Reception Honors December Graduates - Georgetown College

With slightly less pomp and circumstance than May Commencement, Georgetown College honored December graduates this week with an evening reception for graduates, families, and friends.

Around fifty students graduate in December every year, College Dean Chester Gillis explained. “This year’s December grads pursued 22 different majors and 20 different minors, a curricular diversity that is characteristic of Georgetown College graduates,” he noted. Many of the students are graduating a semester early, and even more stay in the DC area to participate in senior year activities and walk in the May Commencement ceremony.

In his remarks to the graduates and their families gathered in the Reed Alumni Residence, Dean Gillis emphasized the versatility of a liberal arts degree and the impact that College alumni have on the wider world. “At Georgetown, what we create, produce, or enhance, are human beings,” he explained. A degree from the College, he stressed, “does not confine you, and it does not define you.” With a broad education in the humanities and sciences, graduates develop valuable analytic, writing, and leadership skills beyond their declared majors. Those students are well-equipped carry out their charge from the College to give back with their talents and training to the world beyond the Hilltop.

“There is no singular Georgetown experience,” Dean Gillis remarked, and many of the graduates reflected on their own unique journeys and key experiences over the last few years. Anne Cruickshank (C’10), who majored in English and Government, said that the many opportunities available to students in the College led her try classes and programs “outside of my comfort zone.” Cruikshank took elective courses in disciplines as diverse as Accounting and Music, and credited the “international perspective [and] the ability to study abroad” as a formative part of her Georgetown experience.

For many students, the road to graduation has had both challenges and rewards. Stephanie Agudelo (C’10) originally enrolled in the McDonough School of Business before taking a transformative course with Professor Thane Gustafson on the politics of the former Soviet Union. She switched her majors to Government and History soon afterward, and worked hard to stay ahead. “Don’t give up!” she advised current students. “There were many times when I thought I was really stuck, but I thought, ‘I was accepted for a reason,’” she explained. “Even if you don’t know what you want to do right away, [Georgetown] will eventually become a home,” she said.

While the graduates’ immediate plans range from travelling, to job-hunting, to applying to graduate school, some have started careers right out of the gate. Psychology major Ted Worm (C’10) left his first day of work early to attend the graduation reception. Worm began a position as a Senior Content Assistant for PsycEXTRA, a publication that compiles “gray literature”—articles that appear in non-scholarly publications like Time and Newsweek—for the American Psychological Association. While he is putting his coursework to use, he credited Georgetown’s ethos of cura personalis as an important lesson to be learned on campus. “When you approach life, it’s about the whole person. You get your whole life sorted out,” he explained.

Whatever the next step may be for the December graduates, they are joining a network of nearly 160,000 other alumni around the world. “Wherever you go, I assure you, you’ll meet other Georgetown graduates,” Dean Gillis remarked.

--Jessica Beckman

Photos from top: Graduate Stephanie Agudelo (C'10) with Colleen Lima (F'10) and Jack Arlook; Dean Chester Gillis congratulates the grads. Photos by Yovcho Yovchev. Video by Kuna Malik Hamad.