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[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Neema.
NEEMA KUDVA: Sorry. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome. If I could ask everyone to take their seats, which you have been waiting to do, we will start. My name is Neema Kudva. I'm the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Thank you for being with us here today to celebrate our graduates. We would like to start the ceremony with a reading of the land acknowledgment.
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogoho:no. The Gayogoho:no are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogoho:no dispossession and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogoho:no people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
I would also like to ask everyone to silence your cell phones and other personal electronics during the ceremony. And we are requesting that you remain in your seats while taking photographs. It is my pleasure to now invite Meejin Yoon, Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning to the podium to share her thoughts on this special day for our 2024 graduating class.
[APPLAUSE]
MEEJIN YOON: Thank you. Thank you, Neema. Welcome. To the Class of 2024, congratulations. It's an honor to be here with many of our AP faculty, staff, and students, and with so many loved ones who have come from near and far to celebrate your accomplishments and share this important milestone with you. Thank you all for being here today and for your tireless support of all our graduates that has guided them along their path to this important moment in their lives, one that marks both at once an end and a beginning.
Graduates, I hope today you're able to take a moment to reflect not only on where you stand now, but on the full arc of your time at Cornell, on all you've given and all you've gained. As civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, in memory of her late husband, shared, "the greatness of a community is most accurately measured in the compassionate action of its members." Please take a moment to look around you, to take in the community you are part of and helped to build, one that reflects not only the time you shared, but the memories and bonds you formed, the connections and friendships that will continue to grow and last a lifetime.
As you move forward from Cornell and AP, you take with you an abundance of new knowledge, of greater understanding of your fields and the world, and perhaps yourselves, as well as new inspiration and perspectives, and a deeper sense of purpose. It's my sincere hope that collectively you also now share a more profound sense of responsibility, humanity, and agency that comes with the realization that our future world will be the one you make. All of these things, responsibility, humanity, and agency, ground knowledge in practice and action.
Cli-Fi novelist Kim Stanley Robinson shares, "there's a real situation that cannot be denied, but it's too big for any individual to know in full. And so we must create our understanding by way of an act of imagination."
At AEP, we teach inquiry and imagination as a basis for looking beyond the world as it is and toward what it can be, making it possible to collectively and collaboratively reframe problems, to purposely reimagine our future, and bit by bit, create possible worlds. With respect for knowledge that we inherit from the past while embracing the charge and challenge of the present, we shape futures not only with concern for our world now, but for future generations.
When you came to Cornell, whether years or months ago, you arrived full of potential. And now as you prepare to leave, you do so, much as you came, full of potential. While the urgencies of our time proclaim that we have not a moment to spare, I would like to take this moment to recognize your class.
In your time for your resilience and undaunted spirit, for your constancy and commitment to living your shared values, and for your relentless kindness, readiness, mutuality, and imagination. Whether your plans for what comes next are somewhere in the distance, rapidly approaching, or perhaps already underway, today, you stand between past and future worlds, between your past and your future selves. And you stand here together ready for a world of possibility.
Class of 2024, it is your turn to be individually recognized by your respective departments. And we'll begin with the Department of Architecture, then the Department of Art, then the Department of City and Regional Planning. It's my pleasure to first introduce Caroline O'Donnell, the Chair of the Department of Architecture, and Milton Curry, Senior Associate Dean, to invite candidates from Architecture to come forward.
[APPLAUSE]
CAROLINE O'DONNELL: It is my pleasure to welcome the graduates from the Department of Architecture to be recognized. Please come forward as your row is instructed.
MILTON CURRY: Good morning. We begin today's ceremony with the candidates for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Architecture and Urban Development. Come on up. Aslihan Gunhan.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
Michael Moynihan.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
Sergio Preston.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
And next, we have the candidates for the Degree of Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design.
[READING NAMES]
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
[LAUGHTER]
[CHEERING]
[READING NAMES]
I'd now like to invite my colleague, Jenny Sabin, Chair of the Department of Design Tech, to join Caroline O'Donnell to shake the hands of the following individuals who are candidates for the Degree of Master of Science in Architectural Science, Matter Design, Computation.
[READING NAMES]
The following are the candidates for the Degree of Master of Science in Advanced Urban Design.
[READING NAMES]
And the following are candidates for the Degree of Master of Architecture.
[READING NAMES]
I think there's one more group. The following are candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Architecture.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
[READING NAMES]
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
CAROLINE O'DONNELL: Congratulations to all the graduates from the Department of Architecture.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
It is now-- it is now my pleasure to introduce Paul Ramirez Jonas, Chair of the Department of Art, and Jen de los Reyes, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, who will welcome the candidates for the Degrees for the Department of Art. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
PAUL RAMIREZ JONAS: Please help me in welcoming the graduates from the Department of Art. Graduates, please come forward to be recognized.
[APPLAUSE]
JEN DE LOS REYES: Thank you, Paul. We will begin with the candidates for the Degree of Master of Fine Art.
[READING NAMES]
The following are candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Fine Art.
