University Medalist

Noora Ghahremani ’26 arrived at the University of Maryland determined to push beyond the conventions of writing, and in the years since, she has done exactly that: founding one literary magazine, editing another, and establishing herself as an award-winning poet. 

The English literature and psychology dual-degree student did much more during her time on campus—from reenergizing the Spanish Club to completing three minors— saying she takes to heart Thoreau’s goal to “suck out all the marrow of life.” 

“I have never had a student as brilliant and modest; as collegial with classmates; as perceptive a learner; and as hardworking as Noora,” said Professor of English Michael Olmert, calling her a “close observer of humankind.” 

That sums up her recognition as university medalist, the highest honor bestowed on a graduating senior each academic year. It goes to a graduating senior based on academic distinction, exemplary character and service to the campus or broader community. 

The native of Ellicott City, Md., applied her talents impactfully beyond the classroom. Last year as president of the UMD chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honor society, she founded, staffed and edited Quillpower, a literary arts magazine. She also was editor-in-chief of Impressions, the literary magazine for UMD’s Honors Humanities program. 

Ghahremani pursued psychology to support her legal aspirations by studying human behavior—“to inform how I approach future clients, families and businesses, and also to understand myself,” she said. 

As Spanish Club president, she helped increase membership from 30 to 300 by boosting recruitment, departmental partnerships and fundraising. As philanthropy chair for UMD’s Iranian Student Foundation, she helped secure thousands of dollars for charity. 

Ghahremani received this year’s Phi Beta Kappa Senior Award, bestowed by UMD’s chapter of the prestigious honor society for her commitment to the liberal arts and sciences, freedom of inquiry and expression, intellectual integrity and the love of knowledge for its own sake. She was also one of two winners of the Seidel Keystone Prize for Achievement, the highest academic distinction in UMD’s Honors Humanities program, for her collection of poems grounded in literary and art historical scholarship. 

She said her studies of divergent viewpoints and teachings in literary texts will serve her in law school, where she will pursue a career in mediation and conflict resolution. Before that, she’ll spend a year completing an accelerated master’s program in the Robert H. Smith School of Business.