Lundquist College of Business Graduate Hooding Ceremony 2021
Welcome to the 2021 Hooding Ceremony. I’m Michele Henney, the Bashaw Senior Instructor of Accounting and it is my honor to be your emcee throughout this special event. As a member of the faculty of the School of Accounting for the last 17 years, I have had the pleasure of teaching in almost all of the programs that we will honor here today.
And I myself am a proud graduate of the doctoral program. We have prepared this special supplement event just for the graduates of our Doctoral, MBA, Masters of Accounting, and Masters of Science and Finance programs. As you will learn a bit later from my colleague Robin Clement, the hood, and in fact all of the academic regalia, is steeped in historical significance. The hooding ceremony is a transformative event. The students you will see here today are not the same people they were when they started their various programs. They have been changed by the magic of higher education, into masters and doctors of their disciplines.
Through hard work, discipline, and perseverance, they have that they have exhibited, they have become professionals. It is alchemy, pure and simple. They have turned into precious commodities. Graduation is a significant event in this process.
It marks the end of one part and beginning of another. Now they will go out from this place and take part in life after college, a whole new set of opportunities await them. We have done our best to prepare them, now we celebrate their accomplishments with them, and you their friends and family.
Be proud of yourselves you have done good. Endings and beginnings have a significance unto themselves and I am very touched to have been asked to play a part in this one. Now it is my pleasure to introduce Gil Beverly.
Gil earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and his Masters of Business Administration in 2003 from our very own Lundquist College of Business, specializing in sports business at the Warsaw Center. Gil currently works for the Tennessee Titans as the Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer. We invited Gil to provide a few words of inspiration. Gil… Greetings. I am Gil Beverly, Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer for the NFL's Tennessee Titans and a proud member of the Lundquist College of Business and Warsaw Sports Marketing Center's Class of 2003. First and foremost, I want to send a heartfelt congratulations to the class of ‘21! It's been a hell of a two years for you guys in so many ways, but yet you've endured, you have persisted, and you've accomplished so much, and ultimately, you've triumphed in completing your studies and attaining graduation all despite great adversity.
A great Dickens novel begins with the line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” and after talking to a handful of members of this year's graduating class, that quote seems to fit our times just as it did the French Revolution centuries ago. Now let's go ahead and get the worst part out of the way first. The fact of the matter is you guys got robbed. You missed out on a lot of the experiences you signed up for and frankly that sucks. I’m not going to sugarcoat that. I met my future wife at Rennie’s Landing and Pub, in my second year of b-school, and I thought about the fact that if I had had to pivot to remote learning midstream the way you did, I wouldn't have met her and my life would look very different than it does today.
That being said, most of the nights I spent at Rennie’s did not end in great romance, so don't feel like you've missed out too much there. But I digress. While it's absolutely true that the coronavirus stole so much from all of us, is still the best of times for you in so many ways. Despite the challenges you faced, the opportunity to invest in and further your education, all while building relationships that will last a lifetime is a precious one. And even throughout all the volatility in the world, a master's degree in business related disciplines remains a great tool and provider of value that will propel you forward well into your future. It's true that you had to work much harder for your degree than I did for mine, but you will emerge stronger for it.
Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time, famously said that he wanted practice to be made as difficult as possible, so that so that the actual games felt easy by comparison. I think it's safe to say you guys have nailed the practice part and are ready to get into the game. As the world slowly yet inevitably opens back up to its full capacity, you will join the fray, uniquely prepared to deal with the ups and downs and the twists and turns that inevitably will come your way. When the next set of challenges knocks on your door, you will answer with the strength, wisdom, and confidence of those who have already been through battles and have ultimately prevailed. As I prepared these remarks I reviewed commencement speeches from a range of voices including Bob Iger, the Chairman of Disney, General Lou Perna who led Operation Warp Speed to develop the Covid vaccine, singer performer John Legend, Apple founder Steve Jobs, President Barack Obama, and in the name of political balance Donald Trump. One thing that struck me in listening to all these remarks, was that these speeches tended to put a lot of pressure on you guys as new graduates.
