Buffalo State announces President’s Medal winners, student speakers for 154th Commencement celebration

Three of Buffalo State University’s most accomplished students—two of whom will receive the Buffalo State President’s Medal—have been chosen to deliver the student address at the university’s 154th Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 16, in the campus Sports Arena. 

Miranda O. Shepard will deliver the School of Education and Applied Professions student address at the 9:00 a.m. ceremony; Asher Freudenhammer-Glass, recipient of the President’s Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate Student, will deliver the School of Arts and Sciences student address at the 1:00 p.m. ceremony; and Hailee E. Cipollina, recipient of the President’s Medal for Outstanding Graduate Student, will deliver the Master’s and Advanced Graduate Certificates student address at the university’s 5:00 p.m. ceremony.

The President’s Medal, the highest student honor bestowed by Buffalo State, recognizes one undergraduate student and one graduate student annually for their exceptional academic achievement, community service, leadership, and creativity.

Miranda O. Shepard
School of Education and Applied Professions Student Address | 9:00 a.m.

Miranda O. Shepard has earned a bachelor of science degree in early childhood/childhood education, attaining a 4.0 GPA while participating in the Muriel A. Howard Honors Program. She has excelled academically, in leadership roles, and through her participation in career-related endeavors and cultural exchanges. She is recognized for her dedication to the field of education as well as her hard work, curiosity, and enthusiasm for embarking on new experiences.

 Upon graduating, Shepard will qualify for New York State teaching certification for birth to grade 6 with a concentration in social studies. Her outstanding academic performance as an undergraduate led to her recommendation for early acceptance to the rigorous graduate literacy specialist program at Buffalo State, and she has already begun taking courses toward her master’s degree. Her academic accomplishments also led to her induction into Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society in education.

 In January 2025, Shepard participated in a short-term, faculty-led study abroad field experience in Torremaggiore, Italy, where she engaged with students in an Italian school and exchanged ideas about American and Italian culture. She co-authored a bilingual children’s book on the U.S holidays and developed lessons and activities aligned with the book to foster cultural awareness and language learning to share with the students in Torremaggiore. In October 2025, she participated in a weeklong internship experience in Edgecomb, Maine’s Center for Teaching and Learning, engaging in professional development related to literacy instruction. She observed reading and writing workshops in grades five through eight and analyzed and reflected on instructional practices. Through the International Professional Development Partnerships, she also completed her student teaching experience in Siena, Italy, where she engaged in hands-on classroom instruction and further developed her teaching practice in an international educational setting.

Along with those field experiences, she has served as a substitute teacher in the Orchard Park Central School District and a nursery teacher for children ages three months to four years old at a local church in West Seneca. In addition, Shepard worked as a school-age childcare program assistant and a lead camp counselor at a local YMCA during her time at Buffalo State.

Outside of the classroom, Shepard demonstrated inspirational leadership through several dynamic roles on campus. As president of the Buffalo State chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta, the national honor society for first-year academic success, she led chapter operations, organized service opportunities, and represented Buffalo State at national conferences. As president of the award-winning Buffalo State Pom Dance Team, she managed team operations, scheduling, choreography, and fundraising.

Asher Freudenhammer-Glass

PRESIDENT’S MEDAL FOR OUTSTANDING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
School of Arts and Sciences Student Address | 1:00 p.m.

Asher Freudenhamer-Glass has earned dual degrees in art and art history, with a minor in chemistry, attaining a 3.99 GPA while serving as an outstanding student leader. Freudenhamer-Glass is a creative, intellectual, curious, and passionate student who seeks to understand the world and people around them in ever-evolving ways. Their undergraduate career has been marked by the exploration of the intersections between academic achievement and activism, and between engagement and community building.

Freudenhamer-Glass’s commitment to academic excellence is exceptional. Pursuing a career in the highly selective field of art conservation, they strategically crafted a challenging curriculum combining the rigors of both art and science. They conducted original research and completed a thesis on the nineteenth-century artist Frederic Remington—and presented findings at the Buffalo State Student Research and Creativity Conference and SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium. In the process, they earned multiple departmental awards and recognitions, including the Robert L. Flock and Ruth M. Flock Award for senior thesis in art history and the James and Doris Aikman Scholarship for overall achievement in fine arts.

