Martin Soros of Bethesda, Maryland, has been selected as valedictorian, and Allison Elshoff of Valencia, California, has been named salutatorian of the 2026 University of Notre Dame graduating class.
The 181st will be held May 17 (Sunday) in Notre Dame Stadium for graduates and guests. During the ceremony, Soros will deliver the valedictory address and Elshoff will offer the invocation.
Soros, a student in the , has a major in and minors in and . He holds a 3.966 grade point average.
He is a member of Notre Dame Students Empowering through Engineering Development, known as , a program that fights poverty in rural communities by expanding access to healthcare and education through the design and construction of footbridges. He served as an assistant bridge designer during his sophomore year and as design manager his junior year. During summer 2025, he worked for two months in Papachacra, Bolivia, constructing the pedestrian bridge for which he had led the design.
Soros has also worked as a mechanical design intern at Notre Dame’s Innovation Lab and spent the summer after sophomore year as a construction intern on a project to build U.S. Army barracks in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Soros serves as a resident assistant for Coyle Hall and was the co-creator of the on North Quad. The ice chapel, which made national headlines in February 2026, took Soros and co-creator Wesley Buonerba more than 70 hours to build — often in subzero temperatures — and drew more than 2,000 students for a special Mass on Candlemas.
The experience that has impacted him most, he said, has been the time he has spent at La Nazarena, a community center in Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, where his family is originally from. Run by the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, the center works with adults, families and children to break the cycle of poverty through programs in education, personal formation, workforce development and healthcare.
He first visited the center during the summer before his first year at Notre Dame — an experience that inspired him to change his major from aerospace engineering to civil engineering.
“Building planes is amazing, but it didn’t feel right for me after that summer,” he said. “I had found a home in that context, in that world, and I wanted something that was applicable to that. So, I looked around and realized some of the important things that are missing from that environment are infrastructure: roads, sewer systems, housing. I decided to study civil engineering so that I could contribute to solving those issues.”
Soros has returned to La Nazarena each summer and also teaches online English classes to adults at the center. Drawing on his civil engineering major, NDSEED experiences and interest in education and theology, he plans to continue to work as a manager at La Nazarena for at least two years after graduation.
“It’s funny because some people have said to me that I should think bigger,” Soros said. “But this doesn’t feel small to me. I feel called to be there, interacting with the people I’m helping. Whatever happens or wherever I am, I want to be in the grass roots as much as possible. For me, that means everything.”
Elshoff is a student in the , with a major in and minors in the , the and . She holds a 3.950 grade point average.
As co-president of the , Elshoff leads initiatives to support women’s education at Saint Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center in Kalongo, Uganda. Part of the , the club allows students to lead hands-on projects, organize fundraising campaigns and engage directly with global partners like Saint Bakhita’s.
Through her impact consulting minor, Elshoff also traveled to the training center in Uganda to connect with students during winter break of her junior year. The experience was pivotal, she said.
“It was one of those moments when I thought, ‘This is why I’m here at Notre Dame, to do this kind of work,’” she said. “And I took away as much from that experience as I offered. Getting to know the women of Saint Bakhita’s, first over Zoom and then in person, was transformative in ways that classroom instruction alone couldn’t have been.”
From her first year at Notre Dame, Elshoff has written for the student newspaper, the Observer, as a viewpoint columnist. This year, she launched a new series of faculty and staff profiles, titled “,” to showcase the people who help shape Notre Dame.
As a sophomore, Elshoff was selected as a member of the Cabinet of University Policy in Notre Dame Student Government. She has also served as a team lead for the and for the .
Elshoff has mentored middle school students in data science through the Early Bridges to Data Science program. And last fall, she became a peer leader in the Notre Dame program, where she served as a mentor to first-year undergraduates and led community-building initiatives.
Elshoff, who worked as a teaching assistant for several courses in Mendoza over the last two years, said that her hands-on experiences in education and mentorship have defined her Notre Dame experience.
“I think what sets Notre Dame apart from other schools is its focus on cultivating people’s character and their moral compass,” she said. “There has always been an emphasis not just on what we learn, but what the purpose of it is — how it will help us find fulfillment and help us improve the lives of other people. For me, that has been developing a passion for storytelling — especially for those whose stories are often overlooked. I don’t think I would have been able to find that perspective at a different school.”
Elshoff also served as a communications intern with the U.S. House of Representatives after her sophomore year. After studying abroad at University College Dublin during the spring of her junior year, Elshoff worked as a Government and Public Services intern at Deloitte in Washington, D.C., last summer. She will return to Deloitte to begin her career in government consulting after graduation.
As salutatorian, Elshoff will be prepared to deliver the valedictory address should Soros be unable to do so.
The Notre Dame valedictorian and salutatorian selection process, coordinated by the Office of Undergraduate Education in the Office of the Provost, begins by asking each college to nominate four students among those with the highest grade point averages and asking each school to nominate two students among those with the highest grade point averages. The colleges and schools submit to the Office of Undergraduate Education the names of these students and brief statements justifying the nominations. Those students are then invited to submit a resume and a draft of their valedictory address. A selection committee, consisting of representatives from each college and school, the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Division of Student Affairs, and Student Government, selects finalists. Finalists are asked to submit a draft of their invocation. The selection committee then interviews the finalists and chooses a valedictorian and salutatorian from among them, who are approved by University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.
Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220