To hear these great luminaries tell it, you need to immediately be prepared to change the world, to save the world, to make it a better place for the next generation and all generations that follow. According to these speeches, not only are you supposed to do great things, but you're supposed to be a great person at the same time as well. Be a great leader, be a great employee, a great spouse, a great partner, a great parent, a great friend, all while simultaneously giving back to the community. These are lofty goals, especially coming right out of the chute.
And while I encourage you to be a bit ambitious and to reach towards great achievement; however, great achievement requires great effort, and great effort requires time and we only have so much of that. So when your great expectations run up against the reality of the meager 168 hours in a week that we have to live, I implore you to be kind. Be kind to yourself. I have no doubt that you can achieve all the things in life that you want, if you are willing to put in the work. You can and you will be great, but always try to remember that you can't be all things at all Times, and forgive yourself in the inevitable occasions where you feel you've come up a little short.
I believe that kindness and empathy towards yourself and others are powerful competitive advantages as the world continues to work its way back from the trauma of the past year. When I spoke to some members of the graduating class some of that trauma was on full display. There was a sense of unsettlement at the prospect of entering the workforce in a tough economic environment, without having had the benefit of summer internships, and all the while competing with many folks who lost jobs during the pandemic. Given all this it would be more than fair for you to ask yourself if coming to Oregon was a good decision in the first place or a good use of your time.
Well someone who's been there let me answer you unequivocally that yes it was. It looks a little different from what you imagined but the Oregon experience is still a special one and you're better for it. I came to Oregon after I met my friend and eventual mentor Jim Warsaw. I loved
the energy, irreverent spirit, and complete lack of stuffiness I found in the Pacific Northwest. That being said, Oregon was more than a chill vibe to me. Jim's vision was that he wanted to create a place to study sports, that featured academic rigor, combined with street smarts and common sense. A place that fully embraced the ideals of passion, integrity, and leadership, and though that was an apt description of the Warsaw Center, so much of this vision applied to the broader business school and university as a whole. Though I came to Eugene with an undergraduate degree from an ivy league institution, some of the best professors I ever had were found at the LCB. The school's
early emphasis on emerging areas such as environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship, and sports marketing placed it well ahead of the curve in so many ways and it still does today. Oregon is a vibe, but make no mistake about it your time affiliated with the institution has more than prepared you for what's next in your life and career. By attaining your degree, you have already won. And though the path forward may feel a little uncertain today, I have every confidence that you will ultimately keep winning in whatever ways are meaningful to you. To the class of ’21, I admire your resilience, applaud your persistence, and celebrate your accomplishments.
Congratulations and best of luck as you launch the next phase of your journey. Thank you and go Ducks! Oh, hey class of 2021. Congratulations! So good to see you. It's so exciting that you've finished up the term and what a crazy year this has been. Uh… listen. I’m as enthusiastic about this class as I have been about any. I know you've been through
some tough times. We all have. But uh actually, I am just as enthusiastic and optimistic about you and everything you've learned as any class pre-pandemic. Now I’m proud of what you learned and I feel deeply privileged and lucky to have worked with all of you. But I never finished class early, so let's just do one more lecture.
I love using other people's material when it does the trick, so I’m going to pass on some wisdom from one of my favorite thinkers. Here, let me draw… actually there's no time. Let's use the stuff at the board. This is from Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a famous climate scientist and activist.
I’m really inspired by her work and especially what she says to young professionals when they ask her about what they can do with their lives. So quick Venn diagram. Three things. What you love, what you're good at, and the work to be done.
