The Annenberg School for Communication held their graduation ceremony on Monday afternoon, featuring graduates who have completed their studies over the past year.
The forty or so masters and Ph.D. graduates strolled into Room 110 in the Annenberg School without their hoods -- an Annenberg tradition calls for the dean to hood the graduates during the conferral of degrees.
After the graduates filed into the room, Annenberg Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson welcomed the crowd of family and friends, recognizing the accomplishments of the class of 2001.
"We're very proud of your skills as communicators," Jamieson said.
"It is with pleasure that we send this class out to meet the waiting world and it's a pleasure that we keep some of them to go on to Ph.D," she said.
Both the masters and Ph.D. class chose a student speaker to share their class' sentiments. Father Eric Zimmer spoke on behalf of the Ph.D. class while Carrie Brown spoke on behalf of the masters class.
Zimmer asked his fellow classmates to make positive contributions to the world to improve societal ills.
"I hope that we have been taught how not to only attain our goals but to see past them, to a better society," Zimmer said. "Much has been given and much is expected."
In the awards ceremony, Rosemarie Grecco, a principal at a business consulting and investing partnership, was honored with the Edward Palmer Award for her work with children.
Artist and 1951 College graduate Sam Maitin was the main speaker. Maitin, a former faculty member, was also awarded the Merrill Panitt Citizenship Award on the basis of his contributions to the art world and to Penn.
During his speech, Maitin spoke of and mentioned numerous individuals involved with the school's 42-year history.
"Making mistakes and being happy about that because you learn so much is maybe not so bad," Maitin said.
Afterwards, Dean Jamieson hooded and awarded degrees to all the graduates, often joking about her height and her inability to put the hoods on straight.
Jamieson also pointed out the closeness of the graduates as a result of their unique friendships. She cited the example of how the school came together in response to a graduate who was injured in a fall while escaping from a fire.
Once the ceremony was over, all the students gathered in the Annenberg lobby to take a class picture, and afterwards enjoyed a catered reception with all their friends and family in attendance.
