University of Akron Department of Sociology

We are tremendously proud that our very own Estrella Lemus was elected to be a commencement speaker in this year's ceremony. She is the first Sociology graduate at UA to accept this honor and responsibility. Estrella works a full-time job to sopport her college (and sometimes more), has led our Mu Chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honor Society, presented her research at North Central Sociology Association twice, and is a bright and shining star in our hallways (as her name suggests ;-).

You can check out her profile https://www.uakron.edu/graduation/responders/2026/lemus and speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Mpa0NrxLI
(start at minute 23) - We are sure to see her face, skill, and magic in academia (her chosen path) and beyond!

It is that time of the year to celebrate our team and students. Many of us are part of the cohort of the Akron Community Engegaged (ACE) Scholars within the fabulous The EXL Center for Community Engaged Learning. This year, we welcomed Jennifer J. Reed and Elena Popa into the ever-growing circle!

We had a marvellous time celebrating the accomplishments of my colleagues; congratulations to Stacey Nofziger for the Excellence in Campus-Community Collaboration Award for her pathbreaking collaboration with the City of Akron, and to Rebecca Erickson for her Lifetime Akron Community Engaged Scholar Award. We were pretty much crying all day as we see Becky float into retirement after this semester.

We have so much more to celebrate: Among other awesome things, our very own graduate and AKD president Estrella Lemus was chosen as the commencement speaker this year, Andrew Magons landed a job with "socioogy" in the title, and our Larry Payne was accepted into graduate school! Bam!

We had a fabulous weekend at the NCSA conference in Pittsburgh, and we are so proud of our students! We had four students presenting their work (kudos to Lauren Holler, Brynn Lewis, Kellie Ann Hughes and Estrella Lemus!), several others joined and supported their colleagues and networked (Emma Bass, Andrew Magons, Carmen Meeker).

While we were there, we learned that Estrella was chosen as the Commencement Speaker to represent the college at the spring graduation ceremony! A Latina from Appalachian Ohio, she finances her studies through hard (sometimes more than full-time work) has led our AKD Sociology Honors Society chapter for the past year, and presented on sociology as mental health tool at NCSA. WE could not be more proud and will support her on her way to grad school! The committee really made the right decision. Congratulations!