<p>How did commencement go for your family? Was the weather perfect or otherwise? Did the speaker justify his/her honorary degree? Id love to hear anecdotes about things large and small at your kids celebrations.</p>
<p>Were just back from ceremonies at W & M. The young woman who received the oldest, most prestigious award was apparently barefoot when she came up on stage. I dont think it was a Zola Budd moment I think her shoe must have broken immediately before her name was called. Impressive accomplishments, including what the college president described as a nearly perfect GPA. </p>
<p>The president then recognized the two seniors who were also graduating with 4.0 GPAs. The word also threw me did that mean there were 2 or 3 students with 4.0s? Either way, !!!!! Thats a precious few students out of a graduating class of 1280. More than half those kids had 4.0 GPAs in high school. </p>
<p>The outstanding student speaker gave a short, emotionally potent speech. She began by quoting Dumbledore, at which point she had the entire class. She ended with a quote from Hunger Games she knows her people. I dont think there was a dry eye in the house when she began to cry herself.</p>
<p>Best of all our d had gotten out of bed at 6 AM one Sunday last month to stand in line for graduation night reservations at a nice bistro, and wound up being so glad she did. When the college president arrived with his wife and was shown to a secluded table across from ours, tweeting and texting erupted all over the restaurant. Hes hugely popular with students (and me) a courtly man, marvelous speaker, strong leader. My d and her friends desperately wanted a photo with him but didnt want to disturb him after such a long day. When he finished his meal, one of the dads approached him and asked for a picture. He was wonderfully sweet about it, and somehow appeared to enjoy it. He made a wonderful memory for us.</p>
<p>Helpful hint: if you put your back out the day before the ceremony, no one will expect you to lug stuff down three flights of stairs you can wait at the car instead. Why did I never think of this before?</p>
<p>I attended a relative’s college graduation. It was beautiful and well-organized. Speakers were rather ordinary (but blessedly short). It was inside and comfortable, both the seating and the temperature.</p>
<p>I note sadly, however, that shouting, clapping and hooting from the onlookers seems to be an accepted part of the graduation ceremony now. Whether a particular graduate was walking across the dais to receive the diploma, or was simply spotted in the procession, people felt free to scream out their name or make hooting sound effects.</p>
<p>Others will no doubt feel differently, but I would rather see the ceremony without the constant disruptions of an unruly crowd.</p>
<p>I was impressed by the decorum from the crowd and the grads at the W & M ceremony. It was a long processional - about 25 minutes - and beach balls did make an appearance, but were put away without prompting when the faculty walked in. No distractions during the speeches and awards, either. At the end of the ceremony, the president tossed a huge beach ball toward the grads, and official yellow and green beach balls appeared from all over, which was fun.</p>
<p>At the main ceremony, only doctoral students were called by name and presented with their diplomas. Maybe because they’re older students, no one screamed, stomped, or blew air horns for them. There were separate ceremonies by major and school (law, education, business) where individual students received their diplomas. At the history dept. ceremony, the audience was asked to save their applause for set times, and complied. </p>
<p>I was pleased not to be the parent of the student who had painted the word “Bong” on her cap in glittery gold paint.</p>
<p>Threw my back out last year at S’s graduation. I will never forget and not in a good way. So great to be 8 hours from home and in so much pain. Nauseous also from the medicine and met S’s girlfriend for the first time. What a great impression I’m sure I made lol!</p>
<p>Syracuse graduation this past weekend (both Newhouse and entire University) was great; weather was beautiful outside; albeit a little stuffy inside the Carrier Dome…</p>
<p>Speakers were terrific…student speeches short and sweet…all good…</p>
<p>and, yes, both hubby and I pulled our backs out doing move-out the day before…Advil works wonders…</p>
<p>one interesting aside: there were a bunch of people in the section of the Dome we were sitting in on Sunday watching the UK soccer game (City v Manchester maybe??) on their laptops and cheering for the soccer game (too funny; and at inappropriate times!!)…I guess it was a big game…</p>