At the same time, they sought related work experiences on and off campus. At Buffalo State, Freudenhamer-Glass served as an archival intern at the Burchfield Penney Art Center and as a gallery assistant at the Czurles-Nelson Gallery in Upton Hall. These positions led to two exciting hands-on archival and conservation internships at UnDunn Art Services, a local art conservation business, and at the City of Buffalo Arts Commission.

An award-winning multidisciplinary artist, Freudenhammer-Glass has exhibited a stunning portfolio of work on campus, including at the Across the Visual Arts: Dean’s Creative Associates Award exhibitions, Anne Frank Project Social Justice Festival gallery, and two Honors Program art exhibitions. Off campus, Princessa’s Studio & Art Gallery in Buffalo displayed 12 original pieces from their solo senior thesis exhibition, “Blood of My Blood.” Their artwork spans a wide range of media from 2-D oil paintings, drawings, and prints to 3-D cross stitch, crochet, found object sculptures, and more. Freudenhammer-Glass is a visual storyteller whose work uplifts the narratives of voices often forgotten or unheard. 

In addition, they have starred in dramatic roles in student theater productions of Macbeth and Antigone, as well as comedic acting while serving as captain of the FNL student improv group. They served as a resident assistant for two years, caring for campus residents and earning the Residence Life Office’s Rising Star Award. As an honors peer mentor, they provided holistic support to first-year honors students and modeled honors program values for the entire community.

Hailee E. Cipollina

PRESIDENT’S MEDAL FOR OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT
Master’s and Advanced Graduate Certificates Student Address | 5:00 p.m.

Hailee E. Cipollina holds a 3.96 GPA in the master of science in education program in early childhood special education, while serving as the graduate assistant for Buffalo State’s Professional Development Partnerships (PDP). She received the 2026 Emerging Leader Award from the National Association for School-University Partnerships (NASUP), an honor that recognizes student members who demonstrate promise as leaders in the school-university partnership movement through their work with NASUP and at their home institutions. 

In her role as a graduate assistant, Cipollina contributed to educational partnerships at the campus, national, and international levels with creativity, enthusiasm, and a strong work ethic. She served as a member of the Buffalo State PDP Leadership Team, working with the co-directors to design, manage, implement, and assess program initiatives—and leading outreach efforts to increase attendance and participation at events. She managed the program’s newsletter and served as a chief recruiter at events such as Beyond and Back; Careers in Education; Be a Bengal Be a Teacher; and high school recruitment fairs. As a trusted advocate and mentor to undergraduate students, she informed them of career and networking opportunities, helped them meet deadlines for conducting research, secured funds to support travel, and made travel arrangements to conferences. Drawing on her own undergraduate experiences as a participant in short-term, faculty-led programs in the Dominican Republic and Zambia, Cipollina served as a student ambassador for the program’s international component.

An outstanding scholar in the classroom and a dedicated emerging teacher, Cipollina has conducted extensive research in her field and completed a master’s thesis on the effect of facilitated dramatic play on collaborative play skills in an early childhood self-contained setting. She presented her original research three times nationally and six times at conferences on campus, including sharing findings on the importance of inclusive playgrounds at schools and in the community at the 2025 NASUP Conference, 2025 Buffalo State Student Research and Creativity Conference, and 2025 Professional Development Partnerships Conference.

Cipollina works as a classroom teacher for students with disabilities at Erie 1 BOCES Extended School Year program and as a substitute teacher at Niagara Wheatfield Central School District. She supports the Bengals Passionate About Education student organization, introduced the concept of Collaborative Conversations to the annual PDP Conference, and participated in service-learning initiatives across Western New York as well as internationally.

In the community, the aspiring teacher has volunteered to facilitate educational activities at Sweet Charlotte’s inclusive preschool, Explore & More Au-some Evenings, Aquarium of Niagara, GiGi’s Playhouse, Buffalo Museum of Science, and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. She also promoted the importance of art in the classroom to undergraduate teacher candidates at “Bengals at AKG Day” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

Shepard headshot by Shepard; other headshots by Jesse Steffan-Colucci, Buffalo State photographer.