Graduation Weekend

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>What a lovely weekend. A few vignettes:</p>

<p>1) Swatties...make your parents suck it up and take you to Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant in downtown Phila. After talking about it for four years, we finally went. Most amazing restaurant experience ever. [url=<a href="http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/%5DMorimoto%5B/url"&gt;http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/]Morimoto[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

<p>2) The amphitheater is still the coolest place. The ceremonies there are like an outdoor cathedral.</p>

<p>3) Eugene Lang Visiting Professor George Lakey brought me to tears with his Baccalaureate Speech on Saturday morning. "Live and Love on the edge..."</p>

<p>4) Professor Bakirathi Mani gave a touchingly personal and funny Last Collection speech Saturday afternoon. My daughter said that it was all the more powerful because she is usually keeps her personal life so private. Last Collection bookends the First Collection which is the first group gathering of the class during orientation week.</p>

<p>5) On Saturday night before graduation, Swarthmore puts on a full-scale fireworks display on Parrish lawn -- a big annual event that brings out the town of Swarthmore and all its kids to campus. What a nice event.</p>

<p>6) The music for the entrance and exit processionals at graduation was Prof Allston's jazz band playing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Proud Mary, and Joy to the World. Loved it.</p>

<p>7) Did we get to hear the next President of Swarthmore College? Phyllis Wise '67 is a Chinese-American graduate of Swarthmore, noted science researcher and currently Provost of the University of Washington. Other honorary degree recepients were Alberto Mora '74 (Navy lawyer who pulled the plug on Gitmo torture) and Robert Storr '72 (Dean of Yale School of Art).</p>

<p>8) Loved Adam Dalva's class speech. He is hilarious.</p>

<p>9) The Rose Garden is in full bloom. All 364 graduates stop by on the way to graduation and the Arboretum staff cuts a fresh rose and pins it to the gown.</p>

<p>10) Another data point on grades at Swarthmore. The top 15% are Phi Beta Kappa (54 seniors this year). Word on the street (and maybe some other parents can confirm) is that it took a 3.75 GPA this year to make Phi Beta Kappa). </p>

<p>11) Swarthmore's diversity is stunning. You really appreciate it when an entire class is gathered in one place. It was the most striking impression during first-year orientation and even more striking during graduation weekend.</p>

<p>12) I saw two of the last places I hadn't seen on campus: Upper Tarble (stunning old church open space for concerts in the student center - wow) and Bond Hall (where most of the religious groups meet).</p>

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<p>Thanks for sharing. It sounds like the best anything can get. Congratulations! I especially appreciate the roses, though the entire ceremony sounds deeply moving.</p>

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<p>Congratulations to your D, interesteddad!</p>

<p>It is truly wonderful that the traditional rose-pinning has been extended to include all graduating seniors, not just women.</p>

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<p>Yes, it was a wonderful weekend. The amphitheater is a beautiful setting, but I wish we didn't need to get there at 8:30am and spend 4 hours sitting on hard plastic chairs.
George Lakey's speech was quite moving - it was unfortunate that it started raining halfway through because watching them scramble to hand out ponchos & the audience opening umbrellas was distracting.
Fortunately, the weather cleared up later in the day so the fireworks could go off as planned.
Younger son is a jazz musician and wasn't thrilled with the arrangements for the recessional music.....but when we passed the band on the way out of the amphitheater and saw that they were "mature" men, we knew that the difference of opinion had to do with the difference in ages.
S was almost the only grad without a rose. Sleeping as late as possible was more important to him than getting a flower for his gown. When he woke up, 2 friends were outside his room fully dressed with their roses pinned to their gowns. He still hadn't gotten into the shower. He got to the rose garden after the scheduled time, but they were still pinning the last few on students, so he was able to get one. I was pleasantly surprised to see he had one during the processional.<br>
Re:Phi Beta Kappa, you're probably right. S had a 3.7, but didn't get PKB. </p>

<p>The things that were most memorable to me about the weekend were: waiting excitedly to catch the first glimpse of S during the processional, hearing his name and watching him cross the stage as he got his diploma, attending his major's dinner at a prof's house (very nice university housing) and getting to meet and talk with his classmates, their parents, and his profs, hearing the comments his minor prof had to make about him when we attended their department reception, hearing S say repeatedly throughtout the weekend how he couldn't believe that he was graduating, feeling heartbroken for him at how hard it was to leave his friends who are scattering throughout the country and the world, and, probably most unbelievably, that DH was able to pack all of S's stuff into the SUV and still leave room for the 4 of us to sit.</p>

<p>Congrats to the class of 2008 and their parents.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
...feeling heartbroken for him at how hard it was to leave his friends who are scattering throughout the country and the world...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think mine was OK with that. She said that she had her "moment" a few weeks ago. </p>

<p>She was loading up a U-Haul with a Swattie friend and headed for a rental house with two more Swattie alums (two '08, two '07) so it didn't feel like life as she knows it was ending, so much as moving to the next chapter. She just called. Internet is not on in her new place yet, so she needed directions to Ikea.</p>