Pretty clear, what do you love? What really drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you want to do even when you're tired, and maybe especially when you're tired, maybe the energy, that passion gives you is what really drives you to to do great stuff. What is that? Also, what are you good at? You become good at a lot of things and especially you've learned that you can learn new things. What are your skills and what skills do you look forward to building? And last the work to be done. What are the challenges out there? Now you get to pick the challenge, right? It doesn't have to be the climate crisis as it is for Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Though, of course it could be. But think about
what society needs. Where do we need to make progress? What are the challenges facing humankind? This is actually a really exciting time with a lot of movements and a lot of change. Gender and racial justice, economic inequality, getting education and health care to everyone who needs them, which is everyone. And then of course the climate crisis, if you do want to pick that one. But whatever the challenge is, make it yours and find this spot right here in the middle where these things overlap. So take off into the world and chase those individual ambitions.
Your dreams and your professional questions and your intellectual energy have really inspired and energized me during your time here, and I know they'll continue to do so even from afar. Even if we're not hanging out here, or in other settings. Thank you, class of 2021.
Now celebrate for a bit, maybe take a break, and go out and do some great things and good things. Congratulations! Good evening everyone. My name is Karmina Alpapara and it is an honor to speak before you all today and represent the 2020 to 2021 cohort of the Master of Accounting program. As some of my classmates may know, I am a bit of a stress case. My group would finish projects and I would refuse to turn it in until the last minute, just in case there was still something wrong with it. So of course I had to stay on brand with writing this speech. Imagine group project, stress
times a thousand, but about three weeks and 60 drafts later, I realized that there is no way that I could perfectly encapsulate the year we have had. No words can exactly express the struggle to fight Zoom fatigue. The feeling of defeat after a difficult test, or even the feeling of relief when grades are posted and celebrating because we were at least slightly above average.
Nevertheless, I am going to try, because in life that is all we can do. To say that this last year has been overwhelming is an understatement. With the impact of COVID-19, racial injustice, and the elections, we all have had to deal with many challenges both individually and as a community. We constantly worried about our safety and the safety of those we love. Some of
us even struggled with our mental health during these difficult times. Students had to shift our learning style so that it could better suit the online environment. While professors had to teach to black boxes for two hours at a time. After the first week of fall term I remember thinking to myself, can I really do this? And I’m sure many of us have had those moments leading up to this point.
But even with all these obstacles, we made it. It was not easy but we persevered. It was not always fun, but it was rewarding. And it was
definitely not what we were used to, but we made the most out of it. Even with the online environment, the Master of Accounting allow their cohort to connect. Many of us may have never met in person but we went through a lot together during the school year. We had mental breakdowns together, recovered together, and succeeded together, all while not really knowing how each other looks outside of a Zoom call.
This shows that the circumstances may not have been ideal, but the integrity and the goal of the program was not sacrificed. All of these moments bring us to the day. A time to celebrate ourselves and all of our efforts.
Today we close another chapter of our lives and we start a new one. Whether that be to pursue another degree, enter the workforce, or whatever your dreams may be. Our educational journeys may be coming to an end but our learning does not stop here. The horizon for our pursuit of knowledge is only expanding. And as C.S. Lewis once said, “There are far, far better things ahead than any we are leaving behind.”
And I cannot wait to see where we go from here. Thank you and congratulations to all of the graduates. Hello everyone, my name is Adam Banionis and for the past year I have served as your MSF Student Association President.
This year has been a challenging one for obvious reasons, but I’m very amazed at the way our cohort has consistently come together to meet these challenges and so grateful for the faculty who have given us the tools we need to navigate them. It has been amazing watching one of the most intelligent groups I've ever been a part of become even more competent each quarter. It has been a pleasure getting to know you all and I really wish we had more time to connect within the classroom. However, I am very grateful for the personal and professional connections I've made during my time here and I know this community will continue to support its members wherever they may go.
The days ahead are uncertain for many of Us, but I know that we have all built the skills we need to begin venturing out into the world and defining our own success stories wherever they may be. I'd like to thank everyone in this cohort for consistently pushing each other to be our best selves and again to all the faculty who have helped us along the way. Congratulations class of 2021, go Ducks! Hello I’m Robin Clement. I’m the Director of the Master of Accounting program at the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon.
