For the Widener University Commonwealth Law School graduates gathered in Harrisburg in mid-October, giving back meant helping someone else get to the career they had worked so hard to build.
That connection ran through the law school’s inaugural alumni appreciation luncheon at the Hilton Harrisburg, where alumni celebrated two of their own and helped support graduates preparing for the bar exam.
Ann Marie Yastishock ’94 received the distinguished alumna award for a public service career that has taken her from Harrisburg to diplomatic assignments around the world. Daniel Schramm ’17, assistant counsel at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, received the emerging young alumnus award, recognizing his professional accomplishments, service and commitment to mentoring law students.
For Dean andré douglas pond cummings, the gathering also brought together people whose support is helping more graduates begin their legal careers. Proceeds benefited the school’s Commonwealth Law Future Fund and Raising the Bar Fund, an initiative he championed to help graduates take time away from work to prepare for the bar exam.
“When I started as dean, I recognized that a lot of our students were working full time while trying to study for the bar exam,” cummings said.
For graduates balancing bills and bar preparation, that left a difficult choice: keep earning a paycheck or step away from work to devote more time to studying. Raising the Bar was created to ease that financial pressure. Recipients who pass the exam repay their stipends, helping make the same opportunity available to future graduates.
At the luncheon, cummings connected the generosity in the room directly to that work. Each silver table sponsorship, he explained, represented another Raising the Bar scholarship. He estimated that the event’s support would make roughly 15 to 17 additional awards possible next year.
“That makes a difference,” he said.
The luncheon’s two inaugural awards recognized graduates who have put their legal education to work in different ways, while maintaining a strong connection to the school that helped them get started.
For Yastishock, that education began close to home.
Raised in Harrisburg, she was working as an analyst with the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission when Widener University opened its law school in 1989. She enrolled in the extended division and earned her law degree in 1994.
Her career eventually led to assignments with the U.S. Agency for International Development and service as U.S. ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Yastishock described Widener Law Commonwealth as the launching point for everything that followed, giving her an analytical foundation and a lasting understanding of the responsibilities of the legal profession.
Working across countries and institutions, she drew on the skills and commitment to public service she developed in law school. Her remarks returned to the responsibility that comes with that preparation: serving others, solving problems and strengthening the communities where lawyers work.
Schramm described his own connection to Widener Law Commonwealth with a similar sense of gratitude.
Accepting his award, he credited the faculty with helping him find direction and purpose. His continued involvement with students, he said, is a way to repay that investment.
Schramm coaches students in the school’s Appellate Advocacy Honor Society and mentors through the Law and Government Institute. He also participates in professional and community service through the James S. Bowman American Inn of Court and the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s environmental and energy law section.
Looking around the room, Schramm acknowledged the accomplishments of fellow alumni and the example they continue to set for him.
“I see such extraordinary alumni doing extraordinary things. And I want you all to know that I recognize you. I recognize your accomplishments. And in many respects, you’re an inspiration to me,” Schramm said.
He described his investment in Widener Law Commonwealth and its students as a small gesture of appreciation for the faculty who helped him find direction and purpose.
For cummings, those relationships have been among the most meaningful parts of his time as dean. He thanked alumni for sharing their time, expertise and financial support, and for helping strengthen the school’s connections across generations of graduates.
“Thank you for all that we’re accomplishing together,” he said.
That willingness to help the next person move forward was especially meaningful to recent graduate Emily Sweeney, who spoke about what the Raising the Bar Fund had made possible for her.
Sweeney enrolled in Widener Law Commonwealth’s evening division while working as a legal assistant at Milton Hershey School and picking up weekend shifts at a restaurant. Leaving the workforce to attend law school wasn’t an option.
As graduation approached, she faced another financial decision: how to support herself while preparing for the bar exam. She considered continuing to work full time, reducing her hours, or staying at her restaurant job as long as possible.
Receiving support through Raising the Bar allowed her to take 10 weeks away from work and concentrate on studying. She passed the bar exam on her first attempt.
Now beginning her career as an attorney, Sweeney is repaying that support so future graduates can have the same opportunity.
“Without my scholarship, I would not have been able to take time away from work and devote myself fully to studying,” Sweeney said.
Her experience illustrated what cummings hoped to accomplish when he first proposed the fund. He pointed to the results available at the time of the luncheon: Of 16 Raising the Bar recipients, 15 had passed the exam the first time.
He also celebrated a strong showing by the class of 2026 on the Pennsylvania bar exam, crediting graduates for the sustained effort behind their success and thanking donors for helping give them the time to prepare.
The celebration extended to members of the class of 2025, whose improved results, he said, helped establish the momentum the school is now building upon.
Throughout the program, cummings returned to the relationships behind those accomplishments, including the classmates who supported one another through law school and the alumni who continue to show up for those following them.
“The camaraderie that you all felt with your classmates,” he said. “That makes us different. That makes us unique. That makes us special.”
He said the school plans to make the luncheon an annual October tradition, creating another opportunity to reconnect, recognize alumni achievement and support future lawyers.
For Yastishock, whose own career began in Harrisburg classrooms, the possibilities ahead remained the most important message to share with students and young lawyers. She encouraged them to trust the preparation they are receiving at Widener Law Commonwealth and remain open to where it might lead.
“Dream boldly. Serve faithfully. Lead with courage and integrity,” she said.
