Meet the class speakers for spring 2026 commencement
UNC Charlotte’s spring commencement ceremonies will feature five student speakers whose experiences reflect the breadth and ambition of the graduating class. Their messages — centered on curiosity, community and courage — highlight the values that define Niner Nation.
Jennifer Adelhardt
Jennifer Adelhardt is the commencement speaker for the doctoral hooding ceremony at 11 a.m., Thursday, May 7. Currently an adjunct professor in the Belk College of Business and a Graduate Life Fellow, Adelhardt is completing her doctorate of business administration.
Adelhardt said she is filled with gratitude as she prepares to deliver a message of curiosity and community informed by her decades of corporate experience and her decision to leave it behind.
“I am so honored and humbled by this opportunity; to be in a room amongst geniuses,” Adelhardt said.
Adelhardt earned her bachelor’s degree in information technology and psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree in information systems from Stevens Institute of Technology. She entered the workforce as the fintech industry was exploding, and Adelhardt carved out a 20-year career bridging the worlds of business and technology, first at UBS Wealth Management, then with TIAA, rising to senior director of product management.
The pursuit of curiosity is central in her professional career and her decision to leave corporate work to teach and pursue her DBA. Adelhardt said this transition was also “absolutely terrifying and soul-jerking.”
“You are a part of someone else’s vision when you’re associated with an organization bigger than yourself,” Adelhardt said. ”So when I left, it was a crisis of identity. The only other time that I felt this much of an identity shift was when I became a mom.”
That crisis of identity evolved into a purpose-driven mission to help leaders of today and tomorrow create environments where all team members can thrive. At Charlotte, Adelhardt teaches first-year business students as well as MBA students — shaping future and current industry leaders.
“What I love most about teaching is the ability to have a real impact on students’ lives,” Adelhardt said. “I love mentoring and helping create those ‘aha’ moments. I live to see the light bulbs go off in a classroom.”
She wants graduates to leave with a renewed sense of wonder and a recognition that success is never a solo pursuit.
“I’m so grateful to be able to share a message that I’ve taken years to learn through plenty of hard lessons, and I’m hopeful that it will inspire someone else in the room as well,” Adelhardt said.
Kennedy Carpenter
Kennedy Carpenter is the commencement speaker for the ceremony at 10 a.m., Friday, May 8, for the College of Arts + Architecture, the College of Computing and Informatics and the College of Health and Human Services. Carpenter is earning a bachelor of science in nursing and will continue full-time at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — one of the most prestigious hospitals in the nation.
Carpenter grew up in a tight-knit community in Winston-Salem, N.C. The oldest of four siblings, Carpenter intentionally applied to in-state schools to stay close to her family. Her time at Charlotte pushed her outside her comfort zone, taking her to the backwoods of Wyoming, the streets of South Africa and leading her to her future home in Philadelphia.
Her journey began as a member of the Levine Scholars Program. Before stepping foot on campus, Carpenter and her cohort were sent to NOLS — a four-week leadership retreat in rural Wyoming. Disconnected from the outside world and surrounded by new faces, Carpenter built friendships and the confidence to take on everything Charlotte had to offer.
“Literally in the middle of the woods, sleeping on a yoga mat and a sleeping bag and carrying your trash because they’re teaching us how to be environmentally friendly,” Carpenter said. ”If I can do that, I can do college.”
During her four years, Carpenter excelled in the classroom while also rising to president of UNC Charlotte’s Nursing Association and serving as vice president of the Kappa Kappa chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated. She also interned at the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte and created and presented research on a support group for women with metastatic breast cancer.
One of the pivotal moments at Charlotte was her study abroad experience to South Africa where she studied the impacts of apartheid and the HIV/AIDS epidemic under the lens of healthcare. It was this program that gave Carpenter the confidence to apply to intern at hospitals in major metropolitan cities and ultimately accept an internship at CHOP, in a major city over 400 miles from home.
“It definitely made me brave,” Carpenter said. “I never thought of moving far and then I studied abroad and I was like, ‘Mom, I love you, but I think I want to be in a bigger city and experience life and see the world.’”
Carpenter learned that she would be speaking at commencement as she was walking into the Levine Scholars senior close out meeting. She said this was a full-circle moment as she got to celebrate with the group she started this whole journey with.
Her speech will tell the story of her Charlotte journey and emphasize the value in staying connected to the University as they join the lineage of Niner alumni. Carpenter is also looking forward to delivering the message as her three younger brothers watch from the stands.
“I do it to empower them, to show them that any goal you set, you can achieve,” Carpenter said.
Foster Duckworth
Foster Duckworth is the commencement speaker for the ceremony at 3 p.m., Friday, May 8, for William States Lee College of Engineering and the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences. Duckworth is earning a bachelor of arts in history and Japanese and will continue his studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst following graduation.
Duckworth grew up in Raleigh, N.C. and has long been fascinated by the past. As a kid he would beg his family to go to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and his dad would take him nearly every weekend in elementary school. When he arrived at UNC Charlotte, his curiosity about the natural world continued.
“My favorite place on campus is the pond behind SoVi,” Duckworth said. “There’s a blue heron that migrates there every summer like clockwork. That’s something I’ll never forget about Charlotte.”
Duckworth’s interest in Japanese history is rooted in his family. His mom’s family moved from the East Coast to Tokyo during her childhood, and he has always been fascinated by their stories of what it was like living there as Americans in the 1980s. Within the History Honors program, Duckworth examined overlooked topics including Japan’s colonial activity in Hokkaido and the Ainu indigenous community.
