Garrett and Sikora are Man and Woman of the Year
By Julia Kramer · Staff Writer
John Garrett and Julia Sikora were honored as the 2026 Senior Man and Woman of the Year during Grove City College’s Recognition Convocation held Wednesday.
Attended by faculty, family and students, President Bradley Lingo opened the event with a reminder of the event’s central purpose.
“Tonight we celebrate excellence,” Lingo said. “Every speaker that we honor reflects our shared conviction that excellence matters and that it’s worth pursuing with our whole selves.”
Highly involved on campus and excelling in their academic areas of study, Garrett and Sikora were nominated by fellow students and “selected by a committee comprised of faculty, administrators and student members of ODK and Mortar Board”.
Known to many as the college’s executive student body president, Sikora is an education major whose presence, as Lingo said, “has become a rhythm in campus life.”
Upon receiving the award, Sikora made it a point to refocus the audience’s attention on Christ. Reciting Psalm 115:1, she said, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.”
“Everything that I have been able to do at Grove City College and throughout my life has been through God’s provision,” Sikora said. “It is evident through the relationships that I have known and the community that I have witnessed here that this is God’s plan for me.”
Passionate about leadership and leaving Grove City better than she found it, Sikora encouraged students to follow God’s guidance as they sought to guide others, stating that, “God leads us so we can lead others.”
Garrett, mechanical engineering major, 2025 Homecoming King and leader in the New Life Ministry, was introduced by Lingo as a man who “has distinguished himself as a gifted leader and a man of even and steady faith.”
From the voices of fellow students, Garrett was lauded as “an incredibly gifted leader and enthusiastic member of our community” who “exemplifies the character of Jesus in all things.”
Similarly to Sikora, after receiving the award, Garrett pointed to Christ and to those in his life who supported and challenged him throughout the years for bringing him to this point. Acknowledging he failed to prepare a speech due to the caliber of the other nominees, Garrett honored the Senior Man finalists.
“These men in the front pew are the reason I am here. … From the first semester here, these men have defined life and taught me how to seek Jesus with them for his glory,” Garrett said.
While praised for his humility, Garrett admitted that his first years of college were governed by a desire for recognition. However, he urged students to shift their perspectives.
“Ask the Lord to help you delight in his smile and his praise, because you’re his child, and he’s the one worth pleasing, and that is the most satisfying thing you can do on this campus,” Garrett said.
Professor of the Year and central speaker of the event, Dr. Kristin Homan, echoed these statements and encouraged students who were being awarded to receive the academic validations in consideration of the ultimate validation they already possessed.
“There’s a problem that comes from trying to find meaning through striving, and that is it will never be enough. Martin Luther once said that in the quest for glory, you will never be satisfied. Whatever we see, our tendency is to always want more,” Homan said. “The good news of the gospel is that worth doesn’t rest on our achievements; it’s not up to us. Our worth as persons rests fully on the completed work of Christ.
“Rest in him, knowing that you have great worth. Rest in him, knowing that your worth doesn’t depend on you. Go ahead and just be who you were created to be,” Homan said.
