Featured Graduates | Commencement 2022

Rowan University

Featured Graduates 2022

Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts

Terry Nguyen

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder does not begin to define Terry Nguyen. Graduating with not one, not two, but three Rowan University bachelor’s degrees (and a pre-med minor!) Nguyen has her sights on medical school where she’ll no doubt bring the compassion she has for others to the passion required to be a good doctor.

College of Performing Arts

Salma Elwy

Ask Salma Elwy which Broadway song best describes her Rowan University experience and she doesn’t hesitate. It’s “For Good” from “Wicked.” Throughout her academic career, Elwy has squeezed every bit of good out of her Rowan experience…and contributed plenty of good of her own, too. Her bachelor’s degree includes concentrations in acting and pre-teaching, a minor in Arabic Studies, and a certificate in undergraduate studies in teaching English as a second language.

School of Osteopathic Medicine and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Rahil Kheirkhah

Rahil Kheirkhah is on a mission. She will head to a five-year general surgery residency program with the ChristianaCare health system in Newark, Delaware. She is bringing extraordinary credentials to her patients: a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree as well as a doctoral degree in cell and molecular biology. Kheirkhah is only the second female D.O./Ph.D. in the school’s history.

Virtua Health School of Nursing & Health Professions

Solongo Boknov

Solongo Boknov is about to graduate with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, but her self-assuredness, sunny personality, and steady hands hint at years of experience—and an unwavering drive to serve patients. In the late 1990s, after completing medical school and working three years as an obstetrics resident in her native country of Mongolia, Boknov left everything she knew to move to California. To return to medicine, she had to learn a new language, navigate a new culture and build a new life.

College of Science & Mathematics

Gabriella & Isabella DeStefano

Gabriella and Isabella DeStefano share the same demanding major, research lab and clubs, as well as the same goal of one day becoming physicians. And though their paths to medical school are tightly entwined, their aspirations have nothing to do with their twinship—and everything to do with what they’ve been through. The biochemistry majors are fraternal twins who just happen to share the same last name, birth date and Atlantic County home address.

College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Gonzalo McGuckin

For Gonzalo McGuckin, it’s always been about language. Actually, five of them—English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese. So far. Raised in a bilingual, Spanish-speaking household, he entered Rowan as a Spanish major, unsure of his career path. But his goals then were straightforward and attainable: Excel academically and get involved. McGuckin is now ready to travel the world and find his place in it, exploring other cultures through language and teaching.

School of Earth & Environment

Mairen Flanagan

Mairen Flanagan, who graduated from Rowan University in December, applied for a NASA internship “on a complete lark” and landed the work experience of a lifetime. Working virtually at NASA’s headquarters in Washington from her home in Point Pleasant, Flanagan did so well in her internship with the agency’s Disasters program this winter that it’s been extended three additional months.

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

Ed Delesky

In 2018, as a new medical student, Ed Delesky read the book “The Upstream Doctors,” by Rishi Manchanda. The book outlines a philosophy of healthcare focused on using a proactive mindset to look “upstream” to identify root causes of health issues. “After I finished reading the book, I envisioned my future as a physician and thought to myself, ‘I should be running upstream. I want to run upstream.’”

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering

Lauren Repmann

Since she was 14, Lauren Repmann has worked at an accelerated pace. By the time she graduated high school, she already had her associate’s degree. Now, at 21, she has a full-time position at Merck in Durham, North Carolina. She is the first student from Rowan University to land a spot in the pharmaceutical company’s three-year Manufacturing Leadership Development Program.

College of Education

Bener Uygun

Bener Uygun enrolled at Rowan University expecting to become a civil engineer. “Academically, I was doing OK,” Uygun says, “But I just wasn’t in love with it.” He did, however, begin to consider a career in teaching when, while still an engineering major, he went to a local school over two semesters to teach students engineering concepts with the Engineers Without Borders team.

William G. Rohrer College of Business

Julian Doroteo

Julian Doroteo discovered early that he wanted to be a barber. But more than just having his own chair, the Bridgeton resident wants his own storefront. And then a chain of storefronts. And a school to train others so they, too, can one day have their own storefronts. In pursuit of that dream, the first-generation college student and licensed cosmetologist transferred to the Rohrer College of Business.