[READING NAMES]
PAUL RAMIREZ JONAS: It is now my pleasure to introduce Sophie Oldfield, Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning, and Neema Kudva, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, who will welcome the candidates to the Degrees in the Department of City and Regional Planning.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
SOPHIE OLDFIELD: I am pleased to welcome the degree candidates from the Department of City and Regional Planning. Please come forward to be recognized.
[APPLAUSE]
NEEMA KUDVA: Welcome our candidates for Doctor of Philosophy in City and Regional Planning.
[READING NAME]
Next is our candidate for Doctor of Philosophy in Regional Science.
[READING NAME]
The following are candidates for the Degree of Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning.
[READING NAMES]
Next, please welcome the candidates for the Degree of Master of Science in Regional Science.
[READING NAMES]
The following individuals are candidates for the Degree of Master of Regional Planning.
[READING NAMES]
What's this? Sorry.
[READING NAMES]
So my apologies. That was Iwen Chen. And this is Yawen Chen.
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
We have one candidate with us today for the dual degree of Master of Regional Planning and Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate. Ariadne Billy.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
And finally, the following individuals are candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Studies.
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations, everyone.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
SOPHIE OLDFIELD: Congratulations to the Department of City and Regional Planning. Congratulations to the Department of City and Regional Planning and all our graduates today. Please welcome Dean Yoon back to the podium for our awards presentation.
[APPLAUSE]
MEEJIN YOON: It's my pleasure to present to you the Graduating Class of 2024.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
We now come to the awards portion of our ceremony. The Merrill Presidential Scholar is a distinction awarded by the university to deserving graduating seniors based on grade point average and other indications of academic excellence, who demonstrate leadership ability and community involvement, and have the potential for continued contributions to society. This award was given earlier, but I would like to ask the recipient to stand up and be recognized. This year's recipient is Desai Wang.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
I would now like to ask Caroline O'Donnell to come back to the podium to present the award specific to the Department of Architecture.
CAROLINE O'DONNELL: The Post-Professional Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design Award for Outstanding Performance in Architecture recognizes outstanding academic achievement and is based on cumulative GPA and studio GPA. This year there are two recipients. I'll say both names. JC Watson and Matthew Wilson.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
SPEAKER 2: There you go, Matthew.
CAROLINE O'DONNELL: The Post-Professional Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design Award for Outstanding Performance in the four semester track and yearlong thesis in architecture recognizes outstanding academic achievement and is based on cumulative GPA and studio GPA, as well as excellence and originality in the graduate thesis. This year we congratulate Tung Chen.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The MS AAD Award for leadership and willingness to serve your class and the department goes to Jeeya Savani.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Award was founded in 1900 by the family of Charles Goodwin Sands, Cornell Class of 1890, and is awarded for work of exceptional merit done by a student in courses in architectural design. Only thesis in architecture, or painting, or sculpture are eligible for medal consideration. There are three bronze and one silver medal. The three bronze recipients, and please come up, I'll say three names.
[READING NAMES]
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
And this year's recipient of the Charles Goodwin Sands silver medal is Marissa Amador.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The Alpha Rho Chi Medal is awarded by Alpha Rho Chi, a national professional architectural fraternity to schools with accredited and approved architectural programs. The Alpha Rho Chi Medal is awarded to a graduating student in the class who has shown ability for leadership, performed willing service for the department, and gives promise of real professional merit through his or her attitude and personality.
The purpose of the award is to encourage professional leadership by rewarding student accomplishment to promote the ideals of professional service by acknowledging distinctive individual contributions to school life, and to stimulate professional merit by commending qualities in the student which do not necessarily pertain to scholarship. This time you will have to walk up, Desai Wang.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
And Desai, if you could stay on the stage, please while I present the American Institute of Architects Award. This award is an engraved medal, The Henry Adams Medal, and certificate of merit to the top-ranking graduating student in the architecture program accredited by the NAB. The award is for general excellence in architecture through the course of study and the recipient of the medal and certificate of merit today is Desai Wang.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The Clifton Beckwith Brown Memorial Medal is awarded to the member of the graduating class who has attained the highest cumulative average in architectural design over the entire course of study. This year's recipient is Valeria Villanova Gallucci.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
And finally, our last award and a brand new award this year, the Oppenheim Ecological Thesis Prize. This prize is awarded to the most outstanding BArch thesis that explicitly, ambitiously, and successfully engages and demonstrates ecological concerns through sustainable material, urban infrastructural, or landscape environmental practices. And the recipient of the award is Alexandra Ciobanu.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
Congratulations to all architecture students. And I would now like to ask Paul Ramirez Jonas to come forward to present the awards specific to the Art Department.
[APPLAUSE]
PAUL RAMIREZ JONAS: Hello. The Faculty Medal of Art is awarded annually to graduating art students whose academic record and studio work, in the faculty's opinion, demonstrates the greatest promise for future achievement in the field of art. The recipients of the award this year are three. I will call all three names. Please come up. Mia Brown-Seguin. Isa Goico. And Jason Albuquerque.
[CHEERING]
You want to put them on?
SPEAKER 3: I can't get it over my hat.
