Degree recipients in the Dec. 13 UGA fall semester Commencement ceremonies were challenged to reflect on their accomplishments and savor the moment as they move forward in the next stage of their lives.
“At some point today, you owe it to yourself to lean back, take a deep breath and look all around here with a keen eye on this scene. Take it in because you’re going to want to remember this moment,” said Amy Glennon, the first female publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the undergraduate Commencement ceremony.
An estimated 1,667 students were eligible to participate in the undergraduate ceremony on the morning of Dec. 13; 509 candidates of master’s, doctoral and specialist in education degrees were eligible for the afternoon graduate ceremony. Both ceremonies were held in Stegeman Coliseum.
Glennon, a 1990 graduate of UGA, used her Commencement address to encourage graduates to take “mental snapshots” as a way of documenting moments in their lives.
“Take the time, take in the moments large and small and let those moments guide you in work worth doing,” Glennon said.
Capturing these moments, she told the graduates, will help guide them on through big decisions and questions in life.
“If you truly understand what matters to you, what you love and who you love, the answers will come sooner,” she said.
In the afternoon ceremony, E. Culpepper “Cully” Clark, who was dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication from 2006 to June 2013, delivered the Commencement address to master’s, doctoral and specialist degree recipients.
He told them, “The doors you are opening in your own momentous times, enabled by this great university and your families and friends, are the future.”
As is the tradition at UGA Commencement ceremonies, President Jere W. Morehead recognized the parents and friends of the UGA graduates as playing a vital role in student successes. He encouraged them to stand as graduates cheered and applauded.
Morehead also challenged degree recipients in both ceremonies to use what they learned at UGA in their future jobs and in their communities.
“I know you will be successful professionally, I ask that you strive for lives of meaningful service as well,” he said.
