Academic Ceremonies - Commencement
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204th Commencement Ceremony
Sunday, May 18, 2008
9:00 am Multipurpose Facility
at the Athletic Complex
204th Commencement Ceremony Program
Alvarez Encourages '08 Grads to "Find Their
True Pattern"
University Communications (5/18/08)
Amanda Kenyon Waite
Celebrated novelist, poet and writer-in-residence at Middlebury College Julia Alvarez began her address to the Class of 2008 at UVM commencement activities on May 18 with a prayer. The prayer — borrowed from Mayan weavers — is one she recites every day of her writing life: "Grant me the intelligence and patience to find the true pattern."
In a speech punctuated by the poetry of Robert Frost, Czeslaw Milosz and Seamus Heaney, delivered to a capacity crowd in the Athletic Complex Multipurpose Facility, Alvarez shared stories from her early childhood in the Dominican Republic and from her relationship with her immigrant father, each revealing how she had struggled to find the true pattern of her own life. [more]
Photography Informatation
Information regarding official photographs for each of the school and college commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 18. [more]
Greetings
Ian D. Boyce, Chair of the University of Vermont
Board of Trustees
The Honorable James H. Douglas, Governor of the State of Vermont
Elizabeth S. Bearese, President of the Senior Class Council
President's Remarks
Daniel Mark Fogel, President of the University of Vermont
Alumni Greetings
Janet E. Terp, Class of 1980, G 1994, President of the University of Vermont Alumni Association
George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award Recipient
Lynne A. Bond, Professor of Psychology
Closing Reflection
John Remo Gennari, Associate Professor of English and Director of ALANA and US Ethnic Studies
Commencement 2009 will be held on Sunday, May 17th.
For more information contact Leslie Logan, Chief of Protocol and Administrator of University Events, at (802) 656-4205 or by email to: Academic_Ceremonies@uvm.edu
Last modified November 27 2012 12:23 PM