Delaware State University to Confer Degrees on Largest Graduating Class in University History
Delaware State University will confer degrees on the largest graduating class in its history on Friday, May 15, 2026, with the Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony at 8:00 a.m. at Alumni Stadium and the Graduate Commencement Ceremony at 1:00 p.m. in the Dr. William B. DeLauder Theatre on its Dover campus.
More than 1,000 undergraduate candidates, nearly 300 graduate candidates, and 270 associate degree candidates will receive their degrees — a class that reflects every part of what Delaware State University was built to do.
A record number of graduates are Inspire Scholars, recipients of the University's signature scholarship for Delaware high school graduates with a minimum 2.75 GPA who enter Delaware State the fall after high school and commit to public service while enrolled. The program awards four years of full tuition. Fifty-five percent of the in-state graduating class are Inspire Scholars – the highest share in program history – and a direct measure of what becomes possible when access and excellence are treated as a single promise rather than competing priorities.
The University will also graduate 270 students with associate degrees — the first full cohort to complete their studies under Delaware State's stewardship following the historic acquisition of Wesley College, and the most visible academic dividend of that decision to date.
And on Friday, Delaware State will confer the first degrees of its inaugural Jamaican MBA cohort, the founding class of a partnership traceable to the Honorable Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, who delivered the University's 2024 graduate commencement address — a relationship now bearing degrees.
A Class That Reflects the Mission
The Class of 2026 includes ten graduates entering medical school this fall and a larger group bound for law schools across the country. Among them:
Adesola Akinwale, a 19-year-old graduate with a 4.0 GPA, will complete a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and enroll at Cornell Law School in August — one of the youngest Delaware State alumnae ever to begin legal studies at a top-ranked program. She is joined by D'jibril Barry, who heads to Rutgers Law School; both are members of the University's chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Noah Dixon, a 4.0 GPA Inspire Scholar from Felton, Delaware, will complete a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture — one of more than ten members of the Class of 2026 finishing their undergraduate studies with a perfect 4.0.
Tymere Thomas, a Finance major and Inspire Scholar from Wilmington, Delaware, has secured post-graduate employment in his field through internships at long-standing University partner TD Bank — as has Chaasahn Hughes, a Financial Planning and Wealth Management major from Brooklyn, New York.
Jared Bryant, a Computer Science senior, leaves Delaware State having helped represent the University at the Delaware General Assembly's Joint Finance and Bond Bill Committees and at Senator Darius Brown's "Opportunity Lives Here" convening in Wilmington — operating Boston Dynamics Spot robots alongside fellow Hornets — a small picture of the University's broader AI and innovation pipeline.
Mahin Muntasir and Razia Khan Sharme, a husband-and-wife team from Bangladesh, will add an academic highlight to their marriage as both earn a Master of Science in Applied Optics.
Na'ja Stokes, a Detroit native, Braven Scholar, Biological Sciences major, and President of the Student Government Association, is also a proud alumna of the Detroit Midnight Golf Program. "DSU gave me the space to grow into my voice, discover my purpose, and build confidence in my abilities," she said. "The relationships I formed and the community that embraced me became a source of strength, encouragement, and lifelong connection. I am leaving more self-assured, driven, and prepared for my future than when I first arrived."
Sydney Brown, also a Detroit Midnight Golf alumna and Computer Science major, will graduate as a hackathon winner, a National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) leader, and a FOSSI Scholar — already at work shaping the future Delaware State is helping her build.
Jamayah Robertson will be recognized as the first Words Are A Creative Force Scholar — the inaugural recipient of the endowed scholarship established in memory of R. Leatha Allen, mother of President Tony Allen, and awarded annually to a young mother who is a graduating high school senior pursuing her degree and building a life for herself and her child.
A 135-Year-Old Story, Still Being Written
The undergraduate ceremony will also be marked by the presence of Susan Browne, Delaware State's oldest living alumna at age 108, whose attendance will anchor the day in the 135-year-old story of an institution that was never supposed to last — and whose graduates keep writing reasons that it must.