His pursuit of underexamined topics extended to his work with the Atkins Library Special Collections & University Archives where he got hands-on experience with digital archives, community history and oral narratives. He catalogued materials about black student activism on campus, the impacts of urban renewal on the city and Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ history.
History and archives is often regarded as solitary work, but Duckworth’s experience in Charlotte’s history department has been the opposite. Collaboration with faculty and fellow students across disciplines created a community feel that allowed Duckworth to grow as a person as well as a researcher.
Duckworth was awarded the Jane Laurent Prize by the department of history in Spring 2024 and the 2025 Dean’s Prize for his honors capstone thesis.
“I’m kind of used to being the only one who does what I do,” Duckworth said. “The history department made me more confident about sharing what I research and also reaching out to other people.”
The opportunity to speak at commencement was one Duckworth couldn’t pass up. His speech is an ode to the little moments every graduating Niner holds close to their hearts.
“It doesn’t really matter if you weren’t in a club or didn’t win an award, you have marks here that mean something to you,” Duckworth said. “You know what you did, and you should be proud of what you did.”
Abby Grace Bare
Abby Grace Bare is the commencement speaker for the ceremony at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 9, for the Belk College of Business, Cato College of Education and the Klein College of Science. The reigning Golden Niner, Bare is earning a bachelor of arts in elementary education and will serve as an educator in Guilford County after graduating.
It took Bare just three years to complete her degree but in that time she racked up academic accomplishments including the Teaching Fellows Program, Mebane Scholars Program, Education Honors Program and was placed on the Chancellor’s List every semester. Reflecting on who she was before coming to Charlotte, Bare said she was confident to a fault and took perceived shortcomings personally. But facing adversity throughout her college career changed her mindset.
“I’ve learned to never stop learning, we are works in progress until the day we stop breathing,” Bare said. “Needing improvement doesn’t mean you are wrong, it just means it’s one step closer to becoming better.”
It has been a whirlwind final year at Charlotte for Bare. She was named Golden Niner during Niner Nation Week, she is planning her wedding for the summer and she was named a commencement speaker, all while finishing her degree and teaching elementary school.
Bare learned that she would be a commencement speaker while she was teaching fourth-graders at Huntersville Elementary — which made the honor even more memorable.
“My students roared and gave me a big round of applause — they were so excited,” Bare said.
Her graduation speech revolves around three themes that have defined her college experience: never stop learning, don’t stop believing and live in the moment. Her advice to Niner Nation is the same advice she is giving herself as she closes this chapter of her life: take it all in.
“Enjoy these moments at Charlotte; soak them up,” Bare said. “While there are so many exciting things that are about to happen for me over the next three months, I want to live in every moment of every day.”
Christina Olmstead
Christina Olmstead is the commencement speaker for the Graduate School ceremony at 3 p.m., Saturday, May 9. A single mother of two, Olmstead is earning a master’s degree in social work and will continue to serve as the executive director of HealthQuest of Union County.
Her upbringing was unique. Her mother was in the Navy, including a period living at Guantánamo Bay during the Cuban Rafter Crisis. Refugees were housed in a tent city on base separated by a fence. Olmstead has a vivid memory of hearing refugees chanting in Spanish, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.”
“I looked at my mother and I said, ‘That’s not fair that they can’t get ice cream,’” Olmstead said. “So we went to our tiny little commissary and we bought every ounce of ice cream that they had and took it to the fence.”
“That really shaped how I look at the world,” Olmstead said. “Social work has always been on my journey. I just didn’t know it.”
Olmstead earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Radford University and worked for 14 years at Carolina Neuroservices, Columbia Management and Ballantyne Business Center before the pandemic forced her to step back and become a stay-at-home mom.
“It really made me reflect and think about what I was doing with my life and where I wanted to go moving forward,” Olmstead said.
As she pondered her future, she kept coming back to social work.
She began her educational second act at Central Piedmont Community College, where she earned certificates in human services technology, case management and at‑risk youth. After she was accepted to the master of social work program at Charlotte, she almost dropped out before taking her first course. At that moment, she received powerful words from her CPCC mentor, Maurice McDonald.
“He told me to do it scared” Olmstead said. “Something about hearing that, in that moment in time, stuck with me and carried me all the way through.”
Olmstead was scared and nervous when she arrived at Charlotte. She said it felt like she was 18 again, but as a nontraditional student, she worried about how she would be accepted. Her social work cohort was incredibly supportive as she worked full time while raising her kids and taking classes.
“As a mom, a single parent working full time, it’s very easy to lose yourself,” Olmstead said. “My cohort were the ones to say, ‘Christina, why don’t you take a few minutes for yourself? Why don’t you take a break? Why don’t you take a nap?’”
The program equipped Olmstead with knowledge, skills and hands‑on experience to make a difference in her community. She saw the results of her hard work immediately, as the program lifted her from unemployment to executive director.
“I learned that I’m way more capable than I ever thought I was,” Olmstead said.
Applying to speak at commencement was a last‑minute decision, and the news that she had been selected was a shock. She first thought of her sons and what it would mean for them to see their mom on stage. She decided not to tell them in advance to make the moment even more special.
The core message Olmstead hopes to impart to her fellow graduates is the one she received from her mentor years ago: “Do it scared.” She will also pay tribute to the community she found at Charlotte and the importance of taking on challenges collectively.
“Although we were living our own lives, facing our own challenges, we were all still pushing forward and doing it scared together.”