Congratulations Spring 2019 Graduates

On Saturday, May 11, 2019 the Carolina MPA program celebrated graduates from Summer and Fall 2018, and Spring 2019. The program also welcomed the 41 most recent Spring 2019 graduates to the Carolina MPA Alumni community.

Andrew Loeb Shoenig was honored with both the Deil S. Wright Award, recognizing the best portfolio paper, and the Nanette Mengel Communications Award. This is only the second time that a single student has won both awards.

‘If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.’ 

This year’s commencement keynote was delivered by Roger Stancil ’77, the recently retired manager of the Town of Chapel Hill (2006–2018). Stancil also spent 26 years with the City of Fayetteville, nine of them as city manager. In his speech, Stancil shared some of his 40 years of accumulated wisdom.

The Life of an Infiltrator 

Stancil spoke about the idealism of his younger days. He reminded the graduates that they are our nation’s future. He informed them of their potential to make a huge impact, no matter where they end up. “You can change the world from where you sit.”

‘Life is Like a Construction Project’ 

Stancil also told the audience a story of how he recently built a ramp for his mother-in-law’s home and drew parallels between that project and life in general. “Life seems like a construction project through which we learn. It was the skills I learned in the MPA program that let me build that ramp…If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.”

A Calling to Serve 

He also encouraged the graduates to remember that the MPA program is simply the beginning. “What you’re doing is a calling, a voice in your head that will stay with you forever,” Stancil told the graduates. “The calling is real, the challenge is great, but the satisfaction of making a difference is something you can’t feel anywhere else.”

Congratulations, Graduates!

Sadie Alexandra Amonino

Elizabeth Anderson

James Aughenbaugh

Lindsey Victoria Bineau

Kyle Bromir

Roger Aaron Brown

William Carroll

Christopher D. Chavis

Agata Chydzinski

Kim Cox

Jerald Crook

Max Dixon

Joshua Alan Fernandez

Katherine Mae Fiely

Nathalie Floyd

Angela Dawn Gravely-Smith

Kalen Frost Grosskopf

Jim Hemphill

Ashley Kazouh

Elizabeth Michal Kelley

Emily Margaret Langston

Charles Albert Lehmuller

Jordan Lynsee Marschke

Laura Elizabeth May

Laura Delaney McBryde

Claire LePage Morgan

James Gibbs Owen IV

Joshua Baer Rosenstein

Marissa Saenz

Timothy Autumn Shober

Andrew Loeb Shoenig

Ceara Valesa Smith

Colton Thomas Sobolewski

Emily Rose Stallings

Justin Stirewalt

Kimberly Shea Torres

Matthew Visser

Michael David Welker

Amanda Stafford Workman

Matthew Eaton Wright

Samuel Martin Yeager