Summer 2025 / Around the Green

The 2025 Wilson College Commencement speaker, adventurer and academic Tori Murden McClure, earned her nickname “Princess Dark Cloud” after her two remarkable attempts to row 3,000 miles solo across the Atlantic  Ocean, encountering hurricanes on both occasions. Unfortunately, for the 2025 graduating class, this year’s Commencement exercises held the weekend of May 4 were moved indoors because of rain for which McClure humorously took the blame.

Standing on the stage in Laird Hall, McClure acknowledged the Wilson Odds and Evens rivalry by wearing the red and black of the Odds (technically Harvard Crimson from her alma mater, which she referred to as an “odd” shade of red). She began her address by highlighting the significance of Commencement for the graduating Phoenix—whom she referred to as both young fledgling undergraduates and tough, older birds of the graduate program. Quoting Dr. Seuss, she remarked, “You have to be odd to be number one,” and encouraged all graduates to embrace their individuality and embark on their own unique ODDyssey.

Through personal anecdotes on navigating life’s challenges—from skiing to the South Pole to rowing across the Atlantic Ocean—McClure reminded the graduates that their education would take them to unexpected places.  Her own odyssey included a second attempt to row across the Atlantic Ocean and this time she successfully weathered the storm. Her perseverance and resilience were inspired by boxer and humanitarian Muhammed Ali, who said, “You don’t want to go through life as the woman who almost rowed across the ocean.”

She addressed three typically taboo subjects—sex, politics, and religion—as she urged the graduates to be brave, fall in love, and value who they have in their lives over material possessions. Advocating for a more compassionate and interconnected humanity, she said, “Our world cries out for educated voices. It does not take an education to see pain. It takes an education to do something about it, and many of you at Wilson College are studying things that will help you to go out and reduce the pain in the world.”

While no one can guess what adventures the Class of 2025 will take based on what they learned at Wilson, McClure expressed high confidence in their future. She said, “When you leave Wilson College, you will go out. You will teach, heal, feed, and build. You will inform, advocate, comfort, and guide. You will criticize, organize, contribute, and in a thousand other ways serve people and causes. When this commencement ends, I hope your service to the world will begin anew. Go out and make Wilson College proud.”

The feeling of home is how Skylar Molnar ’25 felt the first time she stepped foot on the Wilson campus. She nearly committed to a school in Boston before receiving an email from Wilson’s women’s soccer coach, Terry Harris. That email made her rethink her decision. After a campus visit, she said, “It was as if nothing was missing. Everything was just perfect, and I knew this was the place for me.”

She first looked at Wilson because she had a connection to Juliann Winkler ’22. They both graduated from the same high school and Molnar knew Winkler was attending Wilson. Molnar also knew she wanted to study Health and Physical Education (PE) and play Division III soccer. Most of the Division III schools she looked at focused on exercise science or athletic training, but Wilson was one of the few that offered Health and PE. To learn more about their soccer programs, Molnar emailed several coaches, Wilson’s among them, and awaited responses. That is when Coach Terry stepped in, and Molnar found herself at Wilson in fall 2021, later declaring a double major in Health and Physical Education (K-12) and Exercise Science with a minor in Athletic Coaching.

At Wilson, Molnar said she found comfort in knowing every person on campus, whether they were friends or acquaintances. She said, “You really mean something to each and every person here, whether that is students, faculty, or staff.” These bonds are the ones she feels illustrate the lasting friendships at Wilson. “I honestly don’t know where I would be or what I’d do without the friends I’ve made,” she explained. “I feel like I genuinely created a second family here, especially playing soccer.”

Throughout her four years at Wilson, Molnar actively participated in many organizations while helping to foster a sense of community across campus. Dean of Students Katie Kough said, “Skylar assumed progressively responsible leadership roles eventually serving as a WCGA officer, CAB president, VP of the Class of 2025, orientation leader, president of the line dancing club (a group she co-created), and president of the Exercise Science Club. She conducted herself in a way that younger students are now striving to emulate.”

Molnar explained her involvement this way, “I think the best thing Wilson gave me was the ability to find myself and shine bright while I was here. I was able to get involved in so many things and enjoy each one of them. From starting new clubs to joining different organizations, I was always able to find myself.”

