On Friday, May 15, graduate student speaker Sejal Popat and undergraduate student speaker Mason Shaver will join Chancellor Andrew D. Martin, honorary degree recipients and Commencement speaker Andy Cohen at WashU’s 165th Commencement ceremony. Here, they look back on their journeys to and through WashU.
Popat pauses outside the Kemper Art Museum. (Photo: Rebecca K Clark/WashU)
For her thesis project, Popat created an illustrated book set in a place called “Loser City.” A mix of paintings and digital illustrations, narrative story and free-floating scenes, the book is a physical manifestation of Popat’s passions and process.
“When I look back at the projects I’ve done here, it’s really clear to me that I am so interested in how people learn and think through the creative process,” said Popat, who is earning a master’s in fine arts in illustration and visual culture from the WashU Sam Fox School. “That is why this program has been perfect for me. It is one of the few programs that emphasizes not just illustration and visual skills, but how that translates into narrative and how you incorporate writing and even research.”
Popat is an Ann W. and Spencer T. Olin-Chancellor’s Fellow and a Sam Fox Ambassadors Graduate Fellow. After graduation, she plans to return home to San Francisco and pursue a career in higher education. Ultimately, she would like to develop visual materials and strategies to support students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Popat approached her own reading challenges by breaking down dense text into sketches and diagrams.
“There’s a lot of evidence that visuals like comics support literacy,” Popat said. “I would love to synthesize some of the strategies I’ve come to organically and over many years to help others who had a hard time when they were kids.”
Before arriving at WashU, Popat earned an undergraduate degree in fine art and logic and computation from Carnegie Mellon University and a graduate degree in information systems at the University of California, Berkeley. She also worked as a software engineer for MIT Lincoln Laboratory. She loved those experiences for what they taught her about language — how it evolves, shapes perceptions and is represented. But she never stopped painting and drawing.
“My interests usually start with confusion or saying, ‘Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense,’” Popat reflected. “But what grounds me is creative expression. We all have a zone in our lives where we feel a mix of excitement and competence and peacefulness. For me, that’s art. It’s great being in a place where others feel the same way.”
For her Commencement speech, Popat will explore how creativity can foster agency as well as how curiosity can build empathy. Unlike the undergraduate speaker, who applies for the role, the graduate speaker is chosen by Vijay K. Ramani, senior vice provost for graduate education. Popat was surprised to be named and is, quite frankly, equal parts nervous and honored to speak before an audience of thousands.
“I’ve been thinking about how important it is to nurture curiosity,” Popat said. “Being curious, not just about yourself, but other people and how they experience the world leads to empathy, which helps us feel part of the world.”
Shaver pauses in the WashU Law Library. (Photo: Rebecca K Clark/WashU)
Eight years ago, Shaver’s counselor at Bayless High School told him to apply to the WashU College Prep Program for low-income students, so he did. But he had no plan to go to college.
“College Prep changed all of that,” recalled Shaver, who grew up in south St. Louis County. “Living in the dorms, meeting college students doing really interesting things. That’s when I knew, ‘I want this.’”
Shaver received a full scholarship to attend WashU as a QuestBridge Scholar. Today, he is set to graduate from WashU with undergraduate degrees in political science and in educational studies from Arts & Sciences. During his tenure, Shaver has supported students of all ages on their educational journeys, just as he was supported by his College Prep mentors years ago.
Shaver worked as a College Prep undergraduate program assistant, helping the next generation of high school students navigate the college application process and develop the skills they need to thrive on a college campus. As a Pershing Fellow, he taught kindergarten students at City Academy, a private elementary school in north St. Louis. And today, he is a tutor for the Prison Education Program at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center, where he helps incarcerated men with their writing assignments. The wall of his classroom there boasts a painting of Brookings Hall, while the whiteboard celebrates WashU’s back-to-back women’s soccer championships.
“They feel like WashU students because they are,” Shaver said. “They’re so engaged in what they’re studying. It’s phenomenal because they’re willing to talk about anything and everything. I feel like I had as many in-depth conversations there as I did on campus.”
Shaver sees a little bit of himself in every student he serves. He, too, didn’t grow up with resources, but he did have people who believed in him.
“Everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone deserves a chance, period,” said Shaver, who also has served as a youth basketball coach and a residential advisor. “And education is that pathway.”
Ultimately, Shaver wants to attend law school and pursue a career in public interest law or education law. He is part of the Yale Launchpad Scholar Program, a competitive fellowship that prepares prospective applicants for the LSAT and connects them to mentors and professional opportunities.
Shaver will reflect on those experiences — the ones he received and the ones he offered — in his address to the Class of 2026.
“I had never been on a plane before WashU, but I took my first trip abroad for my Ampersand Program (“Democracy and Myth in Ancient Greece”)“ and now I’ve been to 10 countries and more than 20 states,” Shaver said. “Luck and curiosity have given me that chance to know a life that wasn’t mine.”