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Grad Student Profile: Monse Hernandez

Graduate Student Spotlights

Dean Peter Harries shakes hands with graduate students during commencement ceremony

May 6, 2026

Congratulations 2026 Graduates

As the semester draws to a close, a new chapter begins for our exceptional graduate students who are about to don their caps and gowns this Spring.

Paul Agada, Masters in Communication graduate

May 6, 2026

Grad Student Profile: Paul Agada

Meet Paul Agada, a 2026 Spring graduate from the M.S. in Communication program.
Mariana Prieto Torres

May 6, 2026

Grad Student Profile: Mariana Prieto Torres

Mariana Prieto Torres' journey at NC State began in 2019 as a Kelman Scholar, where she discovered her passion for the university’s extension mission and its vital role in supporting local agriculture.
Leah Harrell

May 6, 2026

Grad Student Profile: Leah Harrell

Leah Harrell’s journey to NC State was driven by a passion for bioarchaeology and a desire to bridge archaeology with biological anthropology. Her research focuses on understanding the lived histories of people in the past, specifically through dental morphology.
Will Kirschenman

May 6, 2026

Grad Student Profile: Will Kirschenman

Will Kirschenman came to NC State to bring together operations research, military experience, and service-oriented problem-solving. A Ph.D. candidate in Operations Research, Will studies combinatorial optimization methods for packing and loading problems, with a focus on arranging items so they can be retrieved efficiently for downstream logistics needs.
Maya Ryder

Apr 13, 2026

Grad Student Profile: Maya Ryder

Maya Ryder is a first-year master’s student in the College of Education’s School Counseling program and a manager at 321 Coffee on NC State's Centennial Campus.
Sumedh Beknalkar

Jan 6, 2026

Grad Student Profile: Sumedh Beknalkar

Sumedh Beknalkar, a Ph.D. candidate in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at NC State’s College of Engineering, is also the president and co-founder of SLA Robotics. His research involves the development of an autonomous, multi-terrain, and amphibious robot from ‘concept to prototype’.
Rebecca Craps NC State Graduate Student

Dec 8, 2025

Grad Student Profile: Rebecca Craps

First-year graduate student Rebecca Craps talks about being a distance education student and her first semester experience at NC State University in the Environmental Assessment program.

Rachael Rice Textile Chemistry

Dec 8, 2025

Grad Student Profile: Rachael Rice

First-year master's student Rachael Rice talks about her first semester experience at NC State University in the Textile Chemistry program.
Monse Hernandez

Dec 8, 2025

Grad Student Profile: Monse Hernandez

First-year master's student Monse Hernandez talks about her first semester experience at NC State University and the work she's doing in the Institute for Advanced Analytics.