As many folks are celebrating Mothers' Day with their friends and families, our seniors are in the third day of Senior Week. Commencement is just a couple of days away (Thursday) and from all reports the seniors are having a good time despite the snow that has been falling for several hours - and they always ask why we can't have commencement outside??????? Two of my seniors (Dave Hiltz and Jason Fuchs) just took me out to lunch at Sneakers in Winooski - this place has been around since I began working here 29 years ago but now they have moved just a few doors down the street and they are better than ever. Jason and David are both psychology majors and they have each taken several courses with me. It is always such a time of mixed emotions as I know that they will be leaving soon (this is just a natural progression of how things are supposed to be) but they sometimes don't realize that THEY impact US as much as we impact THEM. Tomorrow evening there will be a reception hosted by the seniors for the faculty/staff of the College at the Catamount Country Club - this is always a great time for us to say those "see you later" remarks because I know that many, many of these seniors WILL be in touch with us for many years to come. I had 13 of my students over for brunch at my home last week - this is my Practicum class and while 3 were not able to join us, the other 13 had a great time - it was a nice day and we were able to get a couple of pictures outside. This group of 16 has been with me for the entire academic year and it is rewarding to read the evaluations provided by their site supervisors - it is also rewarding to remember back to September when they were all so tentative on their placements and to see them now after a year is truly a gift. They have worked 8 - 10 hours a week in social service agencies throughout Chittenden County and have done an amazing job of learning all that they can about their agencies AND impacting both the staff and the clients of their sites. I often remark on my blog about "the joy of teaching" and this certainly is one of those joys.
Last night I attended a graduation party for the son of good friends who used to live here in Vermont. Three of their sons graduated from SMC and their youngest just graduated yesterday from Champlain College. The Stratford family now lives in MA but it was good to have them all back here for Connor's graduation. Matt and his wife, Denis and his wife and Tim (without his wife but with pictures ) are all doing well and their parents Denis/Marnie look great and it was just nice to re-connect with all of them. I marvel at how easily goof friends re-connect even though it has been quite a while since I have seen any of them - email helps but this is much better.
I hope that you all have a great weekend and that you get to celebrate the impact that mothers have had on all of us - whether you are lucky enough to still have your Mother in your life or you have lost your Mother, remembering that her influence in our lives lives forever......
Take care, be well and as always, please keep the members of our military and their families in your thoughts and prayers and to all of our graduates - since I never say goodbye, I will ask that you remember that you have been successful here at Saint Michael's College and therefore, there is absolutely NO reason for you to ever think, even for a nanosecond (whatever that is) that you won't be successful when you leave here. On Thursday, President Jack Neuhauser will hand you your diploma and because you are polite, you will say thank you. You do NOT give him back all of the good times, the challenging times, the good decisions, the bad decisions you have made here during your four years - you will take all that you have learned from those four years and, armed now with a diploma from Saint Michael's College - go out and make our world a better place - God knows we need you to make this a better place.........
Peace and Godspeed - "see you later"
Dave
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