FROM THE NEST | SPRING 2026 | 27 Hooper was offered the opportunity to present her research at the United Nations Academic Impact commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. Wright was honored with the Future Makers Convocation Civic Catalyst Award for igniting positive change in communities through leadership, advocacy and the courage to act locally for global impact. She joined Creative Inquiry's Lehigh Valley Social Impact Fellowship Southside Permaculture Park project. Permaculture is a zero waste form of gardening. From there, she designed an independent study to dig deeper on the topic as a form of political action. Working closely with Jackson, Wright completed a project on permaculture in community-based settings, culminating in authoring her first academic paper. As she transitioned to graduate studies, she began working as a research assistant with Austin Duncan, assistant professor of community and global health, on disability, urban accessibility and social connection in Bethlehem. They presented their research at the American Anthropological Association and Society for Applied Anthropology. “Every semester at Lehigh is something new and I’m thinking of different ways I can look at the community in Bethlehem, blending academia with my passion for politics and social impact,” Wright said. A Community of Support Both Hooper and Wright said they are grateful to Khanjan Mehta, vice provost for Creative Inquiry, and Bill Whitney, assistant vice provost for experiential learning programs, for their unwavering support. “I knew Lehigh was the place for me because I had the freedom to create anything that I wanted from scratch,” Hooper added. “And there’s so many supporters, like Bill Hunter, director of fellowship advising and UN programs. The Lehigh village is big,” Wright said. Liguori led both students to Geneva, Switzerland, through her Global Model World Health Organization (WHO) course. Traveling with three fellow students, Hooper and Wright participated in the World Federation of United Nations Associations Global Model WHO, a mock World Health Assembly at the WHO headquarters, in their final fall semester of undergraduate studies. “The beauty of that trip is that our contrasting personalities and approaches showed up. You don’t have to have the same background or personality to love someone through life,” Hooper said. From their hometowns on opposite coasts to Bethlehem and Switzerland, the Lehigh community will be wherever Wright and Hooper make it next.—Katie Clarke ATHLETICS NOTES WINTER WINNERS It was largely a successful winter for Lehigh Athletics as both teams and individuals brought home a range of titles and accolades. Defying the odds the most was the men’s basketball team, winning their fourth Patriot League title and earning an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament after being ranked eighth in the league’s preseason poll. In the team’s sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, they faced off against Prairie View A&M University in the tournament’s First Four in Dayton, Ohio. The women’s team also qualified for postseason play, meeting Monmouth in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT). Meanwhile, on the mat, Audrey Jimenez won the 110-pound national championship in early March at the NCAA Women's Wrestling Championships in Coralville, Iowa. Jimenez also took home the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler Award, earned the NCAA’s Most Dominant Wrestler Award for the 2025-26 season and was named the NCAA’s Women’s Wrestler of the Year. The team as a whole went 15-2 in its first season as a Division I program and had three wrestlers achieve All-America status: Jimenez, Aubre Krazer (131) and Abbi Cooper (117). Also in March, the men’s wrestling team captured their second consecutive Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) title, and 40th in program history, thanks to five individual champions during the tournament. Graduate student Sheldon Seymour (125), sophomores Luke Stanich (141) and Logan Rozynski (157) and senior Nathan Taylor (285) all won their second career EIWA titles, while senior Max Brignola (165) won his first. NEW HEAD HAWK Lehigh elevated Richard Nagy to Vandergrift Family Head Football Coach in March, making him the 31st head coach in program history. Nagy spent the past three years as Lehigh's defensive coordinator while coaching the rover position. He led one of the top defensive units in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) last season. Under Nagy, six members of Lehigh's defense earned All-Patriot League recognition in 2025. Four members of Lehigh's defense earned some level of All-America recognition over the past two seasons. Kevin Cahill departed the program after three seasons to take the head coaching position at Yale University. In 2025, the Mountain Hawks had a perfect regular season record, a No. 5 seed in the FCS Playoffs and a first round win in the postseason. Audrey Jimenez COURTESY OF LEHIGH ATHLETICS DAN SANDERLIN HANNAH ALLY
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