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<p>Thanks for posting!
This made me want to go to Swarthmore even more...:-)</p>

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<p>Interestdad and shellfell, </p>

<p>Congratulations on your children's graduation!</p>

<p>Interestdad, I want to extend a heartfelt and sincere expression of appreciation for all your posts where you have shared tons of information and have succeeded in making me feel like I am beginning to get to know "Swarthmore." </p>

<p>I am a sucker for commencement celebrations and must tell you that my eyes swelled with tears as I read your snippets, particularly where I got to the Rose Garden. </p>

<p>I wish you and your family nothing but the best and hope that you will continue posting even though your daughter has graduated.</p>

<p>Once again, thanks!</p>

<p>Dramatica (2012 mom)</p>

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<p>Congratulations to interesteddad's D and shellfell's S! The description of this year's graduation was pretty close to last year's graduation, right down to the rain! Did the engineering students do anything unusual this year?</p>

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<p>Yes. The engineers "flew" a blimp balloon across the front of the stage dragging an "applause" banner.</p>

<p>I met at least two CC parents -- achat and the first father I talked with here right after early decision results came in. I know nngmm was there, too.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I am a sucker for commencement celebrations and must tell you that my eyes swelled with tears as I read your snippets, particularly where I got to the Rose Garden.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I better not tell you about the First Collection for first year students in September then. The candle lighting gets my daughter welling up every time.</p>

<p>In addition to the rose, the Arboretum gives every student a Swarthmore seedling (complete with name tag) to take with them into the world. Most of them managed to kill the plant they received four years ago!</p>

<p>I haven't even gone into the fun meeting friends families. We've gotten to know most of daughter's friends over the years and some of their parents. Saturday afternoon, daughter and friends organized a little improptu gathering with wine and beer and cheese. It was supposed to be outside in the Worth courtyard (gorgeous place in its own right), but the rain motivated a forced entry into Bond Hall, which was lovely, too.</p>

<p>My advice is to learn all the little "secret" gardens around the Swarthmore campus and enjoy a couple of them on each visit. Sunday morning, we got parked in the Science Center lot before 8:00 am. My wife tended to the seats in the amphitheater while I got coffee from the snack bar and sat out on a bench in the Fragrance Garden, which I had totally to myself, listening to the bell tower over head.</p>

<p>Theresa</a> Lang Fragrance Garden - Garden Tour - Scott Arboretum</p>

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<p>Ah! The Swarthmore seedling. Received from the Arboretum at graduation last year and left, ignored, in it's little pot until mom transplanted it to an area in the front of the house, complete with it's little arboretum "dog tag." Maybe he'll appreciate it one day, and transplant it to his own yard. Or not.</p>

<p>See the engineers as referenced above by interesteddad-
Swarthmore</a> College :: Home</p>

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<p>On the subject of tears, the moment that "got me" was during the Last Collection, listening to a Swarthmore student recall the memory of Tariq Fisher, a member of the Class of 2008, who died in a car crash the summer after his freshman year.</p>

<p>I was sitting behind his parents, quietly holding hands and grieving. I cannot imagine...</p>

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<p>I didn't realize Tariq's parents were there. I, too, can't imagine.</p>

<p>Forget about our kids killing their first seedlings....I'm hoping I don't kill this one which is still sitting on the counter while I decide where to plant it.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I didn't realize Tariq's parents were there. I, too, can't imagine.

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</p>

<p>Parents and his sister. They were sitting with Al Bloom.</p>

<p>Tariq was a College Confidential "kid".</p>

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<p>Here is the text of George Lakey's Baccalaureate Address. I can't read it without tearing up. </p>

<p>I think video will be posted eventually.</p>

<p>Swarthmore</a> College :: Commencement 2008 :: Baccalaureate Address: George Lakey</p>

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<p>And Professor Mani's *Last Collection *address:</p>

<p>Swarthmore</a> College :: Commencement 2008 :: Last Collection: Bakirathi Mani</p>

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<p>Video of the class speaker Adam Dalva '08:</p>

<p>Swarthmore</a> College Video Blog Archive Adam Dalva ‘08</p>

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<p>A new Swarthmore record was set on Sunday. Sandra Schulberg turned in her required senior thesis and marched in the graduation ceremony to receive her diploma thirty six years after her original class at Swathmore ('72) graduated.</p>

<p>I saw her in the procession and wondered. Now, I know:</p>

<p>After</a> 36 years, the diploma | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/02/2008</p>

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<p>Yes, I met InterestedDad and his wife at the Commencement ceremony on June 1st. I was keeping my ears tuned to his daughter's name, cause I knew who she was! And there he was, sitting right in front of me. It was wonderful finally meeting you, ID! I don't think my son would have gone to Swarthmore if it weren't for your advice the summer of 2004. And he had a wonderful time too! Agree with everything Shellfell and ID said.</p>

<p>I was feeling sad too, but my son moved to NYC with one of his friends and he's so happy, so I'm happy for him as well.</p>