Much of commencement comes down to spotting that face in the crowd—squinting through the mass of people for a glimpse of a mom or dad, a brother or sister, an aunt who made the long trip, an old family friend who kept us in line, a faculty mentor who reminded us again and again that we could do it.
If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes several to raise an engineer—home, community, high school math teachers, professors, friends and peers, advisers, staffers. And food truck purveyors (this is Drexel, after all).
That was obvious at the 2019 College of Engineering Commencement last Thursday, where everyone was trying to flag down that one special face in a sea of faces in a sea of blue and gold. CoE graduated nearly 700 young men and women from more than 30 countries. That great diversity of backgrounds revealed itself particularly after the ceremony, when students gathered with their families to bask in the afterglow and take scores of photographs.
Each engineer is an individual with a story to tell about their journey through CoE and where they will go next. But as the faces in these photographs show, when it comes to the Class of 2019, we’re all Drexel.
Tomorrow: Part III, “Commencement in Black and White”
Yesterday: Part I, “Being There”
Photos by Corinne Strauss