Master’s degree recipients to be honored Friday at Graduate Hooding and Commencement Ceremony

It’s commencement weekend at CWU, and thousands of graduates will be receiving their diplomas and moving on to the next phase of their lives.

But before throngs of CWU graduates walk across the Tomlinson Stadium stage this Saturday, a smaller group of master’s degree recipients will take part in the annual Graduate Hooding and Commencement Ceremony on Friday evening. About 200 of this year’s 453 master’s degree recipients will participate in the ceremony from 6-7:30 p.m. in Nicholson Arena.

President Jim Wohlpart, Provost Patrick Pease, and Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies Rodrigo Renteria-Valencia will deliver remarks to the graduates and their guests. A total of 80 CWU graduate faculty will participate in the ceremony, along with 12 additional faculty who will join the processional and recessional.

Two student speakers, Sophia Litterski and Mariah Sebastiani, will present speeches to the graduates and their families, while two other graduates will be presented with the Dale and Mary Jo Comstock Distinguished Thesis Award. Desiree Cunningham and Kevin Cassidy are the 2024 recipients of the 45^th annual award, named after the CWU alumnus and former dean of Graduate Studies.

Here's a closer look at this year’s speakers and Comstock Award recipients:

Mariah Sebastiani

Graduate Student Association Speaker

Mariah is a Literary Studies master’s student with specialization in teaching. She graduated from Western Washington University in 2021 with a BA in Creative Writing and Literature, and minors in Environmental Studies and Technical Writing.

The native of Bellingham teaches English 101 as a graduate assistant, and her studies focus on composition pedagogy, poetry, and multimodal creative writing and rhetoric. She also serves as the president of the Graduate Student Association and strives to create meaningful community connections throughout CWU’s diverse graduate programs.

After graduation, Mariah plans to apply to adjunct pools and writing centers across Washington state. Over the long term, she aims to join a cohort of English professors who support student-centered and anti-racist pedagogies and support dialogic, socio-constructive teaching methodologies.

“My grad school experience at CWU has completely transformed me, both professionally and personally,” Mariah says. “When I first came to Ellensburg, I had no idea how much I would be challenged and changed. While I expected grad school to be a place for expanding my knowledge and conducting research, it was the relationships with fellow graduate students and the support from the staff and faculty that genuinely made the experience transformational.”

Sophia Litterski

Graduate Hooding and Commencement Student Speaker

Sophia has always known that she wanted to work with children, going back to her high school days in Seattle. She decided that she wanted to pursue a teaching degree and attended the University of Portland, where she earned her BA in Elementary Education, with a concentration in Social Emotional Learning. She also received a minor in psychology, and eventually gravitated to the child life specialist profession, which led her to pursue her master’s in Child Development and Family Science at CWU.

“After spending months of research and watching videos to learn more, I realized that this profession is what I really wanted to do, and it was a perfect fit for me,” Sophia says. “I applied to a few different master's programs, and CWU's program really stood out to me.”

During her time at Central, Sophia has been able to explore and learn about Ellensburg from people that have grown up here, which made for a more meaningful experience. She also enjoyed working alongside the supportive faculty and fellow students.

“The faculty and my cohort are always there if I have a question, need help, or a good laugh,” she says. “I have been able to work alongside faculty and take on my own course as a graduate assistant, which has helped me step into my emerging profession with confidence, competence, and additional leadership skills. I could not have picked a better program!”

Desiree Cunningham

Dale and Mary Jo Comstock Distinguished Thesis Award

Desiree is being recognized with this prestigious award for her thesis, “Timescales of Magma Storage and the Pre-Eruptive History for the Most Recent Lava Flow at Mount Baker (Koma Kulshan), Washington.”

Her thesis was focused on using the crystal cargo of the youngest lave flow in the Mount Baker Volcanic Field — the Sulphur Creek Lava — to determine timescales of pre-eruptive processes for this eruption. Desiree and her research team applied a technique called diffusion chronometry across crystal zones to determine the maximum length of time that the magmas were stored in an eruptible state before the eruption began and how quickly the magma ascended to the surface upon eruption.

The native of Louisiana earned her BS in Geology from Mississippi State University, and it was there that she fell in love with structural geology and volcanology. She had an opportunity to present her undergraduate research project at the 2021 Geological Society of America annual meeting, where she met CWU volcanologist Dr. Hannah Shamloo.

“I reached out to her about prospects for doing a MS in Geology, focused on studying volcanoes,” Desiree says. “Long story short, her passion for volcanos and clear drive for her students’ success were the only motivations I needed to choose her as my mentor through a master’s thesis and CWU as my home for the following two years.” 

Desiree couldn’t be happier with how her thesis came together, and she will be forever grateful to Dr. Shamloo and the Department of Geological Sciences.

“My time here has been anything but easy,” she says, “but both CWU and the Department of Geological Sciences have provided me with every opportunity I needed to be successful. It has been a privilege to get the chance to call myself a CWU Wildcat.”

Kevin Cassidy

Dale and Mary Jo Comstock Distinguished Thesis Award

Kevin was selected for the Distinguished Thesis Award for his thesis titled, “Generational Leadership in the American Revolution and Early Republic, 1763-1800.”

His thesis examines the Loyal Twenty-Seven, a group of Massachusetts revolutionaries, and their importance in the American Revolution using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods — combined with traditional historical research — to show that there was a generational shift in leadership between the revolutionaries who led early British protests and those who led the Revolutionary War and the Early Republic. The Digital History methods used throughout his thesis helped him examine the American Revolution in a new light.

Kevin is a transfer student from Prosser who earned dual bachelor’s degrees from CWU in History and Teacher Education. He said he was interested in earning a master’s in history, and everything began to fall into place when he met History 302 Professor Dr. Marilyn Levine.

“I wanted to do something on the American Revolution for my MA, but I didn’t know what I would focus on at that point,” Kevin says. “At the end of the quarter, Dr. Levine asked if any students were interested in taking an independent study class that focused on Digital History and the American Revolution, and I decided to take it on.”

Kevin and two of his classmates, Alex Muetze and Bart Hasz — who Dr. Levine dubbed as the “Liberty Wildcats” — went on to submit their research at the 2020 SOURCE conference. That work formed the basis for Kevin’s master’s thesis.

During his time at CWU, he served as a student employee for the Circulation and Archives departments before becoming a graduate assistant in the history department during the past two years. He also was a member of Chi Alpha, a Christian Fellowship on campus, a member of the History Club, and a volunteer history tutor.

“I’m extremely grateful for the connections I formed over the years at CWU,” Kevin says.

Watch online

If you would like to watch the livestream of Friday's Graduate Hooding and Commencement Ceremony, visit https://youtube.com/live/K-A-ZuS45jQ