"Every commencement is a sermon written in the lives of students," said Tony Allen, Ph.D., President of Delaware State University. "And this one preaches loudly. The largest class in our history. More Inspire Scholars than ever before. Adesola Akinwale, nineteen years old, on her way to Cornell Law. Noah, Tymere, Kevin, Mahin and Razia, Jared, Na'ja, Sydney — and in Jamayah Robertson, the first Words Are A Creative Force Scholar, a young mother who carries my mother's name forward in a way I never could have imagined. Our first Jamaican MBA cohort. Our first full Wesley class. And in the front row, the oldest living graduate of an institution that the world once decided did not need to exist. None of this was inevitable. All of it is ours. And on Friday, all of it will walk."
Commencement Keynote Speakers
The Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony at 8:00 a.m. at Alumni Stadium (weather permitting) will feature commencement remarks from Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA — one of only two African American women currently leading a Fortune 500 company. Duckett served alongside President Allen on the White House Advisory Board for Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2021 through 2025, has been named among TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World, and is a 2024 inductee into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
The Graduate Commencement Ceremony at 1:00 p.m. in the Dr. William B. DeLauder Theatre will feature remarks from Rosie Allen-Herring, the newly named Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Worldwide — the world's largest privately funded nonprofit, with nearly 1,100 affiliates across more than 30 countries and territories. The youngest of ten children born and raised in Mississippi, Allen-Herring serves on the boards of MedStar Health, WesBanco, Pepco Holdings, Greater Washington Partnerships, and the Urban Institute, and as National First Vice President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
President Allen will nominate both Duckett and Allen-Herring for the Doctor of Humane Letters, the University's highest honor.
"I know both Thasunda and Rosie personally," said Dr. Allen, "and have been struck by their common thread — a clear and unrelenting commitment to excellence in pursuit of service to others. They are stewards of an internal flame that should burn bright in all of us, and I hope it is lit in every graduate of our grand institution."
###
About Delaware State University: Founded in 1891, Delaware State University is the state's only public Historically Black College or University and a Carnegie-classified R2 research and land-grant institution serving approximately 6,600 students at its main campus in Dover, Del., and additional locations in Wilmington and Georgetown. The University is consistently recognized among the nation's leading HBCUs for academic excellence, social mobility, and its long-standing commitment to students the system was not built to prioritize.
More than 1,000 undergraduate candidates, nearly 300 graduate candidates, and 270 associate degree candidates will receive their degrees — a class that reflects every part of what Delaware State University was built to do.
A record number of graduates are Inspire Scholars, recipients of the University's signature scholarship for Delaware high school graduates with a minimum 2.75 GPA who enter Delaware State the fall after high school and commit to public service while enrolled. The program awards four years of full tuition. Fifty-five percent of the in-state graduating class are Inspire Scholars – the highest share in program history – and a direct measure of what becomes possible when access and excellence are treated as a single promise rather than competing priorities.
The University will also graduate 270 students with associate degrees — the first full cohort to complete their studies under Delaware State's stewardship following the historic acquisition of Wesley College, and the most visible academic dividend of that decision to date.
And on Friday, Delaware State will confer the first degrees of its inaugural Jamaican MBA cohort, the founding class of a partnership traceable to the Honorable Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, who delivered the University's 2024 graduate commencement address — a relationship now bearing degrees.
A Class That Reflects the Mission
The Class of 2026 includes ten graduates entering medical school this fall and a larger group bound for law schools across the country. Among them:
Adesola Akinwale, a 19-year-old graduate with a 4.0 GPA, will complete a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and enroll at Cornell Law School in August — one of the youngest Delaware State alumnae ever to begin legal studies at a top-ranked program. She is joined by D'jibril Barry, who heads to Rutgers Law School; both are members of the University's chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Noah Dixon, a 4.0 GPA Inspire Scholar from Felton, Delaware, will complete a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture — one of more than ten members of the Class of 2026 finishing their undergraduate studies with a perfect 4.0.
Tymere Thomas, a Finance major and Inspire Scholar from Wilmington, Delaware, has secured post-graduate employment in his field through internships at long-standing University partner TD Bank — as has Chaasahn Hughes, a Financial Planning and Wealth Management major from Brooklyn, New York.