I would like to explain the origins of our academic regalia. The hood represents the attainment of an advanced degree. The colorful and distinctive garb conspicuous at commencement ceremonies had its origin in the high middle ages, the 12th and 13th centuries, when the university itself came into being. Emerging universities grew up in the shadow of the church. It should not be surprising therefore that the cap, gown, and hood grew out of clerical dress of that period. The gown. The sleeves for a bachelor's
degree are pointed. For a master's degree there are long closed sleeves with a slit at the arm or wrist. And for a doctorate degree full bell sleeves and the doctoral degree also has velvet down the front and three bars of velvet on the sleeves. Now the cap. When Roman law freed the
slave he won the privilege of wearing a cap. The academic cap is a sign of freedom of scholarship, and the responsibility and dignity with which the scholarship endows the wearer. Old poetry records the cap as scholarship as a square to symbolize the book. When
you graduated from your undergraduate degree you moved the tassel on the cap from the right to the left side, indicating you had graduated. Advanced degrees are recognized by being hooded. Now the hood. The most colorful and distinctive element of academic garb is the hood. Another medieval relic, it descended from cows, worn by monks to ward off cold drafts in English monasteries.
The masters hoods are three and a half feet long. Doctoral hoods are four feet and have panels at the side. Now what's the significance of the colors? The hood should be lined with the official colors of the institution conferring the degree, and the lining should be worn exposed.
Hence, UO hoods are lined with yellow and green. The velvet on the hood for business graduates, is light brown, it's called drab. I hope that you are able to return to campus next year so all of us can celebrate with you in a live hooding ceremony. Regardless, congratulations for your accomplishments! Thanks Robin, very inspirational and informative. It's good to know that if I ever get stuck in a medieval monastery in my regalia, I'll be properly equipped. Given the
significance of the hood, we wanted to share with all of you the most important part of our ceremony. The magic of Lundquist when these students are transformed into masters and doctors right before your eyes. To celebrate this momentous achievement we have asked all the graduates to submit a video of their hooding from home. Without further ado, I present to you the class of 20-21 Doctoral, MBA, Masters of Accounting and Masters of Science and Finance graduates from the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business. Go Ducks!
Sean Chen hooded by his wife Chloe Chen [Music] Zack Fox hooded by his children Ivy, Zefer, and Toni Fox [Music] Kianna Abanto Cabuco hooded by her partner Ryan Kounovsky Robert Dale Ayers hooded by his wife Olivia Grace Ayers [Music] Mary Bearrow hooded by her spouse Cole Bearrow McKenna Boen hooded by her partner Mosi Smith Hsuan-Hao Chang hooded by his friend Tariq Lee-Grimes [Music] Adam Chrnelich hooded by his wife Chessney Chrnelich [Music] Bryce Dachtler hooded by his wife Christina Cendejas Gloria Foxman hooded by her spouse Maxwell Foxman [Music] Elon Glucklich hooded by his wife Whitney Donielson Jordan Guess hooded by his partner Claire Dawson William Richardson Hardie III hooded by his best friend Brian Duggan [Music] Tyler Jaglowski hooded by his significant other Andrea Moore [Music] Traven Joseph hooded by his mom Jillene Joseph [Music] Emily Kenyon hooded by her parents Rick (also a UO MBA graduate) and Jami Kenyon Tariq