Wofford College will hold its 172nd annual Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 17 at 9:30 a.m. on the front lawn of Main Building in Spartanburg, marking the close of a year that saw the college confer four honorary degrees on individuals with deep ties to the institution, while three graduating seniors earned prestigious Fulbright awards for international education work beginning in fall 2026.
Wofford President Nayef Samhat — who joined the college in 2013 and led a $470 million fundraising campaign that grew the endowment to more than $500 million — will deliver the Commencement address. The college will confer honorary degrees on four individuals: Ashley Richardson Allen, who will receive a Doctor of Humanities; Christopher A.P. Carpenter ’90, a Doctor of Laws; and President Samhat and his wife, Prema Samhat, each a Doctor of Humanities.
Allen, a founding minority owner of the Carolina Panthers, has managed the Richardson Family Endowed Scholarship — Wofford’s largest — for more than three decades and was elected to the college’s Board of Trustees in 2014, serving as vice chair since 2023-24. Carpenter served 12 years on the Board of Trustees, including the past five as chairman, and co-led the $470 million comprehensive campaign that funded five new buildings and 189 new endowment scholarships. Prema Samhat arrived at Wofford in 2013 alongside her husband and has since served on the boards of the United Way of the Piedmont and the Spartanburg Regional Foundation, among other local and national roles.
Separately, Wofford brought its total Fulbright recipient count to 24 after three members of the Class of 2026 were named to the 2026-27 Fulbright U.S. Program. Emma Rose Radcliff of Pawleys Island, South Carolina — a history major and government minor — will teach English to high school students in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, drawing on her German heritage and prior internship at the German American Heritage Museum in Washington, D.C. Reece McCarthy of Aiken, South Carolina, a German and international affairs double major with seven years of German language study, will also teach English as an assistant in Germany. Godwins Tuyishime, who graduated from Wofford in 2024 with a biology major and now works in the college’s Career Center, will serve as an English teaching assistant in Kigali, Rwanda, and will volunteer at the U.S. embassy there to lead business English and entrepreneurship programs.
The college received seven Fulbright semifinalist nominations this year. Dr. Ramón Galiñanes Jr., director of undergraduate research and post-graduate fellowships, called the three awards a reflection of what he described as Wofford’s distinctive liberal arts model. Wofford enrolls approximately 1,750 students at its 170-acre campus on North Church Street in Spartanburg.
The May 17 Commencement ceremony requires no tickets for general admission. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will relocate to the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Full Commencement weekend events include an Honors Convocation on May 15 at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium at 5 p.m., a Baccalaureate service on May 16 at 5 p.m., also at the Richardson stadium, and the commencement itself on May 17 at 9:30 a.m.
