Students from the College's three graduate schools -- the Thayer School of Engineering, Tuck School of Business and Dartmouth Medical School -- will be reaping the rewards of their many years of hard work today, as they sit alongside the graduating seniors and end their time at Dartmouth as students.
Although the Commencement ceremonies provide an opportunity for all graduating students at the College to come together and honor their achievements, programming yesterday largely focused on the individual schools and their students.
Each of the graduate schools celebrated the achievements of its departing students with its own unique event: students at the medical school had their "Class Day," while both Tuck and Thayer held "Investiture Ceremonies" to mark the occasion.
"These are school-specific ceremonies," Director of Public Programs Ann Malenka explained. "The program itself is very meaningful to the students graduating from their respective schools."
The ceremonies included the hooding of students, as well as the awarding of academic prizes and addresses by student, faculty and guest speakers.
At the Tuck School's investiture ceremony, welcoming remarks from the dean were followed by an address from guest speaker Paul Raether, Tuck Class of '73, who currently works at Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co., a merchant banking firm in New York.
The event also featured a student speaker, Christopher Spaulding, who was selected by students to address the class.
Patricia Palmiotto, Director of Student Affairs at Tuck, explained that Spaulding has in the past been deeply involved in raising money for student internships in not-for-profit organizations, and plans to work for a consulting firm in Boston next year.
Also included in the ceremony was the traditional hooding of the students by the Chairman of the Board of Overseers, in addition to the presentation of awards honoring Tuck Scholars, who represent the students with the highest grade point averages in the class.
One long-standing tradition continued yesterday was the reading of the Edward Tuck letter, which Edward Tuck, founder of the school, wrote to Dartmouth College President Tucker in 1904.
The letter "talks about the principles and values the graduates should consider as they leave," Palmiotto said. Contained within it are passages that urge students to have "absolute devotion to the career which one selects" and to "never vary a hair's breadth from the truth nor from the path of strictest honesty and honor."
Tuck has approximately 184 graduates among its ranks, each of whom plan to receive a Master in Business Administration, the only degree offered by the school.
The Thayer School of Engineering, which also holds an investiture ceremony, planned to award four different degrees to its 108 graduates -- Bachelors in Engineering, Master of Engineering Management, Master of Science and Engineering Sciences and Doctor of Philosophy and Engineering Sciences.
At the Thayer ceremony, much like the Tuck event, students were hooded and awarded academic prizes. Though Thayer had no student speakers at its ceremony, this year's guest speaker was Christopher Hu, '69, Thayer '70.
Hu is currently a partner with the law firm Morgan and Finnigan and was elected last month by the Thayer School Board of Overseers as a Sylvanus Thayer Fellow.
Fellowships are awarded to those graduates and friends of the Thayer school who generously contribute time and resources to the School, according to Jean West, director of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations.
At the Dartmouth Medical School's Class Day, held yesterday morning, Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., was invited by the graduating class to give the main address. According to Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Sue Ann Hennessey, Remmen was chosen because "she is one of the earliest pioneers of mind/body health."
The event, which is geared toward doctoral candidates and master candidates in the light sciences and evaluative clinical sciences, also featured student speakers and the awarding of academic prizes, as well as the hooding of students by faculty members.
Professor of French and Italian John Rassias concluded the ceremony by giving a history of the Hippocratic Oath and then reciting it in Greek, after which the students themselves recited the Oath.
A total of 64 medical school students are receiving their doctorates this year.
Although Commencement does not have the same personal focus as yesterday's events, Hennessey expected it to be well attended by DMS students.
At the same time, representatives from each of the three graduate schools emphasized the importance of Saturday's ceremonies to graduate students.
"They're more personal, since everyone who's involved knows each other," Tuck's Palmiotto said. "There's an air of informality which makes it a very comfortable and touching for students to say goodbye before they're off to other parts of the world.
Also at Commencement today will be degree candidates from among the 346 graduate students currently enrolled in Dartmouth's Arts and Sciences program. The vast majority of these students are involved in the sciences, according to Gary Hutchins, Assistant Dean to Graduate Studies.
Although they do not have an official Class Day of their own, a reception for these graduate students and their guests was held yesterday evening.
