Highlights from the 2026 SJMC Spring Graduation Celebration

UW–Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication spring graduation celebration was held Friday, May 8, with over 200 undergraduates, four professional master’s degree recipients and nine Ph.D. recipients celebrating at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. These graduates, with their families and friends, heard from Director Kathleen Bartzen Culver, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Greg Downey and keynote speaker Zack Zaban (BA’11), all congratulating them on their hard work and dedication to the fields of journalism and mass communication.

During his address, Zaban spoke about how to build a professional and personal life that is not only successful, but joyful and satisfying.

“Don’t just focus on marking milestones only in your job,” Zaban said. “Find sparks of joy, meaning and progress outside of your profession so that you feel sustained in totality.”

Zaban also focused his keynote speech on two key lessons that he never heard when he was graduating:

Focus on tracking your own milestones, not just on setting goals.

Use data to tell stories.

“Storytelling is ubiquitous. Do not just center on the platform but instead, focus on approaches to maximize the use of data to tell stories,” Zaban said. “Cut through the clutter and slop of AI that tools can provide and instead, act like a journalist – get to the heart of a story regardless of if you’re a reporter or in a corporate boardroom like me.”

Culver’s closing remarks focused on several reasons why SJMC grads still matter even in the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence:

SJMC grads can do hard things.

SJMC grads care – about each other and about their world.

SJMC grads have a built in Badger family that cares about them.

“You’re going out into a challenging world. We feel more divided than we used to, and we seem to face more harm and disruption from technologies that are supposed to make our lives easier. As a friend of mine summed it up to me, ‘We seem to be building more walls than bridges,'” Culver said. “You can change that, and I have tremendous faith in your power to do exactly that. Your superpowers are your pluck, your purpose and your connections. Use them to make your life and your world better.”

We are so proud of our all our graduates and their incredible accomplishments. We cannot wait to see what they on to achieve next.

Please visit our Spring 2026 Graduation Celebration event page to learn more about our graduates’ memories and takeaways from their time at the SJMC and to view our event program. Watch Zack Zaban’s full remarks as well as the entire graduation celebration on our YouTube channel. Photography from the event will be available for free download in late-May.