Tag: graduation

“Your mission, if you choose to accept it…is to make things work better,” Barbara S. Thomas told the audience at the graduate students’ diploma and awards ceremony, May 17. Thomas, a Wash U alumna and Trustee, is senior vice president and chief financial officer of HBO Sports. Listen to her delightful and insightful keynote speech and watch the entire ceremony online, including student speaker Brooke James, MBA ’13.

Brooke James, student speaker at the Graduate Diploma and Awards Ceremony.

Lisa Lewin shared that advice and many more words of wisdom with the BSBA Class of 2013 at graduation May 17.  If you missed the ceremony, watch the video online! Rewind, fast forward and pause on your favorite moments. Lewin, BSBA’96, president of Teacher Education at Pearson, the global learning company was the keynote speaker and Amanda Signorelli was the student speaker.

Getting dressed for graduation may seem easy, but there are centuries of tradition and significance stitched into the garb you put on for the big day. Each academic pursuit has its own color and you can tell a Master from a PhD by the shape of their sleeves .

Here are some fashionista do’s & don’ts for graduation day:

• The gown should fall midway between the knee and ankle.
• The cap should be worn so that the Mortarboard is level. It should not be tilted to the back or side of the head. The crown should be approximately one inch above the eyebrow.
• Men should remove their caps during the school song and the National Anthem.
• Tassels are usually worn on the right side and shifted to the left when undergraduates receive their diplomas.
• Graduate students wear tassels on the left for the entire ceremony and carry the hood over their arm prior to the conferral of degrees, then hood one another when asked to do so by their dean.

Wear your degree on your sleeve:

• The gown for the bachelor’s degree has pointed sleeves
• The gown for the master’s degree has an oblong sleeve, open at the wrist, like the others. The sleeve base hangs down in the traditional manner. The rear part of its oblong shape is square cut, and the front part has an arc cut away
• The gown for the doctor’s degree has bell-shaped sleeves.
• Gowns for the bachelor’s or master’s degrees are untrimmed
• The doctor’s degree gown is faced down the front with black velvet; three bars of velvet are used across the sleeves. These facings and crossbars may be of velvet of the color distinctive of the disciplines to which the degree pertains, thus agreeing in color with the binding or edging of the hood appropriate to the particular doctor’s degree in every instance.

For more fun facts and the history of academic regalia, check out these sites:

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Academic-Costume-Code.aspx
https://oakhalli.com/Graduation-Cap-and-Gown-Etiquette.html

Thanks to WUSTL Archives for the photo of graduation circa 1910.

On the morning of December 22, the Olin Business School kicked off the holiday break by celebrating the graduation of over 60 Professional MBA students.  It was a great morning filled with soon-to-be alumni, family, and friends.

The guest speaker this year was Catherine French, PMBA ’93.  Catherine is the Senior Group Manager of Franchise Management at CitiMortgage and site president for Citi’s Progress Point facility located in O’Fallon, Missouri. She was an ideal choice for this year’s ceremony as she embodies what we hope to see in all of our Olin alumni – that they are active members within the St. Louis community.  Catherine gives of her time by serving on many boards including Partners for Progress of Greater St. Charles and the President’s Council for the Magic House Children’s Museum.

After the awards were presented and the diplomas were granted, all of the new Olin alumni joined friends, family, staff, and faculty for a reception to celebrate their accomplishments.  What a great way to start off the holiday season!

Pictured at right, Joe Fox, associate dean and director of MBA programs, Catherine French and Dean Mahendra Gupta.  Above, happy PMBA grads pose for the paparazzi at Simon Hall reception.