Our Chair, Oliver Chadwick, gave the following speech at the 2008 Geography Department Graduation Reception which was held on June 14 in the Ellison Courtyard, just after the commencement ceremony:
Hello, welcome to the 2008 Geography Department Graduation Reception. I’m Oliver Chadwick, Chair of the Department of Geography, and I hope everyone enjoyed the commencement ceremony. Today is very special to us, because we get to celebrate all of our new alumni! We have a lot to celebrate, too – between winter, spring, and summer quarters, 76 of our students will have completed the UCSB Geography journey and begun their trip into the big wide world. We expect wonderful things for these fantastic people. Already some of you are doing some pretty cool things. To start, we have not one, but two of our students who have been chosen as NASA summer interns and who will be working at the Ames Research Center. Krista Lee will be working on a remote sensing project that pertains directly to the Western United States, while Art Eisberg will be focused on NASA capabilities relevant to community concerns, and creating advanced computer generated visualizations demonstrating research results.
We also have a USGS intern, Anna Davenport, who will be working at the Coastal & Marine Geology Office in Santa Cruz. Anna has been hired as a GIS specialist developing maps for the California State Waters Mapping Program. Additionally, James “Scott” Prindle has been awarded an ESRI internship this summer in Redlands, CA and his interests will be matched in areas ranging from software development and GIS services to marketing, accounting, and educational services. We are certainly proud that our students have been awarded such prestigious internships and we wish them all the best.
To the families: We’d like to thank you for your endearing support of our students. Having a loved one in college can be a very difficult task. You have high expectations because you know what they are capable of doing, and sometimes it takes awhile before the students truly realize that about themselves. Patience, enthusiasm, and the ability to listen and love regardless of circumstance are the tools of a successful family foundation. We are here today because you have mastered the art of opening your heart, even while you were opening your wallet. We know how proud you are of your graduate, because we feel the same way. It is so sad to say goodbye to these amazing students, as they have positively impacted our department for several years now. Despite this, it is exciting to see them charge out on a new adventure. We here at Geography are happy to be a home base for these students.
To the graduates, WOW!!! Congratulations! You deserve every single bit of praise you are given and more. We are lucky to have had you with us, and hope that you have enjoyed your time here. From late nights in the Star Lab (and I’ve heard of a sleepover or two…) to exploring the wilderness with a GPS unit in hand and a desire to map your way out, you’ve done it all. You have taken courses in a variety of geography fields, and many of you have concentrated in the ones that you like best. A lot of you have joined our faculty in their research; others have delved into their own. You’ve done internships to experience real world versions of what you learned in classes. You have participated in discussions of global issues, and using the latest technology, identified patterns of human activity on earth.
And so here you are. Unless you choose to, you have no more tests, no more essays, and no more grades. And as good as it is without those, you may find in post-graduation life that other tough things will take their place. Creating goals and deadlines for yourself, and meeting them, is a difficulty everyone experiences. Balancing what you want and need to do is the most important thing to learn. Based on what you’ve just gone through, and how well you’ve done, I see you doing exceptionally well at these things. Your hard work here in geography has taught you many life lessons that you may not realize yet. Some of these are endurance, confidence, and the understanding that everything has an effect. We know you will have a really great effect on the world – we’ve seen your passion. It’s been an honor to see you grow – congratulations!
TIME FOR THE AWARDS:
GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT STUDENT ASSISTANT AWARD:
Devon Kelly–For supporting the office and coordinating events for the Geography department. Devon is the person who is responsible for setting up this graduation reception today, and we cannot thank her enough for all of her help and dedication to the Department.
JACK AND LAURA DANGERMOND UNDERGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP:
The Jack and Laura Dangermond Undergraduate award is a significant honor to the most accomplished student in geographic information science (GIS) in the department of Geography. Jack and Laura Dangermond are the co-founders and President and Executive Vice President respectively of ESRI. The Environmental Science Research Institute is a major industrial supplier of software in the field of GIS. The award goes to Monica Altmaier (graduated winter 2008).
NICHOLAS BOURDAKIS MEMORIAL AWARD:
The Bourdakis Fund was established after the tragic death of Nicholas, who died in February 2001. He had just declared Geography as his major. This fund helps to keep Nick’s memory alive by supporting future generations of outstanding undergraduate students in Geography at UCSB. The award goes to Lindsay Malinoski (newly declared Geog major with the highest GPA).
The Geography Department has established two awards which honor students graduating with superior grade point averages. The first, OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AS A GEOGRAPHY MAJOR is awarded to students graduating with a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. Congratulations to Monica Altmaier, Andrew Block, David Dixon, Adam Eversole, Morgan Gary, Emma Joshi, and William Marsh.
The high honor of DISTINCTION IN THE MAJOR is awarded to students who are graduating with a GPA of a 3.5 overall GPA with a 3.6 or higher in Geography classes and have undertaken a major independent study project and/or graduate-level studies. We have four students who earned both Outstanding Achievement and Distinction in the Major: Monica Altmaier, Andrew Block, David Dixon, and Emma Joshi.
And the CHAIR’S AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN GEOGRAPHY, awarded to the graduating senior who has majored in Geography and has attained the highest overall grade point average, goes to Monica Altmaier.
Thank you for coming, everyone!!
(Photographs courtesy of Richard Weinberg)
More pictures HERE
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