Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff, And now it is Commencement Week, and a series of wonderful Northeastern celebrations! Our College of Science Commencement yesterday was outstanding! THANK YOU!! to everyone involved, with special thanks to Linda Ayrapetov, Associate Director of Student Programs and Caroline Leary, Director of Marketing and Communication who led the organization. You can read my address here. What a huge lift! ~897 undergraduates, MS and PhD graduates walked across the stage to receive their folios. Over two hours, that is one student every eight seconds.That is not much time to make a personal connection, but I was determined to try, greeting each student by name, with a smile and Congratulations! I found that in eight seconds you can connect, and shy students may feel a bit less so, and each student knows that the Dean has seen them as an individual. While trying to make these myriad individual connections, I thought about how all of education is one student at a time. The journey requires focus by each student, and attention to each by their teachers, as difficult material becomes understandable, and how to think deeply is learned. Reading for example, is one of the most complex neural challenge most people meet (here’s a smallexplanation, or a larger one). It’s a huge lift for each child or adult, but of course, once you can do it, a vastness of knowledge and opportunity opens. In our College, each teacher, mentor, advisor, and staff member who works with students is part of the personalized education mission of the College of Science and Northeastern University. THANK YOU!! for your work, one student at a time, to provide the highest quality, most empowering science education.
Graduation Celebration – 5.5.23