Graduation!
Jun. 3rd, 2012 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThe university kind, not the scientific glassware kind.
My brother graduated from university Friday (congratulations!).
It was the first graduation I've been to in a long time; I'd not actually been to one with large screens projecting the main ceremony before. Interestingly, the screen farther from me included closed captioning, which I sometimes used because at least one speaker was not a native speaker of English, so there were some pronunciations I wasn't expecting. It was fascinating also to see that when one of the (alas, native English speakers) important personages mispronounced words (one repeated mistake: "iman" for "imam"; there were others, too), the closed captioning had the correct spelling. I'm not sure how that technology works, but I'm impressed. I was a bit surprised that there was also an ASL interpreter at the front of one section in addition to the closed captioning, though.
That was at the main ceremony, which was a bit challenging in a couple of ways. It was out in the sun (I'd thought to bring an extra scarf, but still got a touch of sunburn on my face). The processional was (unsurprisingly) long (thousands of graduates takes a while), which was made longer by the choice of music, which was short enough to repeat far too frequently, making me feel rather like I was on hold.
Otherwise, the main ceremony was much like others in general outline (processional, congratulatory remarks from university folks, speech by the valedictorian, honorary degrees given with a speech by one of them, the PhDs walking for their degrees, conferring of other degrees en masse, recessional), though there were specifics that were different, unsurprisingly. Some graduates had twisted cords dangling from their necks, one to five or more, often different colors, that I found out indicated different kinds of honors. And some students had mini-stoles (waist length, rather than the Catholic priest ones that seem to be knee length or longer) that showed that they were a student athlete, a member of some fraternity (I think; it had Greek letters, anyway), a Latina/o student, or an African-American student (these were the most beautiful to me, with a kente cloth pattern). At the beginning of the ceremony, graduates who were veterans were asked to stand and be appreciated, which I thought was cool. And then those who were the first college graduates in their families, and a huge percentage stood, I think more than 50%, which was impressive. Random other comment from this part: "let's all dress in black and sit in the sun!" Oh, and while those of us in the audience were asked to turn off cell phones and suchlike, I saw a number of people on their phones or texting while processing. (Also, at least five women wearing headscarves under their mortarboards, which was cool.)
The smaller ceremony afterward, divided by school, was still long, since my brother was getting his degree from the largest school in the college. However, there was a tent set up, and it was a relief to be in the shade. Someone had made the unfortunate choice to use the same processional music as in the main ceremony, which again had those annoyingly-frequent repeats. I was surprised that the graduates weren't in any order that I could figure out; I deduced that they must be handing cards with their names on them to be announced, and not getting the actual diplomas when they crossed the stage. Unfortunately, they had rows of graduates going onto stage from back to front; my brother had gotten himself towards the front of the processional, so he was among the last to cross the stage. This did mean it was easier to get a photo, since graduates and their families tended to leave once they'd crossed the stage, which I hadn't expected.
My brother graduated from university Friday (congratulations!).
It was the first graduation I've been to in a long time; I'd not actually been to one with large screens projecting the main ceremony before. Interestingly, the screen farther from me included closed captioning, which I sometimes used because at least one speaker was not a native speaker of English, so there were some pronunciations I wasn't expecting. It was fascinating also to see that when one of the (alas, native English speakers) important personages mispronounced words (one repeated mistake: "iman" for "imam"; there were others, too), the closed captioning had the correct spelling. I'm not sure how that technology works, but I'm impressed. I was a bit surprised that there was also an ASL interpreter at the front of one section in addition to the closed captioning, though.
That was at the main ceremony, which was a bit challenging in a couple of ways. It was out in the sun (I'd thought to bring an extra scarf, but still got a touch of sunburn on my face). The processional was (unsurprisingly) long (thousands of graduates takes a while), which was made longer by the choice of music, which was short enough to repeat far too frequently, making me feel rather like I was on hold.
Otherwise, the main ceremony was much like others in general outline (processional, congratulatory remarks from university folks, speech by the valedictorian, honorary degrees given with a speech by one of them, the PhDs walking for their degrees, conferring of other degrees en masse, recessional), though there were specifics that were different, unsurprisingly. Some graduates had twisted cords dangling from their necks, one to five or more, often different colors, that I found out indicated different kinds of honors. And some students had mini-stoles (waist length, rather than the Catholic priest ones that seem to be knee length or longer) that showed that they were a student athlete, a member of some fraternity (I think; it had Greek letters, anyway), a Latina/o student, or an African-American student (these were the most beautiful to me, with a kente cloth pattern). At the beginning of the ceremony, graduates who were veterans were asked to stand and be appreciated, which I thought was cool. And then those who were the first college graduates in their families, and a huge percentage stood, I think more than 50%, which was impressive. Random other comment from this part: "let's all dress in black and sit in the sun!" Oh, and while those of us in the audience were asked to turn off cell phones and suchlike, I saw a number of people on their phones or texting while processing. (Also, at least five women wearing headscarves under their mortarboards, which was cool.)
The smaller ceremony afterward, divided by school, was still long, since my brother was getting his degree from the largest school in the college. However, there was a tent set up, and it was a relief to be in the shade. Someone had made the unfortunate choice to use the same processional music as in the main ceremony, which again had those annoyingly-frequent repeats. I was surprised that the graduates weren't in any order that I could figure out; I deduced that they must be handing cards with their names on them to be announced, and not getting the actual diplomas when they crossed the stage. Unfortunately, they had rows of graduates going onto stage from back to front; my brother had gotten himself towards the front of the processional, so he was among the last to cross the stage. This did mean it was easier to get a photo, since graduates and their families tended to leave once they'd crossed the stage, which I hadn't expected.