PAUL RAMIREZ JONAS: Yeah, just give it to them.
There's more. The Department of Art also has a Distinguished Achievement Award that is given to members of the graduating class who have shown also great promise of future achievement in the field of art. And the recipient of the award this year are also three. I will call all three names and please come up-- Tim [? Ayup ?] Green, Fabia St-Juste, and Sabine Stock. Please come up.
[APPLAUSE]
And Fabia, don't go yet. [LAUGHS]
Next is the Michael Rapuano Memorial Award that was established in 1976. It is in the form of an actual bronze medal, and it includes a monetary gift for a student graduating with either an undergraduate degree in architecture, landscape architecture, art, or planning, who has performed work in any of these fields that is judged to be outstanding, as characterized by distinction in design. And this year the award goes to Fabia St-Juste.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
Bequeathed by Charles Baskerville, Cornell Class of 1919, to assist Cornell students in the field of painting, the Department of Art gives the Charles Baskerville Painting Award to undergraduates or graduate students to enable them to participate in programs involving intensive study in the fine arts. Mr. Baskerville was a portrait painter and a muralist known particularly for his paintings of society and military leaders. This year's recipients are two-- Shanti Morrissey and Emily Tatro. Please come up.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The Department of Art awards the Elsie Dinsmore Popkin '58 award to a BFA thesis student who, in the judgment of the Department of Art, has the best thesis. The award was founded in 2006 by the members of the class of '58 in memory of Elsie Dinsmore Popkin. Miss Popkin was a landscape painter of some distinction and was a great friend of the department and the college. The recipient of the award this year is Cece Liu.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
And one more. The Kip Brady Prize is awarded to BFA or MFA printmaking students at the discretion of the Printmaking faculty. The award recognizes distinguished achievement in the printmaking area, and this year's recipient is Oliver Stern.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
I would now like to ask Sophie Oldfield to the podium to present the awards for the Department of City and Regional Planning.
[APPLAUSE]
SOPHIE OLDFIELD: The Thomas W. Mackesey Prize is awarded in memory of the former Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. It is bestowed on a Master's candidate for the Degree in City and Regional Planning who has demonstrated unusual competence in academic work, or who, by qualities of personality or leadership, has significantly contributed to the intellectual advancement of fellow students. Please, could TJ McKiernan come up to receive this award.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The Peter B. Andrews Memorial Thesis Prize is awarded for the best thesis prepared for the Degree of Masters of Regional Planning. The prize was established by Mrs. Peter B. Andrews and Dr. George C. Andrews in memory of Peter B. Andrews, BArch 1955 and MRP 1957. There are two awards. The first is in absentia. The 2023 Andrews Thesis Prize goes to Han Tau Sun.
[APPLAUSE]
The 2024 Andrews Thesis Prize goes to Julia Spande.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The American Planning Association Outstanding Student Award recognizes outstanding attainment in the study of planning by a student who is graduating from an accredited program. The criteria gives priority to the quality of work in the student's courses in planning and the promise of success as a professional planner. This year's recipient is Lauren Oertel.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
The John W. Reps Award was established in 1987 in honor of Professor Rep's first Chairperson of the Department of City and Regional Planning and well-known author of several books on the history of American urban development. It's given to a candidate for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning who has demonstrated superior academic excellence. The award is made possible through the generosity of the historic preservation planning alumni in Kemp. This year's recipient is Britton Burnside.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
I'm sure he heard the applause. The Urban and Regional Studies Academic Achievement Award for the undergraduate program is presented to the individuals who have achieved the highest academic average after seven semesters at Cornell. This year's recipient is also in absentia-- Katya Olsen.
[APPLAUSE]
I would like to turn the podium back over to Dean Yoon. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
MEEJIN YOON: We'd love to keep you forever, but I will close. And in closing, I really want to thank this moment-- take this moment to recognize all the faculty and staff who have given so generously in so many ways to the students and the college this past year. With the faculty and staff here present, please stand and be recognized.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
I would like to conclude this wonderful ceremony today with the words of Greek poet Constantine Cavafy from his 1910 poem titled "Ithaka."
"As you set out for Ithaka,
Hope your journey is a long one,
Full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, and cyclops, angry Poseidon,
Don't be afraid of them.
You'll never find things like that on your way
As long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
As long as an excitement stirs your spirit.
Hope that your journey is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings
When with pleasure, what joy you come into the harbors
You're seeing for the first time.
And may you visit many cities to learn
And learn again from those who know.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years so that when you're old
And by the time you reach the island,
Wealthy with all you've gained on the way.
Ithaka gave you a marvelous journey.
Without her, you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her, poor Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
You'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean."
Ithaca, both in this poem and in our hearts, does not represent a start or an end, but the journey itself. Please help me congratulate the AEP Class of 2024 as they set off for the next leg of their marvelous journey. Will the Class of 2024 please rise?
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
I think you can move your tassels now to the left, and congratulations.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
Thank you for all being here this afternoon. Please join us now for a reception just outside Bailey Hall following the recessional. We'll let our graduates exit first. And please have a wonderful afternoon, and congratulations again.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]