<p>Last Sunday concluded the league in England, with ManU and ManC tied on points and MC leading on goal differential. All the games were played simultaneously. ManU thought for 1 min. that they had won the league, only for ManC to score their winning goal in the last minute of injury time. How those folks at Syracuse were even able to concentrate on the ceremony is amazing. It was really exciting, if you like football.</p>
<p>D has informed us that she will be taking more courses and internships this fall and spring, so though she participated in the ceremony, she didn’t complete all requirements for her degree. Oh well, we do want them to get the experience while they are students so they can get a job! <sigh> We are thinking about what we would do now that we don’t have any more tuition bills–have to think about that perhaps one year from now. ;)</sigh></p>
<p>Her ceremonies were nice–one huge one with 40,000 people present and a smaller “satellite one” that had her smaller cinema school with ONLY 570 or so graduates.</p>
<p>Also attended nephew’s Pamona ceremony that had only 380 graduates total. It had a much more intimate feel and the teachers & students knew each other well. They also had a chemistry dinner for all the chem majors–20 kids & their families. It was nice.</p>
<p>Their speeches included at least one quote by Dumbledore.</p>
<p>Daughter’s school had a hooding ceremony on Saturday, where all of the honors and awards were presented, and each student was hooded by their professors. The co-valedictorians presented their joint speech at the service. They have been best friends since first grade! </p>
<p>Afterwards we went to the baccalaureate mass. D was a bit put out because her apartmentmates (all Catholic) served a part of the mass but the priest, though a dear friend, would not allow her to read scripture or another role. It was a beautiful service though, and the priest had a great homily. He came to the school at the same time as this year’s graduates. He talked in part about how some of the kids (D and her friends) have mounted a bunch of kid stickers and one father figure on the rear window of his car.</p>
<p>Commencement was very formal, and everyone from doctoral on down crossed the stage. My daughter has become a school legend because she hugged the president (appearantly NO ONE hugs the president). Every single professor and teacher took part in the service.</p>
<p>Afterwards, the four apartment mates and their families took over a room at an excellent steak house, along with the priest and their favorite nun. The girls had helped him establish a Christian living floor for the special interest dorm, and gone on a spring mission trip with him, and two of them had been to Rome to meet the pope with him, so they’ve been very close.</p>
<p>Now kid is all alone at the apartment for another month as she begins her clinical training. Unfortunately, her cat has come to live with us…</p>
<p>Our whole family went to Nashville to help our daughter celebrate her graduation from Vanderbilt with a Masters degree. There was some confusion about the ceremony itself because what we read on-line was for the undergrad ceremony, which was earlier. Glad we cleared it up before we would have arrived two hours too early! Vandy does each schools grad school commencement in a different location so it seemed quite intimate. Her specific major only had 16 grads and they bonded over the past two years.</p>
<p>The speaker was an alumni (Tom Brokaw spoke the day before) and he gave a great speech, none of which I can remember right now. The weather was absolutely perfect and there was a huge luncheon served afterwards with tasty food and champagne and cookies for dessert. No horns and just a little yelling. When you are in a group with just a few hundred grads, you can’t really get away with too much loudness, I don’t think.</p>
<p>We were going to go to a fancy place for dinner, but instead chose to walk around campus and then head over to a Farmers Market to eat from Food trucks and listen to live music from a band. Later we walked to downtown Nashville and went to an all ages line dancing bar. What a fun day!</p>
<p>Here’s my tip for anyone that still has a graduation day coming up - make sure the whole family dresses appropriately for the weather and for pictures AND take time to relax and be proud. It’s a special day and won’t come again. Try not to let anything take away the joy.</p>
<p>S2 chose not to go to the school wide graduation in the football stadium. I was somewhat relieved. Two hours sitting on hard metal bleachers in the hot sun was not all that appealing. S2’s friend who went said it was miserable. </p>
<p>We went to the indoor ceremony for his specific college. I was somewhat disappointed that there was no speaker…just brief remarks from the Dean of the college. But then it took over two hours for all the names to be called and I understood why there was no speaker. Another of the colleges’s depts. was scheduled to have their ceremony in the same space (basketball coliseum) directly after S’s. Time was of the essence. </p>
