Last weekend featured an exciting event in our family, my granddaughter Rachael’s graduation from Bryn Mawr. I was thrilled four years ago when I learned she had been admitted to such a prestigious school, a thrill that was reinforced when we visited its lovely campus that Fall. It turned out to be a perfect fit for her at this stage in her life, as is evidenced by the way she has matured while a student there.
I have been involved in many college graduation ceremonies, in many different roles – student, parent, faculty mentor, and grandparent – and am impressed by the variety in them. One extreme was my daughter’s Sara’s ceremony in Michigan’s “Big House” football stadium with thousands of undergraduates being advised that they could now move their tassels from the right side of their mortar board caps to the left, signifying that they had graduated. I believe the Commencement speaker on that occasion was President George H. W. Bush. I much prefer the hybrid approach we adopted at Pitt where there were two ceremonies, one at the manageable Department level where each student could be individually recognized and one more formal mass university-wide event. I was particularly pleased one year when I was asked to give the address at our (Civil Engineering) department ceremony.
Bryn Mawr chose to simplify the process by dividing its ceremonies into two categories – graduate degrees on Friday afternoon and undergraduate degrees the following day. Rachael was honored on both days. Thanks to Advanced Placement credits, two summers in a Study Abroad program in (Avignon) France, and a work ethic inherited from her parents, she managed to earn three degrees in her four years at Bryn Mawr – B.A. degrees in Political Science and French, and a Master’s Degree in French. She wasn’t the only over-achiever honored this weekend. Her best friend Lia Monika Wong-Fodor earned B.A. degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and in French, and an M.A. in French. We have enjoyed knowing Lia thanks to several holiday visits home with Rachael.
Both graduation ceremonies were conducted under a huge temporary tent on the college main campus. Both were dominated by pomp and tradition. The Academic Procession was led by the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band, a prominent Philadelphia organization consisting of eight bagpipes, a bass drum, and eight snare drums. Next came six ladies in academic gowns carrying rods with ornamental finials (Druid priestesses?), followed by the College President and fellow academicians, and finally the soon-to-be graduates. On Friday President Wendy Cage welcomed the audience and introduced the four speakers — an emeritus professor; two Ph. D. candidates representing the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research; and the keynote speaker, Pulitzer Prize winning author Annette Gorden-Reed. Bryn Mawr was founded by Quakers; following that tradition President Cage led the assembly with a moment of silence, acknowledging our blessings. After the presentations, eighteen new Ph. D.s were recognized, followed by one hundred and four students earning Master’s Degrees. The Master’s group included were Rachael and Lia. This impressive event was followed by an outdoor reception with tables of refreshments for the new graduates and their families.
We were aware that the undergraduate ceremony the next day would be much larger. Fortunately, a family friend who had been Rachael’s fourth grade teacher in Champaign, Illinois, got there early and saved seats for us. By now our party had been expanded by the arrival of Mike’s sister Marianne and his brother Bruce. Although we weren’t particularly close to the stage, we were able to follow things perfectly thanks to an excellent sound system and eight strategically located screens with simultaneous video filming. The program began in a similar fashion to the one the previous day, dominated by ritual and tradition. It had several memorable moments. The President of Bryn Mawr’s brother college, Haverford, quoted the Quaker slogan, “May way open”, an eighteenth-century way of praying that opportunity will occur in one’s life. A chemistry professor quoted a well-known statement from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” about exploiting the uniqueness of gaps. The keynote speaker was Ruby Bridges, life-long civil rights activist, who, at the age of six, was the first African-American child to attend an all-white school, escorted by four U. S marshals. She is immortalized by being the subject of Norman Rockwell’s powerful painting, “The Problem We All Live With”.
At this point President Cage mentioned that numerous special awards to students had been presented at a separate ceremony; Rachael received six, including a year-long fellowship to a prominent think tank in Washington, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The President then said that the two most prestigious awards were reserved for Commencement and identified the recipient of one of them. She then discussed the “European Learning Fellowship”, which has been awarded to the outstanding member of each Bryn Mawr graduating class since 1889. Much to our surprise, she then announced Rachael as being this year’s awardee. Although Rachael had been notified several days earlier, it was a complete surprise, and thrill, to her fan club. Following the ceremony, in which three hundred and forty-two students were individually recognized, we all went to a “Garden Party” (shades of Ricky Nelson!). Once again there were individual tables set up with drinks and fancy snacks for each student and her family. This was followed by a special graduation party for Rachael and Lia in the Social Room of the local Methodist Church.
It was a memorable weekend for Rachael. I am convinced that Bryn Mawr was the ideal environment for her and that “way” did indeed “open” for her, a “way” of which she took full advantage. I am truly grateful for her experience there and for the examples that both of her parents set for her.