Y. Lee-Grimes hooded by his friend Miranda Menard Jared Alexander-Burd Mainini hooded by his mother Laury Burd-Mainini Athena Tamara Marquez hooded by her mother Connie Joseph [Music] Erik Matisek hooded by his partner Ali Archer and Wally [Music] Miranda Menard hooded by her best friend and classmate Tariq Lee-Grimes [Music] Max Stephen Cornell Mennemeier hooded by his mother Carol Cornell [Music] Oscar Estuardo Navas Ruano hooded by his father Oscar Estuardo Navas Bethancourth, MBA, Phd Marisa Owens hooded by her husband Thomas Owens Matt Pakinas hooded by his daughter Emma Jo Pakinas Samantha Polanco hooded by her parents Matt and Maria, her grandmother Avó, Figo, and Stella [Music] Billy Shanks hooded by his mother Irene [Music] Ashley Shen hooded by her father Darrell Shen [Music] Mosi Smith hooded by his partner McKenna Boen Chris Suess hooded by his mother Mary Jean [Music] Dan Tran hooded by his friend Eric De Vey [Music] Lauren Tyndall hooded by her best friend Brooke [Music] [Music] Ziyan Wang hooded by her spouse Lei Jiao Emily Jane Watts hooded by her partner Diana Suedbeck Sam West hooded by his daughter Cecilia West [Music] Alvia Wilcox hooded by her father Dennis Wilcox [Music] Luke Zak hooded by his parents Bob and Nancy Zak Jinling Zhang hooded by her spouse Yifan Wu [Music] Abdullah Almazaal hooded by his best friend Ziyad Alsaeed Karmina Richel De Castro Alpapara hooded by her mother Emelyn De Castro Alyssa Barclay hooded by her sister Amanda Barclay Xiaowei Chang hooded by her child Isaac Yang [Music] McKenzie Chastain hooded by her good friend Mary Fountain [Music] Aaron Chon hooded by his mother Aylih Chon [Music] Allison Clark hooded by her partner Rylan Marshall Yan Deng hooded by her daughter Sylvia Liu [Music] Connor Drath hooded by his parents Mick and Carla Drath [Music] Cai Fairbairn hooded by her daughter Lillian [Music] [Music] Brandon Gordon hooded by his brother Jared Gordon [Music] Megan Hayes hooded by her mom Jeanne Hayes Max Hurtado hooded by his mother Molly Hurtado Emma Kilger hooded by her mom Felicia Kilger Katherine King hooded by her father Spencer King [Music] Jacob Nolen Luther hooded by his father David Luther [Music] Austin R. MacKinnon hooded by his parents Malcolm and Melanie MacKinnon [Music] Ashley Martinez hooded by her friend Allison Tamamoto [Music] Hunter McGlaun hooded by his friends Brandon Zerio and Andy Morgan [Music] Andy Morgan hooded by his friends Brandon Zerio and Hunter McGlaun Lucas Murphy hooded by his friend David Abston Tristan Rekdahl hooded by his mom and dad Anita Kolendar and Jess Rekdahl Yeaseul Shin hooded by her brother Hojun Shin [Music] Jacob Souza hooded by his best friend Colton Lobdell Allison Tamamoto hooded by her best friend Ashley Martinez [Music] Brenden Tolar-Payne hooded by his friend Zeke Petersen [Music] Qi Wang hooded by his daughter Dorothy Wang Benjamin Zeitz hooded by his father Steve Zeitz [Music] Brandon Zerio hooded by his mother Celeste Zerio [Music] Huiyu Zhang hooded by her friend Max Hurtado Adam Banionis hooded by his mother Leslie Banionis [Music] Jake Gibson hooded by his mom Angie Gibson [Music] Pascal Konyn hooded by his mother Amy Konyn Yueyin Lin hooded by her best friend Yiru Ding Sean Madison hooded by his partner Jennifer Zhang [Music] Luke McClaskey hooded by his classmate Cole Ryken Paranee Phatanaratchadapong hooded by her friend Caroline Wang Cole Ryken hooded by Luke McClaskey [Music] David Sax hooded by his sister Sarah Sax Caroline Wang hooded by her friend Paranee [Music] Samuel David Allen Williams hooded by his mom Dr. Nicole Williams
Samaria Diaz hooded by her parents Emeliano and Gloria Diaz [Music]
2021-06-13 17:54
