Meghan Hall of Buffalo and John “Jack” Steger of Webster have been named the Ideal Bonaventure Students for the Class of 2022.

The Ideal Bonaventure Students exemplify the spirit of St. Bonaventure and the ideals of St. Francis through their demonstrated commitment to community service and academic excellence. They are selected by a committee that considers nominations from the campus community.

Hall will graduate with degrees in journalism and marketing, while Steger will earn degrees in marketing and management with a minor in sports management.

Sonal Mahindroo of Morganville, New Jersey, and Zayba Chauhdry of Olean were selected as honorable mention Ideal Bonaventure Students. Mahindroo is a biology major with a minor in business administration. Chaudry is a history major with minors in biology and political science.

All four students graduated Sunday at St. Bonaventure’s 162^nd annual Commencement exercises at the Reilly Center Arena.

This year’s Hellinger Award winner as the top student in the Jandoli School of Communication, Meghan Hall has been deeply involved in both academic and extracurricular activities since her freshman year.

“From the moment Meghan stepped on campus, she has set the standard for her peers,” said Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School of Communication. “Yet she’s also generous with her time and talents and has taken on every opportunity and challenge with a thoughtful and compassionate spirit that represents perfectly what St. Bonaventure is all about.”

Hall was a reporter and editor for The Bona Venture, a reporter for TAPinto Greater Olean, a copywriter and board member of the school’s American Advertising Federation chapter, a journalism tutor, and a contributor PolitiFact, a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. She also had a TAPinto story picked up by the New York Times education newsletter.

Hall’s talent and impressive résumé earned her a summer 2021 fellowship at Arizona State in the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. She was also a digital content intern and producer with SiriusXM and Pandora radio in 2020.

Hall was also heavily involved in campus organizations and committees.

She was a member of Student Government Association all four years, rising to president of the executive board by her senior year. In her roles with SGA, Hall helped establish a sensory room for students’ mental health, worked with the university on COVID-19 policies, chaired a constitutional review with a focus on diversity and equity policies, and helped coordinate the transportation of students to the NIT tournament in March 2022.

“Meghan is one of my favorite people on campus,” sophomore Dustyn Green said in his nomination of Hall. “Despite being the student body president and one of the top J-school students, Meghan took me under her wing to mentor me as a member of SGA and a student.”

Hall served as the student representative on the Marketing & Enrollment and Student Affairs committees of the Board of Trustees, and the Presidential Search Committee that led to the hiring of Dr. Jeff Gingerich in March.

Hall won the General Excellence Award in the Communication Curriculum for the highest GPA in her four years and the Kappa Tau Alpha Top Scholar Award for the highest class ranking for graduating KTA students. She also studied abroad at Oxford in summer 2019 and received the Hartwick Scholarship for the program that year.

Hall has already accepted a job as an editorial assistant and researcher at Boston-based Innovation Leader.

Jack Steger didn’t just dip his toe into the water when he came to Bonaventure four years ago. He dove in head first and never left the pool.

“Since Jack’s first day on campus, his engaging personality became well known,” said Alice Miller Nation, director of SBU’s Franciscan Center for Social Concern (FCSC). His can-do attitude and willingness to tackle the most challenging of tasks is inspiring. He lives our Franciscan values in an everyday way while at the same time bringing joy to our community.”

Steger held concurrent internships with Athletics and Marketing & Communications for the last two years, while also working as a development associate in the FCSC helping to implement a strategic plan for the long-term viability of the center.

He was the men’s lacrosse team manager his first two years and director of special projects for the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs as a junior. His efforts earned him the Brian Moretti Service Award for Athletics in 2021.

An SGA senator and teaching assistant in the School of Business for the last three years, Steger also served on numerous university committees, including the Retention Committee, COVID-19 Academic Contingency Committee, Faculty Senate Marketing & Enrollment Committee, and the Academic Honesty Board.

“Jack was never my student and yet I know him as well as any senior,” said Dr. Christine Uhl, assistant professor of mathematics. “Sometimes I wonder how he’s able to fit in all of the things he does. When we talk, his love and respect for this school always comes through. ‘Once a Bonnie, Always a Bonnie’ might be more true for Jack than any other student I’ve met at Bonaventure.”

Steger was honored twice as a junior at the student awards ceremony — with the Military Aligned Selfless Student Service Award and as the first Dr. Dennis DePerro Student Leader of the Year. He’s also a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and SBU’s Aquinas Honor Society.

Steger had internships every summer since his freshman year, with Lloyd’s Concessions and Main Events Amusements (2019), SBU Events and Conferences (2020) and Indium Corp. in Utica (2021), where’s he worked part time as a corporate communications assistant since last August.

Steger has already started taking Master’s in Business Administration courses at SBU and is on track to graduate with his MBA in 2023.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. St. Bonaventure was named the #5 regional university value in the North in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 college rankings edition.