Twanna Kinya Hodge, a graduating master of library and information science (MLIS) student, was selected by the Graduate School to be one of only two master’s students from the UW Seattle campus who will serve as Gonfaloniers – banner carriers – at the Commencement ceremony on June 13 in Husky Stadium.

Gonfaloniers are nominated by their program advisors and must exemplify graduate education at the UW: excellence in learning, teaching, mentoring and/or research. They are announced by name as they enter the stadium, featured in the commencement program, and sent to the news media for recognition.

Originally from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands Hodge came to Seattle to pursue her passion for information technology, education, libraries and community empowerment. She chose the MLIS program because of the iSchool’s dedication to diversity, study abroad opportunities, and financial support. Hodge says she has enjoyed the connections between information and people and gained the ability to help connect people to the right information so that they can make informed decisions. She has traveled to Rwanda and Ghana to understand the needs of those without a voice, which in turn strengthened her goals to become an academic librarian and start her own non-profit organization. Hodge served as an officer for three different student organizations in the iSchool, volunteered for various projects with the Northwest African American Museum, as well as working as a Graduate Reference and Instruction Specialist for the UW Libraries. Hodge has accepted a position as Research Assistant Librarian at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Stephen Ramirez will represent the Information School as Gonfalonier. He is graduating with his B.S. in Informatics. He was born in Los Angeles, CA and grew up in Kent, WA before moving to Seattle once he was accepted into UW. Ramirez is a first generation college student, inspired to succeed in school and attend UW by his family at a very early age. Once he began classes at UW, he enjoyed getting involved in student life and leadership opportunities on campus such as working with Dream Project, spending time teaching a class about the importance of college at Kimball Elementary in Beacon Hill, becoming Vice President of Young Democrats at UW, and joining the fraternity Phi Kappa Theta. Mr. Ramirez chose to major in Informatics because it’s an extremely collaborative, team-driven community that fosters undergraduate learning as well as a sense of belonging and peer-to-peer networking. He became president of the Informatics Undergraduate Association at the end of his first year as an Informatics student and has been organizing social and networking events for the Informatics community since then. He looks forward to coordinating networking events with the Alumni association of Informatics majors around Seattle after he graduates.