More than 320 Engler College of Business students were slated for graduation on December 13, including 151 undergraduates and 170 across our graduate programs. Preceding the ceremony, the College hosted a reception in the Classroom Center for graduates and their families. This has proven to be a very rewarding activity for the graduates, many of whom are online and have traveled great distances to come to Canyon.
All but two of the undergraduates received the BBA degree, while the other two earned a BS. At the graduate level, students earned a variety of degrees, including the MBA, MSFE, MSCISBA, and MACC. Dr. Amjad Abdullat, Dean of the Engler College of Business, hooded all graduate-level students receiving their degrees.
The graduation ceremony, which is one of three that the University hosted, is a joyous time for all, but also difficult for meetups between students and faculty, because several thousand people are trying to exit the building at the same time. Even with unusually balmy weather this time around that made lingering comfortable, it is easy to miss one another while graduates and their families are busy taking photographs and heading to celebrations.
Several years ago, the Engler College launched its pre-graduation reception, offering campus and online graduates an opportunity to experience one last–or first–time where it all happens. For online students, it is confirmation that the Engler College of Business is a legitimate school with full-time faculty and staff who live and work here, not adjuncts scattered across the country. This alone has increasingly become a strong selling point for our programs. The reception was held from 11:00-12:30.
Perhaps the best part of the reception is students getting to meet their professors for the first time. While they have interacted with them online across the months and courses, they never been able to put a face on it. Meeting the students is also rewarding for the faculty.
Proud students and their loved ones strolled the second floor, shaking hands with and hugging their acquaintances, even if it was for the very first time. A large classroom was set up for photos; the Alumni Association had a table offering their memberships as well as class rings. And the faculty were scattered up and down the hall, a welcoming receiving line.
Following the reception, it was off to the First United Bank Center for the 2:00 ceremony. More than 50% of all WT graduating students this semester were first-generation college students in their families, and in the case of the College of Business, many of the graduate-level students were the first in their families to earn a master’s degree.
For the students, it was the happy end of a journey, but also the beginning of a new chapter. As for the faculty, it was a semi-annual party in which we see the happy celebrants with the fingerprints of their professors all over them. Next May we will do it again. The potter-and-clay metaphor is a fitting way to describe the process, the new graduates with diplomas in hand a vessel that has been fired and glazed in preparation for their lives ahead.