Graduate School Newsblog

Spring 2026 Graduate Orientation

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The Graduate School is excited to welcome our new students to campus. A summary of upcoming events is below.

  • The Graduate School Welcome session is on Friday, January 2, 2026, beginning at 2pm in the MUB Ballroom. A presentation is planned for 2-2:30pm, and a reception will begin at 2:30pm. The presentation will be recorded for those unable to attend in person.
  • Orientation to Graduate Studies and Research, our online Basic RCR Training, will begin on December 22 for registered students. It must be completed by February 19, 2026 to avoid a registration hold.
  • Other orientation events, including a tour by the Library and welcome reception by the Graduate School, are described and summarized on our website.
  • We will remind students to register and confirm their enrollment by January 2nd.
  • Steps after admission are summarized on our website.
  • Resources applicable to new students are summarized on our website.

We look forward to working with you to welcome our new and returning students to the 2025-26 academic year!

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The King-Chávez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship Program – Fall 2025 – Emma Johnson

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Johnson, Emma C.
Emma Johnson, PhD in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture, 2025

My research encompasses the intersection of media, neoliberalism, and feminism. I am interested in how neoliberalism is represented in media as well as women’s agency within that system. I plan to write my dissertation on how neoliberalism is represented in media through the lens of women. Currently, I am exploring the film and photography of Lauren Greenfield and Sofia Coppola. I am fascinated by how their critiques of capitalism and consumerism both subvert and reify neoliberalism.

I would love to teach a class on how neoliberalism is represented in various media. My goal is to become a professor and teach humanities classes that ask students to consider the world around them, beyond what’s in front of them. I want to invite future students to ask questions about media representation and challenge what they see.

I want to extend my gratitude to the Graduate School, Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel, and Dean for this fellowship. I am thankful to the Interim Humanities Department Chair Dr. Kette Thomas, the Rhetoric, Theory & Culture Graduate Program Director Dr. Dana Van Kooy, my co-advisors Dr. Stefka Hristova and Dr. J.W. Hammond, and committee member Dr. Scott Marratto for their guidance and mentoring.

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King-Chávez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship – Fall 2025 – Jordan Dagenais

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Dagenais, Jordan P.
Jordan Dagenais, PhD in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture, 2025

I would like to thank the selection committee for choosing me for the 2025 King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship. I would also like to thank my advisor, Dr. Holly Hassel, my department chair, Dr. Kette Thomas, and my program director, Dr. Dana Van Kooy. Finally, I want to thank my family—my mom Susan, my sister Madison, and my cats Bruce, Dinah, and Wally—for always supporting my educational goals. With this fellowship I will be able to achieve my goal of becoming a professor.

I am a first generation college student, so graduate school was initially intimidating. However, I have been graced with wonderful mentors here at Michigan Tech who have helped guide me through the challenges graduate school presents.

I first knew that I wanted to teach when I became an Assistant Scoutmaster for Scouting America Troop 823 out of Fenton, MI. I grew up in the Scouting America program (then referred to as Boy Scouts of America) and always enjoyed leading others. However, it wasn’t until I became an adult leader that I realized I had been teaching for years—and loving it—while I was a scout. Whether showing new scouters the basics of camping or providing advice to aspiring youth leaders, teaching opportunities were always present.

When I began working as a Graduate Teaching Instructor in the Humanities department in 2023, my path was cemented. After just one week of teaching in the writing classroom I knew I had made the right choice, and that teaching is what I’m meant to do.

Being a first generation college student, I want to use this fellowship to help others who don’t have the same access to education that I have been lucky enough to have and concentrate my skills where they will be best served. Upon completion of my degree at Michigan Tech, I plan to teach in the two-year college space in the Ann Arbor area and focus on creating an equitable writing space for all students.

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Prepare to Graduate: Submit a Graduation Application

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In order to complete a degree at Michigan Tech, all students must submit a Graduation Application and let the Graduate School know their plans to attend commencement. This post will explain the difference between graduation and commencement and explain how to submit the Graduation Application.

Graduation vs. Commencement: Understanding the Difference

Graduation is the official act of completing all academic requirements and earning your degree. Your actual diploma will be shipped to you approximately six weeks after the semester you complete your degree. You must complete all of your curricular requirements and apply to graduate in order to receive your credential.

Commencement is the celebratory ceremony. It is an opportunity for friends and family to acknowledge your hard work. Students who attend the commencement ceremony receive a diploma cover when they walk across the stage. The Graduate School hosts a single annual commencement ceremony at the close of spring semester. A commencement application is required to participate. You can read more about this later in the blog.