Jared Bryant, a Computer Science senior, leaves Delaware State having helped represent the University at the Delaware General Assembly's Joint Finance and Bond Bill Committees and at Senator Darius Brown's "Opportunity Lives Here" convening in Wilmington — operating Boston Dynamics Spot robots alongside fellow Hornets — a small picture of the University's broader AI and innovation pipeline.
Mahin Muntasir and Razia Khan Sharme, a husband-and-wife team from Bangladesh, will add an academic highlight to their marriage as both earn a Master of Science in Applied Optics.
Na'ja Stokes, a Detroit native, Braven Scholar, Biological Sciences major, and President of the Student Government Association, is also a proud alumna of the Detroit Midnight Golf Program. "DSU gave me the space to grow into my voice, discover my purpose, and build confidence in my abilities," she said. "The relationships I formed and the community that embraced me became a source of strength, encouragement, and lifelong connection. I am leaving more self-assured, driven, and prepared for my future than when I first arrived."
Sydney Brown, also a Detroit Midnight Golf alumna and Computer Science major, will graduate as a hackathon winner, a National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) leader, and a FOSSI Scholar — already at work shaping the future Delaware State is helping her build.
Jamayah Robertson will be recognized as the first Words Are A Creative Force Scholar — the inaugural recipient of the endowed scholarship established in memory of R. Leatha Allen, mother of President Tony Allen, and awarded annually to a young mother who is a graduating high school senior pursuing her degree and building a life for herself and her child.
A 135-Year-Old Story, Still Being Written
The undergraduate ceremony will also be marked by the presence of Susan Browne, Delaware State's oldest living alumna at age 108, whose attendance will anchor the day in the 135-year-old story of an institution that was never supposed to last — and whose graduates keep writing reasons that it must.
"Every commencement is a sermon written in the lives of students," said Tony Allen, Ph.D., President of Delaware State University. "And this one preaches loudly. The largest class in our history. More Inspire Scholars than ever before. Adesola Akinwale, nineteen years old, on her way to Cornell Law. Noah, Tymere, Kevin, Mahin and Razia, Jared, Na'ja, Sydney — and in Jamayah Robertson, the first Words Are A Creative Force Scholar, a young mother who carries my mother's name forward in a way I never could have imagined. Our first Jamaican MBA cohort. Our first full Wesley class. And in the front row, the oldest living graduate of an institution that the world once decided did not need to exist. None of this was inevitable. All of it is ours. And on Friday, all of it will walk."
Commencement Keynote Speakers
The Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony at 8:00 a.m. at Alumni Stadium (weather permitting) will feature commencement remarks from Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA — one of only two African American women currently leading a Fortune 500 company. Duckett served alongside President Allen on the White House Advisory Board for Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2021 through 2025, has been named among TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World, and is a 2024 inductee into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
The Graduate Commencement Ceremony at 1:00 p.m. in the Dr. William B. DeLauder Theatre will feature remarks from Rosie Allen-Herring, the newly named Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Worldwide — the world's largest privately funded nonprofit, with nearly 1,100 affiliates across more than 30 countries and territories. The youngest of ten children born and raised in Mississippi, Allen-Herring serves on the boards of MedStar Health, WesBanco, Pepco Holdings, Greater Washington Partnerships, and the Urban Institute, and as National First Vice President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
President Allen will nominate both Duckett and Allen-Herring for the Doctor of Humane Letters, the University's highest honor.
"I know both Thasunda and Rosie personally," said Dr. Allen, "and have been struck by their common thread — a clear and unrelenting commitment to excellence in pursuit of service to others. They are stewards of an internal flame that should burn bright in all of us, and I hope it is lit in every graduate of our grand institution."
###
About Delaware State University: Founded in 1891, Delaware State University is the state's only public Historically Black College or University and a Carnegie-classified R2 research and land-grant institution serving approximately 6,600 students at its main campus in Dover, Del., and additional locations in Wilmington and Georgetown. The University is consistently recognized among the nation's leading HBCUs for academic excellence, social mobility, and its long-standing commitment to students the system was not built to prioritize.
