After completing a program, they begin learning new things and growing in their experience. And here I am, one of their teachers, left looking proud and being loud.
Proud because those who struggled through their college years, in danger of not making it, finally march with their cap and gown. I like to think I had been an impetus to their turning points—that life changing moment when they realized college degrees are important, too. Proud also because those who settled for nothing but excellence, march with honors, one of them delivering the valedictory address.
And loud? How can one not applaud lustily and scream "Bravo!" when each name is called? Maybe graduations are more of a teacher’s defining moment than the student’s.
In this transnational university, where students come from many parts of the world, I sometimes get them in their freshman year, and also in their in-between years, and finally their senior year—depending on my availability. That's why when they finally leave the campus, I turn sappy.
Every graduation is a grand milestone, but this year, it is even a grander one. My student from Papua, New Guinea flew in a planeload of kin to watch him being conferred his degree.
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| (Photo shows our guest speaker and the university officers and deans ready to hand the diplomas) |
"Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning." Proverbs 9:9
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