Submit a Graduation Application

To begin, view your academic audit (a VPN connection required to access the audit) to ensure that all the course and non-course requirements are complete with either a green check, or half-moon in the progress indicator on the left. Your advisor, graduate program assistant, or our Student Guide will help answer your questions.

The deadline to submit a Graduation Application is Friday of Week 5.


Locate the requirement titled Graduation Application

degree audit showing the "graduation application" section.

Click the link (blue text) which will take you to Experience. Search for the card titled: Prepare to Graduate.

"prepare to graduate" section in Experience

Click on Submit Graduation Application and select the credential that you are completing. If you are earning more than one certificate or degree, you will need to submit a graduation application for each one.

Graduation Date: Select the term that you will complete your degree or certificate requirements. (Do not select your commencement term here, that will come later.)

  • You may need to advance to page 2 to see your graduation term (e.g. 202508 (Fall 2025) or 202601 (Spring 2026)).
  • If your plans change, you can update your Expected Graduation term on your Degree Progress Checklist.
Student Graduation Application Section

Continue to Page 2.

Ceremony Attendance: The Graduate School hosts a single ceremony at the close of spring semester. Answer the question “Will you attend the ceremony?” with your choice. If your plans change, email gradschool@mtu.edu.

the Graduation Date section in the Graduation Appication

Complete the name and address fields and submit your application.

"name" section in the graduation application
the "addresses" section in the graduation application

Return to your Academic Audit and click the refresh button above your student M number so the latest, most accurate information, appears in your audit.

the Academic Audit section

Verify that the Graduation Application is marked as complete. If it is not, please contact the Graduate School for assistance.

graduation application section when checked as completed

Your audit will include information about commencement and a link to the Commencement Application if you indicated that you will attend the commencement ceremony. See our Commencement Application blog post for more information.

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Prepare to Graduate: Submit a Commencement Application

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Graduation is the official act of completing all academic requirements and earning your degree. Commencement is the celebratory ceremony. It is an opportunity for friends and family to acknowledge your hard work.

All students must Submit a Graduation Application to graduate and earn their credential. See our first blog post for information about that process. If you indicate that you will or might attend commencement, we will need additional information that wasn’t collected in the Graduation Application. You will provide us that information by completing the Commencement Application.

View your Academic Audit and click the refresh button above your student M number so the latest, most accurate information appears in your audit.

the Academic Audit section

Locate the Commencement Application requirement to find the current link to the application and click on it to open the application. If your Graduation Application is not complete, the Commencement Application will not appear on your audit.

commencement application section

Provide the information requested in the Commencement Application. You will need to be logged in with your Michigan Tech credentials to access the application.

commencement application form heading

Within three business days, the Graduate School will review your application and enter your information into our database. If you are attending commencement, you will receive a confirmation email when your application has been processed.

Return to the Academic Audit in a few days to verify your commencement application requirement is complete.

commencement application section when checked as completed

If you chose not to participate in commencement, that will be confirmed in your application.

commencement application section when checked as completed and indicating non-attendance

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Outstanding Awards – Fall 2025

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The Graduate School announces the recipients of the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship and the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. Congratulations to all recipients.

Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship

The following recipients of the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship have demonstrated academic or professional qualities that set them apart within their academic program.

  • Applied Computing – Balaji Nammalvar
  • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Ben Jewell
  • College of Business – Derrick Ayisi
  • College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science – Emma Shedd
  • Humanites – Eugene Brown N. Agyei
  • Chemical Engineering – Grace Dykstra
  • Mathematical Sciences – Hunter Waldron
  • Social Sciences – Larissa Juip
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering – Rishin Patra
  • Biomedical Engineering – Rourke Sylvain
  • Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences – Sananda Ray
  • Chemistry- Simahudeen Bathir Jaber Sathik Rifayee
  • Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering – Violet Hung
  • College of Business – Yael Huber
  • Physics – Yi Zhi Chu

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award

The following recipients of the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award are recognized for their excellence in teaching. 

