That Time of Year

It takes a team.  L-R: Jean Daudelin,
Marshall, Teddy Samy.

 Despite being in this business for, gulp, nearly 30 years (September is the 30th anniversary of my first day as prof), I have rarely gone to graduations.  I tend to be traveling in June, which is Carleton's grad time, and the various places I have been didn't have a culture of all the profs showing up.  But I did recently and belatedly invest in ye olde regalia with a spiffy, puffy chapeau, so I may show up at a few more before I hang up my blazer with patched elbows.

Many of my Phd students didn't stick around for graduation either, so I don't have much practice hooding my students.  The fun yesterday was that Marshall Palmer is easily my tallest PhD student, so, yeah, I didn't do it so well.  But we got through it.  Marshall finished faster than any other student I have had, and he didn't do that by cutting corners.  He won a Senate Medal for one of the best dissertations at Carleton this year.  I found myself very frustrating when reading the drafts of his chapters, as I had very little to say--they were all on target, clear, and close to ready to go.  And the topic is mildly relevant--foreign election interference!  Which is dominating Canadian politics right now.  

I was the 2nd reader
on Brittany's
Master Research Paper

 Carleton splits all the graduations into segments, so our session was focused on the International Affairs, Public Policy and Admin, Social Welfare, and Infrastructure programs.  Which kept things snappy.  I got to see several students from my classes and CDSN-ing walk yesterday.

Margarita took my civ-mil class
this winter

Jace was also in my civ-mil
class this winter.

 

Gabriel was a CDSN
research assistant last year.
You can see him in the screen
in front of him

Hats were not much of a thing at yesterday's ceremony--none of the students had them, and few of the faculty.  Which made it easier to rock the second best chapeau.  Dean Brenda O'Neil had the best. 

And, yes, one of the problems with using blogspot is having limited control over picture placement.

Anyhow, we are super proud of these ex-students. Rock on!