UW Winter Commencement

media release: Grace (Stanke) Vanderhei, nuclear fuels engineer, advocate for nuclear energy and medicine, Wausau native, and Miss America 2023, will return to the University of Wisconsin–Madison on December 14 as the keynote speaker for the university’s Winter 2025 Commencement ceremony. 

Vanderhei earned her degree in nuclear engineering from UW–Madison in 2023 while simultaneously fulfilling her duties as Miss America, a role that took her approximately 270,000 miles around the world that year. Amid extensive travel, Madison remained a powerful source of stability and belonging. 

“Madison is a place where I found a community in friends and professors and in shared experiences,” Vanderhei said. “I remember that about graduation, the camaraderie and friendship I felt celebrating with all those people who had come together in four years. I hoped that feeling would last, and it really has.” 

Since graduating, Vanderhei has carried the Wisconsin Idea to a global stage, advocating for advancements in nuclear energy and life-saving nuclear medicine. She now applies her expertise as a nuclear fuels engineer at Constellation, working on the refueling and recommissioning of nuclear power plants across the Midwest and East Coast. 

“The way Grace Vanderhei leapt at the opportunity to carry the Wisconsin Idea to a global stage is a real inspiration for everyone at UW–Madison,” Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin said. “Grace has represented not only her home state of Wisconsin but also Badgers everywhere with intellect, passion and charm. Though she isn’t so far removed from her own UW–Madison commencement, I know she will have a lot to share with this year’s graduates.” 

Each semester, UW-Madison senior class officers work with the Chancellor’s Office to select commencement speakers. This year, senior class president Caasi Woji said Vanderhei embodies the spirit of innovation and individuality that characterizes the UW student body. 

“We know Badgers have the creativity and drive to break the mold and upend people’s expectations,” Woji said. “There’s no better example than a nuclear engineer who was also Miss America. We’re excited to hear from Grace as a new class of UW grads set out on their own unique paths.” 

For more information about Winter Commencement, visit the UW–Madison commencement website. 

The student speaker:

Jeeva Premkumar likes to say he took a formative leap — into an icy Lake Mendota — after he got to campus, but the soon-to-be University of Wisconsin–Madison graduate and this year’s student speaker for Winter 2025 Commencement was not necessarily new to taking big steps.

Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Premkumar moved to Kenya for boarding school at age 10 and then to India to finish high school. He moved to Madison in search of a challenge that wasn’t just academic.

“I’ve always loved the sciences. And I’ve loved problem solving,” he says. “I wanted a program where research wasn’t just something you watched from a distance; it was something you participated in. I saw an opportunity at UW–Madison where I could work on impactful science from day one, and that sort of sealed the decision for me.”

So, he set off to yet another continent, for a major in chemical engineering and for a new community in an entirely unfamiliar climate. Enter: the lake (literally). Granted, that’s not really a UW–Madison-endorsed method of self-exploration for new students, but friends managed to talk Premkumar into taking the plunge. Premkumar was already struggling to get used to the Wisconsin cold. But the experience was far from a disaster. It was even a little fun.

“It sounds absurd, but I feel like a lot changed around that moment,” he says. “It helped me realize the importance of having the confidence to step out of my comfort zone, to reach for opportunities. That’s the message I want to share at commencement.”

As Premkumar prepares to take his next plunge, this time onto the stage as speaker at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14 at the Kohl Center, he is reflecting on the ways in which he’s been able to make the most of the hands-on opportunities that drew him to Wisconsin.

Premkumar was awarded an American Heart Association research fellowship, which supported his work using stem cells to study the structure and function of heart tissue in the lab of UW–Madison cardiologist Timothy Kamp. He also held internships with Moderna, contributing to research on new drug-delivery methods, and with Lactalis Heritage Dairy in Wisconsin, where he worked on utility plant upgrade projects.

His proudest leap was also a step toward home. Premkumar won a Wisconsin Idea Fellowship this year from the Morgridge Center for Public Service. Alongside nonprofit Let Africa Live, he has used the funding to expand educational access to children affected by civil war in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“That was something personal to me,” he says. “But that’s part of being a Badger. UW–Madison offers opportunities like this to apply what you’ve learned in school, to have an impact on an international scale. I’m thankful for that.”

Because he’s made so many friends and met so many genuinely kind and curious people on campus, he suspects — he knows — that he isn’t the only commencement-bound student taking leaps.

The winter commencement student speaker is chosen through a competitive process conducted by the senior class officers, in consultation with the Office of the Chancellor. All winter graduates were eligible to apply. Naturally, in his application, Premkumar wrote that he wanted to speak at commencement because he was afraid of the idea. “I grew here because I kept doing the things that I was bad at, at first,” Premkumar says. “Watching my fellow grads grow alongside me has been an honor and a pleasure. Getting to see what they’ve accomplished has been just amazing.”