UVM College of Arts & Sciences

We are so proud of our 2026 CAS grads! 🎓 #UVMGrad #ClassOf2026

Congratulations to the UVM CAS Class of 2026! 🎓 Your hard work brought you here and we couldn’t be prouder. We can’t wait to see the amazing things you will do in the world! 🌍✨ #UVMGrad #ClassOf2026

Looking for hope in a complicated world? 💚 Meet eight remarkable members of UVM CAS’s Class of 2026. These soon-to-be grads aren’t just dreaming big. They’ve already begun taking action to make the world a better place, making strides in areas like healthcare access, immigrant rights, environmental stewardship, art conservation, accessibility, and community building. And this is just the beginning. ✨ We can’t wait to see what they do next. Read the full story at link in bio. (From top left: Ariel Schuck, Calvin Kellams, Sabella Ibinyopakaka, Lorelai Treanor, Will Oliver, Stella Sarefield, Olivia Teare, Phoebe Swartz) #UVMGrad #ClassOf2026 #ChangeMakers

This is a callback! If you follow this feed closely, you may remember that Dylan Moody Aness ‘26 recently won an Austria U.S. Teaching Assistant award, a “sibling” to the Fulbright program. Since we shared that news, Dylan was *also​* awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Germany! Dylan has accepted the Fulbright Germany award. He joins 10 other graduating seniors and recent alumni from UVM who've been named Fulbright ETAs this spring.  Dylan, an English major minoring in German and Reporting & Documentary Storytelling, is a veteran writing tutor at UVM's Undergraduate Writing Center. After high school, Dylan spent a year teaching English in Germany through the Congress-Bundestag Young Exchange program (again, callback!). Dylan has been working on a long-term oral history project with formerly incarcerated people through Dismas Vermont. And an audio piece he produced for a class with Professor Kelsey Tolchin-Kupferer was recently named an Honorable Mention in the 2025 NPR College Podcast Challenge. An avid outdoorsperson, Dylan recently defended his Honors College thesis, titled "Dead Men Walking: Zombies, the Human Condition, and a Search for Utopia." In Dylan’s Fulbright endorsement form, the FOUR team wrote the following: "Dylan speaks movingly about working with immigrants to Germany while on CBYX. He shared that, just like for the U.S., 'You can't really talk about Germany and German history/politics without talking about immigration.' Dylan's immigrant students were on route to jobs in the trades, he explained - and no one else he met in Germany appreciated more the vital role of English proficiency. Dylan's conversations with these students fuels his interest in exploring more closely the relationship there between privilege, ethnicity, and education. He also hopes to learn more about persistent stereotypes regarding social class in East versus West Germany. He sees Germany's history of reconciliation with its national traumas as a model for supporting new waves of immigrants and refugees." Congratulations, Dylan!

Mirá vos! Elliot Baird has joined UVM’s Fulbright train! Elliot (Linguistics and English ’26) will work as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Argentina next year. Sophomore year, Elliot spent a semester studying at University College Maastricht, a rigorous exchange program for Patrick Leahy Honors College students in Maastricht, Netherlands. He won multiple awards from FOUR to support his undergraduate research, including a 2025 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Elliot is a four-year member of the PLHC Student Empowerment Action Committee, a group that advocates for a more inclusive Honors College. He’s also a four-year member of the Linguistics Club and the Ballroom & West Coast Swing Society. Off campus, Elliot leads segway tours for Burlington Segway. "The last few years of my life," Elliot wrote in his application, "have been defined by my passion for linguistics, as an undergraduate student, a teaching assistant, and a researcher. This passion situates me as a trained specialist with the vocabulary to answer sophisticated questions from learners with high degrees of English proficiency, as are the profesorados (teacher-training colleges) in Argentina.” Through his leadership roles on campus, Elliot wrote, "I've been able to plan and attend events as diverse as dance lessons, cultural heritage nights, and queer affinity spaces, creating a variety of safe spaces for people to connect. Ballroom dance especially is incredibly important in Argentina, the birthplace of the Tango, and I would be elated to become involved in the thriving culture of Milongas, Tango social dance parties that occur throughout the country. During my semester abroad in Maastricht, I joined the student swing dancing club, and had the opportunity to teach lessons in American styles while also learning new European ones. I would love to repeat this exchange in the school or local community where I'm placed.” Felicitaciones, Elliot, y qué lo pases de diez!

