Annual Convocation And
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Annual Convocation and P RESIDENTIAL I NSTALLATION M AY 30 & 31, 2019 CONVOCATION 2019 2 Guidelines for Guests 20 Friday Morning Ceremony 3 Welcome to Convocation Faculty of Science Faculty of Health Studies 4 Greetings 6 History and Symbolism 25 Friday Afternoon Ceremony Faculty of Arts 10 Presidential Installation School of Music 11 Awards 29 Indigenous Influence 15 Valedictorians 30 Alumni Association 16 Thursday Afternoon Ceremony Presidential Installation 31 Acknowledgments Faculty of Education 32 Honorary Degrees BRANDON UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 2019 • PAGE 1 GUIDELINES FOR GUESTS Thank you for joining us at Brandon University’s Annual Convocation. This is an extraordinarily special moment in the academic journey, as we recognize the deep commitment that each graduate has made, and the success of their accomplishment. As you join in the celebration, we offer a few guidelines to help everyone enjoy these special moments as much as possible. There are many great seats at Convocation, whether you choose to be as close as possible or sit up high to take in the fullness of the ceremony. Please note the reserved seats on the floor set aside as accessible seating. To meet the need, please limit use of this seating area to those who require accessible seating and to one or two companions. Convocation is a time to celebrate! Show your pride and enthusiasm by waving, cheering and taking photos during moments of celebration, such as when degrees are presented or when tassels are moved. However, please avoid disruption during the more solemn moments of the ceremony, such as during speeches and award presentations. For your convenience, there are fresh flowers, gifts, mementoes, and official Brandon University degree frames available for purchase on the upper-level walking track. Please wait until after the ceremony to present these, as graduates will need to carry their degrees. There is deep meaning in experiencing special moments as part of a community, and we encourage you to share the enthusiasm on social media. We’d love to see it! Please tag @BrandonUni on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or use the hashtag #IamBU to join the conversation. Have friends or family members who couldn’t make it? A Convocation livestream is broadcast online, linked from BrandonU.ca/Convocation and an archive will also be available for future viewing. PAGE 2 • BRANDON UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 2019 WELCOME TO CONVOCATION JOIN US AS WE CELEBRATE SUCCESS Congratulations! Convocation is the culmination of an academic journey of learning and discovery. We celebrate with a highly ceremonial occasion that is filled with tradition, ritual and symbolism. This reflects the honour and heritage that are associated with an academic education and with a Brandon University degree. At Convocation, degrees are officially conferred, awards are presented, and academic achievement is celebrated. At its essence, the Convocation ceremony is simple, yet its meaning is profound. As they proceed in, students are referred to as “graduands.” They have fulfilled all the requirements for graduation, but haven’t yet had their degrees conferred. With a pronouncement from the stage, the Chancellor will officially confer those degrees, and graduates will move the tassels on their caps from one side to the next, symbolizing their graduation. They will then each be called to the platform in turn, to receive their degree parchments. After degrees are presented, there are special award presentations and speeches, as graduates receive some final pieces of thoughtful advice and guidance, before the Chancellor concludes Convocation. Convocation is founded on many traditions, including symbols, formal language, academic costumes and processions. Each element has history and meaning behind it, although often these are reinterpreted and reinvented by new generations. All participants in Convocation are encouraged to observe the occasion with joy and solemnity. Guests are welcome, as the whole community joins together and celebrates the newest Brandon University alumni. BRANDON UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 2019 • PAGE 3 GREETINGS As Chancellor, it is my deep privilege to my own obligations as Chancellor. officially preside over the Convocation I take them seriously, as I am sure each ceremonies each year. Brandon University degree-holder does. It is a special pleasure to put on my All of us are called to lend our time, our academic robes, to place the Brandon efforts and our expertise to the betterment University mace, the kandodo, in front of of the groups we belong to, including our the lectern, and to declare Convocation families, our friends, our communities and officially open. I very much enjoy our careers. We are called to always strive looking out over each year’s graduates towards self-improvement. And we are and seeing the unique combination of called to forgive ourselves — and others — accomplishment and anticipation that should we fall short. earning a Brandon University degree I endeavour to meet those challenges can bring. It is impossible to describe the each and every day, and I am refreshed swelling of pride that comes when I say in my motivations each year thanks to the words to officially grant the degrees. the impressive examples set by Brandon University graduates at Convocation. At each ceremony, I take a moment Thank you, and congratulations. to think about how those degrees come with rights, privileges and also Michael Decter obligations, and to remind myself of Chancellor I love Convocation. It is my favourite President at Brandon University. While time of the academic calendar. I humbly hope that I will be able to offer The splendour, the pomp and the some insight or advice that may resonate circumstance and the energy always with some of you, I am most looking stirs something inside me. I love the forward to the lessons I may learn from combination of formal academic gowns being on the receiving end during with unbridled graduate joy. I love the this Convocation. creative expression that some manage to For most people, Convocation represents decorate their caps with (I never know a conclusion to at least one portion of where you’d find the time, and I am in their academic journey, while for me it is awe of the skill). And I love that I always a beginning to my time here at Brandon learn something deeply powerful. University. I think it is fitting to begin at Sometimes I take an important lesson a conclusion, as this represents one of the from a spectacular speaker, perhaps an greatest things I love about academics in award-winner or a valedictorian. Other general — that the biggest lesson is that times I overhear a quiet moment that there is always more to learn. impresses a lesson upon me. Congratulations, graduates. This year will be a special year for me, David Docherty as I am officially installed as the new President and Vice-Chancellor PAGE 4 • BRANDON UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 2019 GREETINGS On behalf of the Brandon University recognition, symbolizing the effort Board of Governors, it is my honour and dedication that has gone into years to congratulate all graduates at this of coursework and research. It is also year’s Convocation. a reminder of the promise that each graduate holds for their futures. And it is While the Board of Governors has a a shared emblem that ties together this high-level responsibility to carefully steer year’s graduates with all previous Brandon the long-term strategy and to safeguard College and Brandon University alumni, the interests of Brandon University, we and all the years of graduates yet to come. always do so with students at the top of our minds. Students are at the heart of Brandon University is a special place, what it means to be a university, and our made ever more so by the commitment core mission of cultivating and sharing and achievement of our graduates. knowledge is reflected in the work that each student has accomplished through Congratulations and best wishes to you all! earning their degree. Shawn Chambers For each graduate, a Brandon University Vice-Chair, Brandon University degree is a well-deserved mark of Board of Governors Congratulations, you did it! After years of world doing fantastic things but whenever hard work, long hours in the library, and we get a chance to reconnect, we pick up copious cups of caffeine, you are finally right where we left off. I have also relied ready to turn the pages of your next on this network within my professional chapter! Whatever the next chapter may career when making informed and be, remember that you are now a member sound decisions. of the Brandon University Alumni Association and part of a unique network Moving forward I encourage you to of BU graduates that span across the return to campus whenever you get the country and around the globe. Moving chance, take part in networking events, into the future, rely on this network and and take advantage of new opportunities the relationships you have built during presented to you. Every time you try your time at Brandon University as they something new and further build your will continue to serve you with whatever BU network, I guarantee it will only have life throws your way. a positive impact on your story! Once again, congratulations and all the For myself, it was not until I graduated best in your future! and was starting my career that I realized how unique the connections I made at BU Chad McNish really were. The friends I made during President, Brandon University my studies are now spread out all over the Alumni Association BRANDON UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 2019 • PAGE 5 BRANDON UNIVERSITY’S DISTINGUISHED HISTORY Brandon College was founded in 1899, and the history of higher education in the Brandon area can be traced back even earlier.