The Commencement ceremony is an exciting and special event to officially congratulate the achievements of all the Depauw seniors this year. The class of 2022 friends and family will be able to join and watch the ceremony as long as celebrate their great academic accomplishments.
Tonya Branham with DePauw’s Registrar’s Office is helping out with the commencement ceremony. She explained the event and said,“On Sunday, May 22, the DePauw community, family, and guests will gather to witness the official conferral of degrees and celebrate the academic accomplishments of 440 graduating seniors on the East College Lawn. The graduates from the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Music represent 34 states and 16 countries. For those who cannot attend, the ceremony will be live-streamed at 10:00 a.m. Additional information can be found online at Commencement - DePauw University.”
This time for the seniors can cause a bittersweet feeling because they will be leaving the place they called home for the past four years. I got the opportunity to talk with two members of the class of 2022, Jillian Kim, an Anthropology major and Eva Nicolson, a Neuroscience major. They shared their feelings on this fun and exciting time.
“I would say commencement being next weekend almost seems surreal because I feel like my time at DePauw really was cut short due to covid. I know everyone probably feels that way, but I was only an underclassmen when we got sent home and the next time I got back on campus I was a first-semester senior with only 9 months left instead of 2 years,” Kim said.
She also went on to say, “I was really able to get the full college experience during my time at DePauw. Coming from such a long way from home I was able to grow out of my comfort shell and get involved in things, either on campus or in my sorority, that I never thought I would be able to do. I’ll leave this school knowing that I played a college sport, joined a sorority and held an exec position, and declared a major that I NEVER thought I’d study. I hate when people have told me cliche things like “enjoy your college years - they go by fast!” because I never thought they’d come true but your experience at Depauw really does make those cliche sayings become a reality.”
Lastly, senior Eva Nicolson says she is “super sad about commencement because I have had such a great time at DePauw. I was actually talking with someone earlier today about how much I have gained from my experience at DePauw and how I was nervous about it being over. Four years ago I moved away from home to Greencastle, Indiana which was a big change and took a lot of adjusting and now I am so comfortable with life here at DePauw that moving away for good is going to be super hard and sad.”
Nicolson’s time at DePauw has been “really rewarding but also unconventional. I would say that none of us had the typical college experience that we expected back in 2018 but I still wouldn’t have changed my decision to go to Depauw. I was able to play a varsity sport for 4 years, join a sorority, and graduate as a Neuroscience major hoping to go to medical school which I think shows how much you can do at DePauw if you take advantage of it.”
She continues to talk about the great memories she has had at Depauw and that she will miss “Living in Theta and walking to class and late-night studying and eating every meal with all my friends has become something I am so used to and will definitely be my fondest memories from college.”
Congratulations to the class of 2022! Keep up the great work and the DePauw community cannot wait to see all the amazing things you accomplish in the years to come.