At the Academic Awards in May 2025, Molnar received The Catherine Herr Langdon Award presented to a senior who has demonstrated academic excellence and who has fully, unselfishly and willingly given comfort,  compassion, encouragement, guidance, help, and understanding to fellow students during the year. Kough said, “Skylar is a hard worker and is able to see the bigger picture of student leadership. She cares about what happens to the clubs/organizations after she graduates. She was always thinking about who could step into the leadership roles after she left. It may sound a little corny, but I really do believe that she didn’t just walk the path of leadership at Wilson. She lit it for others as well.”

Even while at Wilson, Molnar also maintained strong connections in her home community. During the summer of 2024, she completed an internship at Amica Athletics near her hometown of Shohola, Pa. There, she provided personal and group training and taught a variety of ages, from elementary school children to adults, tailoring their workouts to specific sports.

She spent the last semester of college working as a student teacher at the primary and high schools in Greencastle-Antrim School District, where she said she learned so much from other teachers, her supervisor, colleagues, and students. “It helped me confirm that this is what I want to do with my life,” she said.

Molnar will spend her summer preparing to start a position at the elementary school she attended, Shohola Elementary School. She said, “I am excited to go back home and start a new chapter at a school I already know.”

Sometimes, unexpected events become life’s defining moments. For Colby Maun ’22, a painful injury and a timely reconnection changed the course of his academic and professional journey.

Raised in Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania, Maun grew up in an entrepreneurial family, learning the value of hard work by helping run the family business. At the same time, he developed a lifelong love for baseball, playing on a team from the age of five.

That passion led him to Frederick Community College, where he studied exercise and sports science and pitched for the college baseball team. His goal was to become a sports psychologist until an arm injury changed everything.

During his sophomore year at Frederick, Maun suffered an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injury in his throwing arm, requiring what is commonly known as “Tommy John” surgery. His seven-month recovery under the care of renowned orthopedic surgeon Jeffrey R. Dugas, M.D.—a Birmingham, Alabama-based specialist whose own baseball injuries inspired his career in sports medicine—marked a turning point and set Maun on a new path. Maun became fascinated by the medical side of sports science and began reimagining his career.

During his recovery, he transferred to Wilson College, where he could live at home, play for a nationally contending baseball team, and pursue a new academic path. He declared a major in exercise and sports science  with minors in psychology, sport management, and small business entrepreneurship.

As part of his program, Maun completed an internship at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where he worked with athletes ranging from youth to professionals. “It was incredible,” he said. “I was able to build relationships with athletes beyond the game and really understand what it takes to support them both on and off the field.”

After graduating from Wilson in August 2022, Maun accepted a performance coaching position at a college in Illinois. While grateful for the opportunity, he missed the private sector and the chance to work more directly with baseball players. That’s when a familiar name reached out: Dustin Pease, founder of Pease Baseball Professionals and a former pitcher in the San Diego Padres organization.

Maun first met Pease during his freshman year at FCC and stayed connected through college for mentoring. Their reconnection came at just the right time. “There are going to be life experiences and people who impact your journey,” he said. For Maun, that person was Pease.

One text from Pease changed everything. He offered Maun a position at Pease Baseball Professionals in Frederick, Maryland. Maun accepted, relocated, and became the Director of Player Performance and Development at Pease, running the performance sector with autonomy like his own business under the Pease brand. He now works closely with athletes to improve performance, prevent injury, and build confidence. At the same time, he is completing a certification in massage therapy, which he’ll finish in June 2026—another step toward his goal of supporting athletes through every stage of their development. His long-term goal is to become an independent massage therapist, contracted by a professional baseball organization during spring training while offering services year-round from his Maryland office.

Looking back, Maun credits his success to the unwavering support of his family, the lessons learned during his seven-month recovery, and all that Wilson provided for him. He said, “I took advantage of the services and the  opportunities that Wilson offered while having a phenomenal adviser, and they prepared me well for the future.”

Now, as he completes his massage therapy degree and builds his career, he continues to give back to the place that helped shape him. He joined the Wilson men’s baseball coaching staff in 2024 as a pitching coach and will transition into a recruiting and advisory role next year.

“My passion is to give back to the school that gave me my start and help it continue to succeed,” he said.

His journey is a reminder that even life’s curveballs can be good pitches to swing at.