May graduate Dylan Sokolovich ’24 hit the ground running when he transferred to Albright from Reading Area Community College (RACC) as a junior in 2022.
During his first year on campus, the digital communications major served as editor of Albright AM, the college’s arts magazine; contributed to the literary journal AGON; and wrote for the Albrightian, the student newspaper. He volunteered to write for Berks County Living magazine — work that led to a summer internship — and pulled himself from his comfort zone to join a campus improv group.
Meanwhile, Sokolovich, the first recipient of the full-tuition Albright-RACC Connection (ARC) Scholarship available to one RACC transfer student each year, earned a 4.0 grade point average and received the Clyde Harding Award for Outstanding Scholarship — a departmental accolade. The ARC scholarship, supported by benefactors Brad and Carroll Scribner, cemented his dream of earning a bachelor’s degree.
“Even when I was at RACC, I thought getting my bachelor’s degree would be out of reach,” Sokolovich shared. “It’s always been hard financially, but that scholarship has made getting a degree possible.”
Albright has partnership agreements with 14 two-year colleges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers more than 340 endowed scholarships. As an anchor institution that supports the community, Albright guarantees admission for RACC’s associate degree graduates. From 2019 until the 2023-2024 academic year, 324 students have transferred to Albright and 59 of those students were from RACC.
During his senior year as a Lion, Sokolovich served as co-editor of the Albrightian, was again editor of Albright AM, worked as a tutor in the Albright Writing Center and was a communications and writing work study student in the department of donor relations and stewardship. His achievements earned praise from Heidi Mau, Ph.D., associate professor of communications and faculty advisor of Albright AM.
“Dylan is a wonderful writer and dedicated to all his projects, often going above and beyond what’s expected,” said Mau. “We’re very excited to see where his talents lead him.”
A 2019 graduate of Reading High School, where he was salutatorian, Sokolovich is interested in a career in the magazine industry or in a position where he can tell a story. Wherever his professional life takes him, he plans to pay forward the support he’s received from others.
“I don’t have a lot of financial resources at this point, but anything I can do to give back is important to me,” said Sokolovich, who made three donations to Albright while a student to support the 2023 and 2024 Albright Challenge campaigns and his senior class gift.
“Receiving the scholarship motivates me to continue to succeed. I hope to make people like Mr. and Mrs. Scribner proud,” said Sokolovich, who received the Albrightian Contributor of the Year award and the Ed Flagg and M. Cornelius Trayes Award in Journalism: Photography and Layout award upon graduating.