<p>I thought the nicest part was that as each Dept. was recognized, the faculty rose and formed a receiving line adjacent to the stage. After each graduate’s name was called, they shook the dean’s hand, then went through the receiving line and shook the hands of all their professors in their dept. When S2, known for his cynical wit, got to his favorite prof. she shook his hand and said (in her cool Jamaican accent) “ahhh, it’s the funny guy”. I think it made S2 feel good to know that in a big state u. with 28,000 kids, there is a teacher who actually knows him for who he is. Nice touch for what many would think an impersonal event.</p>
<p>Coming up this weekend for us. My parents are estatic over the graduation speaker (they are convinced that the speaker is politically aligned with their view of the world, although I am not as convinced for various reasons). I think they will be jumping up and applauding EVERY line they see as confirming their worldview (think State of the Union type applause). However… one of my parents has trouble walking, so we reserved special seats for the two of them. I think they will be closer to the speaker, and as D2 pointed out, we will be seated further away and will not have to listen to Grandma cheer every line of the speech. We will be with them the whole rest of the weekend, so I think this works for everyone!</p>
<p>Here is a question (off topic), is anyone’s kid Phi Beta Kappa? When did they hear? D’s school selects a few in the fall in the fall, but she did not meet the “on campus courses” criteria at the time due to study abroad. The college website says the committee meets again “in May” (so this month); D has been keeping in touch with a few others she knows are in the top 25 students at her college, and no one has heard. There is a ceremony on Saturday morning for the PBKs – how long can they wait to tell them? This semester’s grades are due from profs are due tomorrow (Thursday). Of course she may not have made it (and the other students she talked to may not have). Just curious how other schools have handled this. Do they wait for spring grades? If your kid was PBK, did they hear well before graduation?</p>
<p>I went clothes shopping for graduation last spring, and am luxuriating in having not one, but TWO matching outfits with accessories ready to the weekend without any fuss. This might tell you about my normal shopping/attire habits… but for me this is a big deal. Had to shop for D2 a couple of weeks ago for the coming weekend, but lovely teenage girls are much easier to dress than I am.</p>
<p>S’s graduation was Saturday. His university does separate school/college ceremonies, so there were “only” about 900 graduates. We had great front-row seats on the side of the arena, so we could see him in his second-row seat. He spent the ceremony catching up with two guys from his capstone seminar, one of whom will be living in our city this summer. Then he passed right by us after he walked across the stage. It was a thrill, I have to admit. It’s also nice to be in a setting with so much communal pride, happiness, excitement, and goodwill. They were right to choose a totally apolitical speaker, who was quite inspiring. </p>
<p>Re clothes: After much fuss, I found a great outfit to wear on Saturday. Then we waited until Sunday to take family photos, so we were all in jeans and shorts! But I do love it that we have a photo of S in cap, gown, plaid shirt, and shorts, sitting high up on the base of one of the university’s iconic columns. He looks so happy–and he is.</p>
<p>Intparent: PBK at DC’s school announced in April this year, with induction early May, and acknowledgement of members at baccalaureate and upon presentation of diploma. I think this process/timing is likely to vary by school.</p>
<p>At D’s school PBK invites go out in April, and there is a very nice induction ceremony and reception for them and family the day before graduation.</p>
<p>Tomorrow is the big day. Older s had problems with his flights so he and his gf missed the party this afternoon and arrived at about 10pm. So we get back to the hotel to check them in and they get upgraded to this ridicuolously huge 3 room suite with a full kitchen and conference table! It makes our room look shabby.</p>
Oh well, we do want them to get the experience while they are students so they can get a job! <sigh> We are thinking about what we would do now that we don’t have any more tuition bills–have to think about that perhaps one year from now. ;)</sigh></p>
Mine wouldn’t have. Sorry they missed the party, but hoping the whole family enjoys the rest of the festivities.</p>