The University of Richmond’s Jepson School celebrates its first legacy graduate

Sydney Hass walked across the Robins Center stage to receive her diploma and into University of Richmond history on May 10, 2026, when she became the first legacy graduate of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. Her father, Rev. Kevin Hass, graduated from the Jepson School on the same day in 1998, a member of the fifth graduating class of the nation’s first undergraduate school of leadership studies. 

Father and daughter love to compare notes on the Jepson School then and now. Although deans and professors have come and gone in the 28 years between their graduations, the school’s commitment to the interdisciplinary study of effective, ethical leadership remains the same.

Kevin and Sydney took the concept of servant leadership to heart. “Good leaders are always in service to others,” Kevin said. “Humility and leadership must walk hand in hand,” Sydney added, “otherwise you’re exercising influence at people, not with people.”

Both also think of good leadership as a collaborative process in which the leader solicits ideas from others and then ensures the best idea advances. Kevin said he applies these concepts regularly as the lead and founding pastor of By Grace Community Church, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation located in Yorktown, Virginia.

“As Presbyterians, we believe power doesn’t rest in one person,” he said. “We take a team leadership approach based on the New Testament’s model of the plurality of elders. We invest in people through discipleship and mentorship. The concept of leadership in service to others is foundational to our church.”

A similar dynamic is at work in the Hass family, where the dinner table serves as a place to discuss and practice leadership. “My wife, Liz, and I encouraged Sydney and her sister, Savannah, to share their ideas from a young age,” Kevin said. “The best ideas, not the most powerful person, should win. Leaders don’t always have the best ideas. A good leader builds a feedback loop.”

Sydney applied these same principles regularly in her campus leadership roles as a Jepson Student Government Association senator, a Board of Trustees student representative, and co-chair of the Senior Legacy Campaign, the University’s student-led fundraising initiative targeting graduating seniors.

“I never assumed I was the smartest person in the room,” she said. “I was excited to hear new ideas for the campaign from many others. When we hit 75% Class of 2026 student giving, the Annual Giving team was thrilled!”

Like her father, Sydney acted when she identified a faith-based need in her community.

“I founded the Reformed Richmond Fellowship, a student-led club born from the idea to have more campus Bible studies led by seminarians and local ministers,” the leadership studies and American studies major said. “One of the ways I meet with God is through deep Bible study. I saw this as a need on campus and wanted to foster community around this shared need.”

Now that she has graduated, she said she hopes to use her education in a career in public service.

“The Jepson School gave us a vision for the social needs of the world around us and a foundation drawn from people who had written about leadership,” Kevin said. “We learned how to motivate different people. In our home and our church, we have a culture of asking: Wherever you are, whatever the circumstances are, what is the most faithful thing you can do?”