Friday, December 17, 2010

Commencement


There's absolutely nothing special about this picture, and it has nothing to do with today's post, I just thought it looked nice

So here we are, on the last day of exams for the fall semester of 2010. It’s definitely quiet on campus, seeing as quite a few students are leaving or have already left for the holidays. As for myself, exams went pretty well. My senior project was submitted last week, I’ve been receiving feedback on presentations and tests, and there have been lots of end-of-the-semester festivities for clubs, organizations, and on campus jobs. Also, I graduated last week. I would shout “surprise!” but that doesn’t usually come through clearly in text. Did I just spoil the twist ending to this entry? Oops.

Well, as long as it’s fresh in my mind, I suppose it’s worth talking about. Commencement was last Saturday, which made coming back for exam week kind of weird, but what can you do. The event was at Van Andel Arena, and a shade more than 1000 seniors walked that day. It was actually pretty fun; I found another admissions student (she was walking for her masters in OT), found a few students I knew from classes, and listened to some commencement speeches. The recognition ceremonies for some of the distinguished faculty and the awarding of a pair of honorary doctorates was great, but the highlight (for me, at least) was the speech from former president Lubbers. It was fitting, since this fall GVSU celebrated its 50th anniversary, and while modern Grand Valley has been shaped by many hands, the work of Arend Lubbers played a very big role in the institution we see today. In 1969, when the university was still just Grand Valley State College, President Lubbers was 37, one of the youngest college presidents in the nation. Fast forward 32 years, to 2001, and he retired as the longest serving president of a public university in America. And from listening to him, anyone can tell that he had and still has a passion for the world around him, both as an educator and as a citizen. If you want to read/listen to his whole speech (it’s worth it), check out this link: http://www.gvsu.edu/gvnow/?articleId=F6841701-D940-0E19-D8717ED5AB0F18E9. There should be another link on that page to a youtube video of the address. But even aside from the great speech, it was very fulfilling to walk across the stage and acknowledge the hard work that went into getting there. I would encourage any student (at least any Grand Valley student) to walk at commencement.

And with that’ we’re drawing to a close on the last week of this semester and my college career. Admissions will still be open during most of next week, and I’ll still be here, so you can probably expect one more post (I’m not going to shut up just yet), but we are definitely nearing the end of the season. So post away if you have questions, and have a great weekend.

-Kyle

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