Honors & Dissertation Defenses, Graduation, & Birthdays Horaaah!
Celebrating Drew Students
So, as some of you know, in my real job I am a Professor of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies at Drew University and this is the season of celebration! Two successfully defended doctoral dissertations, two successfully defended undergraduate honors theses, capstone presentations, end of semester parties, graduation parties, the doctoral Hooding Ceremony, and Commencement itself. I couldn’t miss any of that and am so privileged that I did not have to do so. I’m so proud of my students, and my colleagues (faculty and staff) for helping them to gain such a fabulous education in and beyond the classroom. Drew really does deliver an excellent education (even for those who resist and try to take short cuts—and there are not many of those). It has given me so much joy to spend the majority of my academic career here “in the forest,” and it gives me so much additional joy to have alumni from across the years remain in touch, share details of their lives and ask about mine, and even send their children to Drew. Although I am thinking toward retirement (no date yet) I know I will remain connected this huge network, in person and via social media.
Meanwhile, celebrate!! And this is basically a photo dump of us doing so (be glad I curated)
Dissertations:
Jenn Grehan “Recognizing the Value of Adjunct Faculty in the Two-Year College: A Comprehensive Framework for Leadership, Pedagogy, and Institutional Change.” Doctor of Letters, awarded with distinction. May 2026. Committee: Sandra Jamieson (Director), Matt Ayres, & Jonathan Golden
Carron Ankiel “A Hero’s Journey: A Map for Parents and Educators to Empower Dysgraphic Students with Agency.” Doctor of Letters. May 2026. Committee: Liana Piehler (Director) & Sandra Jamieson
Honors Theses:
Eva Woolard. “Divided by Design: How the Separation of Regulation and Investigation Increases U.S. Commercial Flight Safety” Honors in History. May 2026. Committee: Karen Pechilis (chair), Sandra Jamieson, Andrea Lee . [image right]
Ezra Ozan. “If I Had a Hammer, I’d Knock Down the Velvet Rope: Integrated Music Venues and the Politics of Racial Inclusion in Civil Rights America.” Honors in Political Science. May 2026. Committee: Sangay Mishra (chair), James Carter, Sandra Jamieson. [Can’t believe we have no picture!]
Honors society induction (Pi Epsilon Pi )
National Writing Studies Honor Society Induction and celebration of graduates. Meade Hall Founders Room. The red stoles are for Sigma Tau Delta, the English Literature Honors society whose induction preceded PEP.
Commencement
Procession to the stage, a new Doctor just hooded, and the professional staff who make it all happen (Director of Transfer and Continuing Education, Sunita Bhargava; Director of the University Writing Center and Center for Academic Excellence, Dorothy Helmken) along with Undergraduate Writing Fellows, former advisees, and the next generation! This is the day that celebrates everything we all do and it always makes me happy to see professional staff enthusiastically celebrating our students and them seeking out their larger support network for pictures. I will miss everyone who is graduating, but am always happy to find kids who are excited to wear my doctoral tam and imagine themselves here, too (I thought I wouldn’t get it back this time!)
Celebrating Birthdays and friends
I also got to spend a few days with my beloved co-author and friend Rebecca Moore Howard, and celebrate their [**]th birthday with a garden party: guests all bought plants and planted them in one of the raised beds — after doing a splendid job weeding the beds first. Now there is a smart gardener!!!
The pictures behind the picture: Long-suffering brother tried so hard to keep a straight face under that incredible mustache (but almost lost it in the third one). LOVE the birthday t-shirt.
That’s a lot of plants. Sadly they wouldn’t all fit in the bed of the pick up . . .
We also celebrated the amazing Faith’s birthday (below with my SIL) at one of the regular intergenerational gatherings Odette hosts where young and old discuss topics and give each other a deeper understanding of how we all see things while eating, drinking, and laughing (no pictures of children for what I hope are obvious reasons).
and then Crystal’s birthday at Harlemite, which does indeed have the best ceviche and everything else (and the people at the next table shared their incredibly rich GF and dairy free chocolate birthday cake with us. Much laughter, gossip, talk about our recent trip to Senegal and future plans, and ending with the inevitable and traditional red lipstick group pic (thanks to Odette for sharing the lipstick!).
Lots of dinners with friends from New Jersey and beyond, and a lovely trip in general. In addition to all of my students, advisees, and honors society members, I got to spend some much appreciated time with Wendy Kolmar, Anna Muldoon, Mary-Ann Pearsall, Jody Caldwell, Risa Gorleck, Jens and Patricia Lloyd, Tina McKittrick, Claire Jacobsohn, my English Department colleagues, and the Fall semester DSEM instructors. And Candace Riley got me excited about using archival diaries and journals in my DSEM. Finally, I got to meet and begin training the Fall Writing Fellows. Sorry if I forgot anyone. It was a whirlwind trip for sure.
But it was so odd to be in my flat with no cats. Fall semester will be very strange.