The Fulbright grants keep rolling in! Put your hands together for John Blochberger, our latest Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Taiwan! This is especially sweet news for John (Chinese & Plant Biology ’25), who was a Fulbright alternate for the same program last year. While at UVM, John taught Chinese at the Vermont Chinese School in South Burlington. He recited poetry in Mandarin, as well as his own English translations, at festivals both on and off campus. All the while, John was an active plant biology researcher; he won multiple grants from FOUR en route to his Patrick Leahy Honors College thesis, which studied Beech Bark Disease on Camel’s Hump. Since graduating, John has lived the life of an environmental public servant, working for various Vermont state parks and agencies focused on environmental stewardship. Describing in his application how he plans to become involved in his host community in Taiwan, John wrote, "Another way I want to get involved in my community is temples and their gardens...With their extensive gardens and welcoming communities, temples present a great opportunity for me to volunteer with landscaping. Working in soil to craft beautiful gardens is work I cherish and will help me strengthen my sense of place in Taiwan. As I discover new species in Taiwan, I plan to share my excitement with my students to cultivate their sense of place and understanding of local wildlife.” "After Fulbright,” John went on, "I plan to transition to a conservation-based graduate program in Taiwan. I need personal experience with Taiwan’s communities, natural lands, and land use issues to develop a meaningful and compelling research proposal for graduate school. As an ETA, opportunities for ecotourism, volunteering with Taiwanese environmental groups, and improved communication...from teaching English [will] provide this experience. I anticipate that observing how rural Taiwanese relate to natural lands and how the government handles the many indigenous populations will enable me to bring a unique perspective to the U.S. issue of land reclamation and indigenous sovereignty when I become a US-based conservationist.” Congratulations, John!

It’s the last Feel Good Friday of the semester! We hope your finals week went smoothly, and we wish you an equally seamless move-out process. It’s only right that our campus greenery is blooming in time to wish you all farewell. To all of our outstanding CAS graduates, we are equal parts proud and excited to watch you take the stage at Commencement. Have an amazing summer, CAS Cats! 💚 💛

Emily Longman, a post-doctoral associate in the UVM Department of Biology, has been studying the evolution of coastal dogwhelk, a West Coast snail species. Longman and her team focus on exploring what the species may indicate about the history of coastal ecosystems as well as how they might respond to environmental changes. Her research was published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Read more here: https://go.uvm.edu/1z23d @biologyuvm

To celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, we asked students who their favorite CAS professors are—and here’s what they said. We want to hear from you, too. If a CAS professor has positively impacted your time at UVM, give them a shout-out in the comments below! 💚📚 #UVMCAS #NationalTeacherAppreciationWeek

Happy LDOC (Last Day of Classes), CAS Cats! Congrats on finishing another amazing semester here at UVM. As we head into finals week, remember to take study breaks, get plenty of sleep, fuel your body, and maybe even lounge on a lawn for a few minutes. You got this! #UVMCAS #UVMLDOC #FeelGoodFriday

We’re excited to introduce our last CAS Student Spotlight of the year, Dakota Marosi! Dakota is a senior linguistics and classic double major from Clermont, Florida. On campus, she’s the UVM Linguistics Club president and a member of The Gist. In her freshman year, Dakota was a Language Scholar in the Liberal Arts Scholars Program— she’s studied Russian, Latin, and ancient Greek at UVM. She’s also been a research assistant for linguistics professors Maeve Eberhardt and Guillermo Rodriguez. She’s currently completing an Honors College thesis on computational linguistics. Outside of academics, Dakota loves to read translated and experimental literature, rock climb, and learn new languages. Her favorite parts of UVM are the abundance of research opportunities and the incredibly special people she’s met.

Did you know that Old Mill, one of the CAS student and faculty campus hubs, got its name because students thought its design resembled a traditional mill building? Old Mill has been a central part of UVM’s story for nearly two centuries and is a symbol of UVM’s history and commitment to learning, standing as one of the oldest and most iconic buildings in Vermont. Swipe to learn more! #UVMCAS #OldMill