Dr. Katia Hougaard's PhD Graduation Experience Part 1:
Thanks for your patience with my absence. It's been a very busy time but a memorable one, because I attended my PhD graduation ceremony at Imperial College on June 3rd. I'd like to share some impressions of the day with you.
Graduation day was a day I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. The graduation ceremony and accompanying events were amazingly well planned and presented by Imperial College. On the graduation day, there were lots of volunteers and stewards helping the graduates and guests with everything from putting on the robes to finding the restrooms, so I felt very "well taken care of' leading up to and on the big day.
The ceremony in the Albert Hall was truly splendid, but also simple and efficient. Apart from a keynote speech about Imperial College's philosophy and values of applying science for the betterment of humanity, there was no "filler". Live classical music accompanied the graduates walking across the stage as their multicultural names were flawlessly read out by the MC. They even avoided butchering my "unusual name"!
A funny detail was that the MC asked the audience of family and friends to reserve their applause for the end of each department's Masters and PhDs group, but he said nothing about using their voices... therefore, the audience members shouted and cheered when their graduate crossed the stage.
I'll share what happened next in Part 2!
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