Griffith and McElroy named 2022 Homecoming Royalty, Alumni awardees recognized

Saturday, October 29, 2022

An expanded week of Homecoming activities filled with school pride and tradition culminated at West Virginia University today (Oct. 29) with the crowning of Morgan Griffith and Paige McElroy as the 2022 Homecoming Royalty.

Griffith (a business graduate student) and McElroy named 2022 Homecoming Royalty

The announcement was made during the halftime ceremony at Saturday’s Homecoming football game against TCU.

Selected by their peers during two days of voting, Griffith and McElroy were surrounded by members of the Homecoming Court and family, the Mountaineer Marching Band and tens of thousands of cheering fans, including alumni, attending the game at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Griffith, a graduate student in human resource management and member of the Honors College from Avon, Connecticut, serves as a student ambassador in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and is a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and WVU Women in Business. She was sponsored by the WVU Student Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.

McElroy, a senior advertising and public relations major and member of the Honors College from Miamisburg, Ohio, serves as a student ambassador in the Reed College of Media, vice president of the Project 168 Society and a member of the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority. McElroy was sponsored by the WVU Panhellenic Association where she serves as president.

Other candidates include: Raeanne Beckner, a senior dual journalism and multidisciplinary studies major from Bridgeport; Lillian Bischof, a senior dual chemical engineering and finance major from Wheeling; Sohan Daniel, a senior sport and exercise psychology major from Chantilly, Virginia; Amaya Jernigan, a senior biology major minoring in addiction studies from Waldorf, Maryland; Lauren Moore, a graduate student in business data analytics from West Milford; Rylan Nemesh, a senior mining engineering major from Allentown, Pennsylvania; Olivia Steeley, a senior nursing major from Greensburg, Pennsylvania; and Raafay Uqaily, a senior biomedical engineering major from Morgantown.

The 2022 WVU Alumni Association Homecoming and Service Awards were also presented at halftime.

Charles E. Emanuel (‘97) is the 2022 Outstanding Alum, and Greg Darby (‘80) is the recipient of the David W. Jacobs Lifetime Service Award.

Hilah Zia (’11, ’13) is the 2022 is the recipient of the Margaret Buchanan Cole Young Alumni Award, Ben Ashley (‘15) the James R. McCartney Community Service Award, David Hill (‘80) the Paul B. “Buck” Martin Award, Jihad Dixon (’17, ’19) is the recipient of the John F. Nicholas Jr. Award.

Mary Marantz (’02), a best-selling author and host of the iTunes Top 200 podcast “The Mary Marantz Show,” served as the Grand Marshal for the annual Homecoming parade Friday evening (Oct. 28).