Rebecca Bennett, College of Engineering
Bennett, president of the Cornell Naval ROTC Unit, has been active as a chemical engineering teaching assistant and rush chair for Alpha Phi Omega, a community-service organization on campus.

Allison Buck, College of Arts and Sciences
A theater arts major, Buck plans to use her experience performing in productions in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts to pursue a career in acting.

Kate Duch, ILR School
An industrial and labor relations major, Duch's experience as a student-elected trustee helped shape her future career goals.

Joseph Duva, College of Human Ecology
Entrepreneur Duva has been managing his ServiceAuction.com business while developing a voice-activated, industry-specific encyclopedia.

Chelsea Howe, College of Arts and Sciences
As a College Scholar, Howe designed her own major, studying interactive multimedia design -- combining linguistics, creative writing, computer graphics and computer music with computer games.

Raymond Jacobs, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Jacobs is president of Hortus Forum, a student organization that grows and sells plants on campus to fund educational trips in plant science.

Ramya Kasturi, College of Arts and Sciences
Kasturi is a double major who was "an outstanding student with over a 4.0 GPA," says her adviser. She studied in Paris and New York City.

Eva Kestner, College of Arts and Sciences
Born and raised in Japan, Kestner was director and lead drummer of Cornell Taiko, a student Japanese drumming group, before being hired by Bonten, a professional drumming troup.

Yoon Kim, College of Arts and Sciences
A mathematics and economics major, Kim, who was born in Korea and grew up in Australia, breakdanced and played violin in the Cornell Symphony Orchestra to take creative breaks from his studies.

Ryan Lavin, ILR School
An industrial and labor relations major, Lavin served as president of the Student Assembly and vice president of the Interfraternity Council and helped lead IthaQatar Ambassadors to make Qatar students feel at home while in Ithaca.

Jeomi Maduka, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Maduka has been a Cornell track and basketball star, sometimes juggling sports on the same weekends. The first Big Red player to be named an Ivy League Women's Basketball Player of the Year, she earned five All-American awards in her illustrious career.

Albery Melo, College of Human Ecology
Melo, a Cornell Tradition fellow, volunteers at Lakeside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center through the Cornell Elderly Partnership.

Yelena Moshkovskiy, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Moshkovskiy emigrated in 1995 from Ukraine. One of seven children, she is the first in her family to finish high school -- and now college.

Svante Myrick, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Myrick, who was homeless as a child, is the only student serving as an elected city official. He also serves as a mentor to underserved youth, an anti-smoking advocate and on the Cornell Daily Sun's editorial board.

Stephanie Palacios, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Palacios, an applied economics and management major, was head choreographer for Sabor Latino Dance Ensemble. She is the first in her family to go away for college.

Rebecca Robbins, School of Hotel Administration
Robbins served as head teaching assistant for Jim Maas' Psych 101 course of 1,300 students and worked in Qatar on the videoconferenced course, taught in Ghana and also founded the women's golf team at Cornell.

Greg Schvey, School of Hotel Administration
Schvey, a Hotel administration major, served as president of the Interfraternity Council and student chair of the United Way campaign. He also is an Eagle Scout and intramural wrestling champ.

Joseph Swingle, College of Engineering
An electrical and computer engineering major, Swingle developed a Web-based course schedule planning tool, choreographed dance and competed on the Cornell Snake Arm team.

Ivy Torres, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Torres, a development sociology major, is a Chicana activist and the first from her Mexican-American family to graduate from college.

Jeremy Veverka, College of Arts and Sciences
Veverka spent five years on an extended leave of absence from Cornell. He visited 50 countries to get a global perspective that he now incorporates into his photojournalism and new documentary on China.

Sarah Villarreal, College of Engineering
Villarreal is a first-generation college student from a Mexican-American, one-parent household, who has been an outstanding researcher and volunteer for Ithaca's soup kitchen and women's shelter and for engineering societies.

Max Wasserman, College of Engineering
A mechanical engineering major, Wasserman spent much of his time as an undergraduate in Lynah Rink writing a popular blog on the mathematical aspects of sports.

Lauren Wein, ILR School
ILR graduate Wein combined classroom experiences with real-life service, including trips to Nicaragua and an internship in Harlem.

Angie Wolfgang, College of Arts and Sciences
Wolfgang, a physics major, has "made a strong impact in our research program, first in the experimental condensed matter research group and more recently in astrophysics," says one of her advisers.

Haley Oliver, College of Veterinary Medicine
Ph.D. marshal Oliver earns her doctorate, despite overwhelming family crises this past year: her single-parent father was killed, and she had to oversee selling the family farm.

Dan Shillito, College of Veterinary Medicine
Shillito, who will be 38 years old this year, gave up the salary and health insurance of a zoo director in South Carolina to become a full-time veterinary student.

Jennifer Olson, College of Veterinary Medicine
When Olson dons her gray commencement robe this weekend, she will stand on the shoulders of four family members stretching back exactly 100 years.

John O'Brien, College of Architecture, Art and Planning
O'Brien, M.A. '89, worked for more than 20 years -- 14 of them as a quadriplegic -- to complete his Cornell Ph.D. in architecture history.