Graduation Ceremony

My roommate graduated today. I could have graduated last week, but I couldn't be bothered to register for the graduation ceremony :D. Anyway, I was asked to be a photographer, meaning follow him around and take pictures of him with various persons.

It was fun seeing how the graduation process at CMU is, and how different it is to the graduation in Indonesia. The photo below shows one main difference. It is outdoors. Which is cool. Of course you can't really do that in Indonesia due to the unpredictable weather and all.

Another good thing is that you don't need an invitation to come. Of course, if that were implemented in Indonesia, there won't be any room. Indonesian are family oriented, and when somobeody graduates, he takes the extended families... sometimes he even takes the whole village to see him graduate.

Third thing is that there are two pretty short ceremonies instead of one long boring one. In the commencement, the chancellor presides over the whole university's graduates and basically tells them that they graduate. They don't call them one by one and shake their hands like in Indonesia. The diploma ceremony (and calling by name) is done individually for each school (indonesian: fakultas).

I don't see why this cannot be done in Indonesia actually. One reason I've heard is that students feel it is their right to shake hands with the chancellor. Because they feel that this is how they are respected as graduates. They want the pictures :). Although I don't see why this cannot be done with the dean? The people being shown the picture isn't going to know whether the person shaking your hands is the chancellor, the dean, or even someone you just pulled of the street. As long as they're wearing a gown, and you write on the bottom, graduation of so and so.. date so and so.. You're safe.

The best thing about this graduation is the commencement speeches. In Indonesia, I don't remember what the speech is about. I think (CMIIW) it was more of a scientific speech. While here, it was a spirited speech, designed to rouse passion. The speakers (plural, since in total there were about 6 different speakers, three for the university's ceremony and three for the school's ceremony) spoke about being the best graduates (Indonesian people are probably too modest to use these kind of words), about being public servant that is moving the community forward, never listen to people who tell you that you can not, and always and always be... agent of change.