around the globe. This year’s Fulbright Fellows include: Hans Anderson ’26, Ava Blaufuss ’26, Peter Calabrese ’26, Grace Enz ’26, Riley Gibson ’26, Eliana Simon ’26, and Aimee Yuan ’26. Fellows will serve as teaching assistants in the Czech Republic, Germany, Morocco, South Korea, Spain, and China.
Two Carleton seniors were awarded Thomas J. Watson Fellowships this year to engage in a year of independent study abroad. Florence Basile ’26 and Henry Burkhardt ’26 will spend their fellowships, respectively, investigating theater around the world and exploring the intersection of music and technology.
Ostap Hrebeniuk ’27 and Rodrigo Valentín Montenegro Albornoz ’28 have been awarded Projects for Peace grants, which go to students who have designed their own grassroots projects for peace around the globe. Hrebeniuk’s project will facilitate a trauma processing and art learning initiative for Ukrainians in Italy, while Albornoz’s project will focus on youth media literacy and democratic engagement in Argentina.
Trinity Natalia Hanif ’26 has been awarded a Rotary Foundation Global Grant Fellowship, to pursue an MS in the Gender, Peace, and Security program at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Carleton also celebrated the induction of 42 members into the Mortar Board national honor society and 72 to the Phi Beta Kappa national honorary scholastic fraternity.
In his salutatory address, College Chaplain Schuyler Vogel ’07 celebrated what Carleton’s Honors Convo — and Carls themselves — have meant to him amidst a divisive year at home and abroad.
“We know that this was not an easy year to get through,” he said. “We know that ICE patrolled our town and our state. Wars have erupted and violence is marring our world. And many of us are worried about federal actions that threaten us and those we love. It is important to acknowledge that the light of community and everything we represent is not so easily dimmed. Your dedication, your trust, your goals, your curiosity is what makes it special and enduring. So we are here celebrating, not naive about the state of the world, but refusing to let it change our joy and commitment to one another… what a wonderful gift you all are.”