  • Electrical and Computer Engineering – Alex Riebe
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering – Anurag Nagpure
  • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Cooper Evans
  • Computer Science – Daniel Masker
  • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – David Wallis
  • Social Sciences – Esther Acheampong
  • College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science – Garrett Kucharski
  • Applied Computing – Innocent Mateyaunga
  • Physics – Jack Grossman
  • Humanites – Jordan Dagenais
  • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Lambert Lotsu
  • Chemistry – Lucas Sheppard
  • Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences – Priyanka Dhamala
  • College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science – Reed Arneson
  • Computer Science – Ronald Stempien
  • Computer Science – Sarah Larkin
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering – Shadi Alshagarin
  • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Sindhura Repaka
  • Mathematical Sciences – Stephen Acheampong
  • Biomedical Engineering – Victoria Santillan
  • Atmospheric Sciences – Zaid Bakri
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Nominations Open for 2026 MAGS Excellence in Teaching Awards

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Nominations are now open for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Awards. Michigan Tech may nominate one student at the MS and PhD level. Each graduate program may nominate one student at the MS and PhD level. Nominations are due to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, December 10, 2025.

 Eligible students

  • will have been enrolled at Michigan Tech during the 2025 calendar year and have a teaching appointment
  • will have earned the Michigan Tech Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award
  • will exemplify excellence in the teaching and learning mission of Michigan Tech

See the application page for complete details on what is required for a nomination.

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Nominations open for the 2026 MAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Thesis Award

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Nominations are now open for the 2026 MAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Thesis Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, October 29, 2025, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. Biological and Life Sciences
  2. Humanities and Fine Arts

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. Master’s students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2025, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2026 will be Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering; and Social Sciences.Nominations must be emailed to the Graduate School no later than 4pm on October 29, 2025.  Contact the Graduate School (gradschool@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.

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Finishing Fellowship Award – Fall 2025 – Victor Humanes Fuente

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Victor Humanes Fuente, PhD in Forest Science, 2025

“My unexpected doctoral journey at Michigan Technological University began in June 2022, when I transferred from New York to continue my research under the guidance of Dr. Steve Voelker. This transition was driven by my commitment to an ambitious project I began a year earlier, focused on reconstructing climate variability in the Lake Superior region and understanding large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns across North America.

Over the past four years, my research has taken me to numerous lakes and creeks throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where, with the support of Dr. Voelker and a dedicated team of undergraduate and graduate students, we have collected thousands of submerged white pine samples preserved underwater for centuries.

Following previous evidence suggesting that white pines growing in specific locations across this region could be highly sensitive to climate, our project aims to determine whether carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in annual growth rings of white pine trees can be used to reliably reconstruct both winter climate conditions along the southern shores of Lake Superior and atmospheric circulation patterns across North America over the past 500 years.

The data we have collected have also enabled us to investigate the effect of Lake Superior on local and regional climate, and how this translates into tree stable isotope variability both spatially and among species. Beyond reconstructing climate, our data have enabled analyses of white pine long-term population dynamics, shedding light on the drivers of white pine fluctuations over centuries.

This research has been made possible through Dr. Steve Voelker’s vision and successful securing of NSF funding, critical financial support from the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and Michigan Tech’s Finishing Fellowship, which will support the completion of my dissertation during the Fall 2025 semester.”

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Finishing Fellowship Award – Fall 2025 – Eugene Brown Agyei

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Eugene Brown Agyei, PhD in Theory and Culture, 2025

“I began my Ph.D. in the Rhetoric, Theory and Culture program in the Humanities Department in 2021. With a deep interest in understanding how emerging media technologies shape different aspects of human communication, my research has largely centered on the intersection of new media technologies, digital communication and collective action.

My dissertation explores the role of social media algorithms in collective action, with a particular focus on how they shape the structure, visibility and effectiveness of digital activism networks. Using #FixTheCountry in Ghana and #EndSARS in Nigeria as case studies, I investigate the relationship between the organizing strategies of activists (both online and offline) and the affordances and constraints of Twitter (now X). I use computational social network analysis and in-depth interviews to examine activists’ awareness of the platform and network effects, and to explore whether algorithmic folk theories and/or obfuscation techniques play a role in how they use social media for collective action.

During my time at Michigan Tech, I have presented my work at international conferences, including the International Communication Association (ICA) in Canada and Australia, and taught courses in Professional and Technical Communication and Composition. Together, these experiences have been integral to my Ph.D. journey and deepened my engagement with the field of communication. In Fall 2024, I received the Dean’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award.

I am incredibly honored to receive the Doctoral Finishing Fellowship from the Graduate School. I truly appreciate the recognition from the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel and the dean, and I’m especially grateful to the donors whose generosity makes this support possible. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Sarah Bell, for her support, and to my committee members, Dr. Stefka Hristova, Dr. Richard Canevez, and Dr. Brooke Foucault Welles, for their guidance. I’m also thankful to all the faculty in the Humanities Department for their encouragement throughout this journey.”

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