A lot of excellent work went in to making today a wonderful celebration for our graduates from the College of the Liberal Arts. Of course, our students did an enormous amount of work to earn their degrees. And they earned a celebration worthy of their accomplishments.

The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies staff gave them just such a celebration today!

Robin Robinson is the master organizer of graduation for the College of the Liberal Arts. She and her staff on the Records side of our office, Andrea Crews, Tanya Hockman and Sarah Derber, organized all the tents, food, diplomas, ceremonies and celebrations that we enjoyed so thoroughly today.

There were also a number of other members of the LAUS staff who worked today during the graduation celebration, including Holly Dickey, Mary Fleming, Ashley Tarbet, Earl Merritt, and Jillian Balay (aka @LAUSatPSU).

We also had a number of student advisors helping with the graduation ceremony itself at the BJC: Mary Cameron, Julianna Chaszar, Shery Crater, Rebekka Egger, Tracey Melnick, Whitney Merinar, Maureen Mulenga, Courtney Orr, Charlene Peters, Katelyn Perry, Karen Sones, Marie Villefranche.

Before I became Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at the College, I came to graduation and enjoyed the spirit of celebration and accomplishment. Now that I see all the work that goes into putting such an event together, I am struck by how lucky we are to have such a professional, organized and talented staff.

A sign of their success is the degree to which no one notices all the little things that are done behind the scene to make the event run smoothly. The danger of this sort of success is that the hard work and excellent organization that goes into it will not be recognized.

So, on behalf of all the graduates of the College of the Liberal Arts and for the faculty and administration too, I would like to thank Robin first and foremost, and also the rest of my excellent staff, who made this truly a day to remember.

It was wonderful to have Robin join us on Liberal Arts Voices episode 9 to talk about graduation. On that episode, you can also hear Nikki Hatza, our College Marshal, who gave a marvelous valedictorian speech this evening, talk about her Penn State experience. If you want to learn more about Ron Suskind, who also gave a well received speech tonight, take a look at his personal website and his wikipedia page. 

Personally, I am grateful for the help Robin gave me with the names of the student marshals I had to read (I hope I did justice to them this evening) and for her tips about how best to keep an excited crowd in order.  I am also grateful to Ashley and Jillian for helping me practice the World Campus Graduation talk I gave today. 

In all, it was a beautiful day for a celebration of excellent students.  Congratulations to all our graduates and thank you to the staff that made this day a great success.

Here are some images from the day: