IOWA CITY – In May, more than 6,500 University of Iowa undergraduate, graduate, and professional students received their degrees, a group that included Branton Samson of Torrington.

Samson was a student in the College of Dentistry whose academic program of study was Dentistry. The degree awarded Samson was a Doctor of Dental Surgery.

Like Samson, the 2024 spring semester graduates have engaged, excelled, and stretched to reach their academic goals.

For example, Abbi Shekleton always knew she wanted to be a Hawkeye; it was a happy coincidence that Iowa has a highly ranked program in speech pathology, her academic area of interest. With master’s degree in hand, Shekleton will begin a clinical fellowship in Cedar Rapids, followed by a full-time position there as a speech-language pathologist.

Brian Damman, a senior legal counsel at a financial technology company in Des Moines and father of three, was able to add valuable perspective to his job while also maintaining a busy home life by completing Iowa’s online MBA program.

Sushma Santhana, a biomedical engineering graduate, worked in a campus lab to help create hydrogels to prevent skin wound infections and now is headed to a job at Boston Scientific.

Benton Renaud combined his academic work in finance and political science with his extracurricular work serving as a resident assistant and on the University Lecture Committee to pave a career path that is taking him to a two-year financial rotation with Boeing.

And Maggie McQuillen found the perfect fit for her active lifestyle in Iowa’s exercise science program - the Anamosa, Iowa, native will help others reach and maintain their own fitness goals through her work as a personal trainer.