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Last weekend, I had the wonderful privilege of celebrating my daughter's graduation from Mount St. Mary's University.
Some photos from the weekend, and a quick recap of her college history:
There was a Baccalaureate Mass on Friday. There was a hooding ceremony at this Mass. Kennady is in the chorale which sang during the Mass so we decided to attend this as well. It was very interesting, but I've got conflicting information about hooding. It seems that only Masters or Doctoral graduates are hooded in a ceremony, but I'm not certain about that. I would guess that only the graduates receiving a Masters were required to attend, and Bachelors degree graduates could if they wished.
The commencement exercises were on Saturday, and this gymnasium/auditorium was full to the rafters. Once again, the grads in the chorale and band were not part of the processional, but were in place in a balcony to sing and play during the ceremony. Of course she did come down to walk the stage and receive her diploma. It would have been nice if she and the other graduates up there could have come down to stand with the others when the degrees were conferred as well.
Posing for photos after a very long, but good ceremony:
A couple of weeks earlier, I had been home to attend Kennady's Senior Recital, her Opera Workshop Recital, and the Honors Convocation, at which she received a prize for excellence in choral music.
Hard to believe it's been four years already! Kennady started at Carroll Community College in September of 2019.
And then in the spring of 2020, everyone was sent home to try and figure out how to continue their education in a virtual classroom. This presented so many challenges for everyone, but especially for students taking classes requiring labs, practicum, or performance. Kennady was taking guitar and voice lessons, and was in a rock band class. Guitar lessons really didn't work well at all, thanks to lots of scheduling issues and if I remember correctly, the instructor was ill and missed several lessons. It was very frustrating. Voice lessons went better, but obviously a video call with an instructor and without a live accompanist was far less than ideal. In the rock band class they wound up recording and tracking everything and presenting a video concert instead of live. Recording tracks was a valuable experience, but not the experience the students had signed up for!
The 2020-2021 school year started at home, and we all just hoped and prayed that "soon" we could return to "normal".
An entire school year went by with very little in person instruction for her though. Her graduation with an Associate of Arts was a drive-thru "ceremony".
Kennady transferred into Mount St. Mary's University to continue her studies, and started the 2021-2022 school year with high hopes, as most of the classes were in person. Masks were still required on campus, so her voice lessons and choral class were rather interesting.
Things gradually opened up and by the beginning of her senior year, everything was open again. Thankfully she was able to enjoy two full years of in-person voice instruction, choral class, opera workshops, conducting class, and performances at concerts and recitals.
What's next? For right now, the plan is for her to continue working at the music shop, and to start building a studio practice teaching guitar and ukulele. And see what opportunities come her way.
Congratulations Kennady!
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