Senn graduate and Edgewater resident Almudena Rincon will deliver the commencement address for Loyola University Chicago’s School of Communications Thursday.
Rincon, who grew up in Spain and California, but graduated from Senn in 2015, was chosen from more than a dozen student leaders who applied, according to LUC Associate Dean John Slania.
Slania said he has known Rincon since she participated in Senn’s journalism program, which is supported by Loyola.
“Almudena struck me as a bright, talented and hard-working student journalist from the first time I met her five years ago at Senn,” Slania said. “She was senior then, getting her first taste of journalism in a class taught by Mr. Michael Cullinane.”
Slania said Rincon “immediately began to excel as a journalism major” when she got to Loyola.
Rincon served as Copy Editor for the Loyola Phoenix, and was also President of Loyola’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She served as an assistant editor for the RogersEdgeReporter’s summer After School Matter program, working with high school journalists covering the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods.
Rincon lived in Spain with her family until she was nine, then moved to Los Angeles, where her parents worked as high school teachers, part of an international exchange program. They moved to Chicago just before she started her senior year at Senn.
“From the moment I first got to Senn, I thought about coming to Loyola,” Rincon said.
Asked to describe her commencement address, she said it will be about “having a voice, and learning to develop that voice.”
“I am so thrilled to have seen Almudena grow over the years,” Slania said. “I’m confident she will experience continued success throughout her career in journalism.”
Rincon is one of three Senn graduates speaking at various Loyola commencement ceremonies.
The others are:
Javier Silva, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Information technology.
Ali Piracha, earning his Bachelor of Science degree, Summa Cum Laude, in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience.
