Unexpected Recognition

About a week ago, the Chair of our Department called me into his office with little warning. I don't know why, but I always feel nervous when he does this - like getting called to the Principal's office. The President's Office (of the school, not the country) had called to ask that I attend an awards ceremony at the Hawthorne Hotel in recognition of my help on mapping Salem Woods. This was something I had worked on with Alan Young in Biology and one of my graduate students - Jen Sumael - three years ago! I agreed, of course, and contacted Jen to make sure she attended as well.
On Tuesday, the Hawthorne Hotel honored Chris Burke of the Friends of Salem Woods, and Salem State College, for our work in preserving a place of historical significance - Salem Woods (you can read about the event itself on the Hawthorne Hotel's blog). Alan Young was not able to attend, so President Meservey attended in order to receive the award on his behalf. When she spoke at the event, she described how her office had received a call from the Hawthorne Hotel announcing their desire to recognize Salem State for work on the Salem Woods map and brochure. The funny thing was that no one seemed to know who exactly at the College had done this work. It took the President's office a little while to figure it out and track us down. In any case, it was a nice surprise.

2009 Undergraduate Commencement

On Saturday I attended the 2009 undergraduate ceremony (the 199th for SSC!), along with Larry Goss, John Hayes, Steve Matchak, and Steve Young. Over 1,600 graduates this year! We had 19 from Geography, which is about normal. U.S. Rep John Tierney received an honorary degree and gave the commencement speech, which was remarkably short. I was particularly impressed, however, by the speech (or greeting) delivered by the President of the Student Government Association Quin Gonnell. Quinn was a graduating senior (and by all appearances, a young man), but he came across a like a seasoned leader. Mr. Gonnell hails from Lawrence, and by his own account, a not-so-privileged background. He is an exemplar of a student whose success was critically dependent upon a second chance and the support of people who maintain faith in the ability of remarkable individuals to exceed expectations.

2009 Graduate Commencement

I had the pleasure of attending the graduate commencement late Thursday afternoon. Keith Ratner and I marched with other faculty in our robes. It was a fairly large graduation - several hundred graduates. We had a particularly large cohort of graduates this year from the M.S. Geo-Information Science program - 8 in all (though the program listed one other who was not quite done yet). The highlight of this year's ceremony was clearly the commencement speech by Jonathan Kozol, one of the two recipients of honorary degrees in humane letters. Mr. Kozol is a longtime educator and children's advocate who has written numerous award-winning books on the plight of underprivileged children in particular. Though I think most of us were more impressed by the fact that he was a close friend of the late and beloved Mr. Rogers. Mr. Kozol was funny and moving, and surprisingly, fiery in his critique of the narrowing and regimentation of education that is happening in response to standardized testing (i.e. MCAS in Massachusetts). He implored the graduates - and the rest of us - to not let go of the spontanaity and creativity and humanness that makes good and worhwhile education.
After the ceremony we met with our graduates in a reception - very happy (and relieved) individuals.