Worcester Area Colleges Commencement Season 2010

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This weekend Worcester area colleges continue to confer degrees to their graduates.  If you look at the 13 major Worcester area colleges 5 will be holding commencement ceremonies this weekend May 15th and May 16th.

The commencement season kicked off this past weekend with Senator Scott Brown speaking at Nichols College.  It was one of three ceremonies that took place.  Atlantic Union College is South Lancaster and Becker College here in Worcester also had their graduations.

As I was researching this post I found it interesting how much the process of running graduation has been automated via the internet.  FAQs are readily available for both graduates and guests and some of the colleges had their own mini-websites dedicated to the commencement.  Some even offered live streaming video and most will most likely include video of the ceremony after the fact.

A favorite part of the graduation ceremonies are the commencement speakers.  Though there are some obviously notable speakers like Senator Brown for Nichols College and Mark Shriver  for Holy Cross (I almost forgot Curt Schilling at WPI) I have found that most commencement speakers leave a indelible mark on the graduates of any college.  I know I remember mine.  Commencement speakers tend to provide a mix of optimism, purpose and responsibility into their speeches.  In these interesting and challenging times it may be harder to convey pure “optimism”.  Senator Brown’s speech was simple and pulled from his own experience of winning an election that everyone around him was telling him was impossible to win.

As graduates from our Worcester Colleges “go out” into the world it is important to note the quality of education coming out of these schools.  Beyond hope and optimism they should be well equipped to face the challenges of an ever changing world economy.

For those interested here are the upcoming commencement ceremonies for Colleges in the Worcester area.  Keep in mind Nichols, Becker and Atlantic Union already had there graduations.

• Anna Maria College May 15
• Assumption College May 15
• Mass College of Pharmacy Worcester May 15
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) May 15
• Worcester State College May 16
• Quinsigamond Community College May 20
• Clark University May 23
• Tufts  – Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine May 23
• College of the Holy Cross May 28
• UMass Medical School June 6

Here is a video of Senator Brown’s visit to Nichols College: