Master’s degree graduates from the departments of Human Development, International and Transcultural Studies, Mathematics, Science and Technology and Organization & Leadership celebrated the conclusion of their TC journey on Tuesday afternoon.

TC President Susan Fuhrman reminded the students of the need to continually use their knowledge in the interest of “building and rebuilding a more just and humane world.” While TC helped build a foundation, “ultimately you must continually sharpen your thinking and understanding and apply your knowledge to fight ignorance, justice and inequities,” Fuhrman said. “You have shown us you can do that, and we are more hopeful knowing the world is in your hands.”

Fuhrman gave a special shout-out to someone in whose capable hands TC itself has rested securely for the past 50 years: Wavely Cannady, BoilerRoom Engineer, who has helped keep the College running since the days of coal-powered heat. Cannady led the President’s Procession to honor his 50 years of service to TC.

Luis Moll, Professor of Language, Reading & Culture in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies at the College of Education at the University of Arizona, received TC’s Medal for Distinguished Service, presented by Marie Miville, Professor of Psychology & Education and Chair of the Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, and Provost Thomas James.
 


“Perhaps more than any other theorist or researcher at work today you have shown us that learning is inextricably situated in and mediated by culture,” Miville told Moll, “and that ignoring that connection deprives us of our most powerful tool for enabling all students to succeed in school.”



Moll said that education must improve the lives of children in a dynamic and interdisciplinary way. He expressed concern about what he sees as the increasing over-emphasis on accountability and testing, and "on models that make smart kids seem dumb.”

“Schools are becoming test factories curtailing excitement of learning,” Moll said. He challenged educators to act as advocates for children, declaring, “You have the clout to do that.”



Student speaker Lorraine Hexstall, who was receiving her master’s degree in Developmental Psychology, has exercised precisely that kind of clout. After many years of struggling to help her son, who had been wrongly diagnosed with “test anxiety,” she was inspired to resume her schooling by the one teacher – a TC alumna – who took a different view. 

“I decided then and there that for me to successfully advocate for my son, I had to become as knowledgeable as that teacher was,” Hexstall told her listeners.

Hexstall returned to school after a 16-year hiatus, earning a B.A. from Hunter College. With the tools she attained at TC, Lorraine is now working with parents, educators and other interested stakeholders to provide parent advocacy services in the Hudson Valley, where she now lives.  Her goal: “To bring light to ordinary parents struggling with the same sense of hopelessness I once had.”



Watch the complete ceremony


CLICK HERE to view more photos from Convocation III

FOLLOW the #TCHAPPY conversation on Social Media

READ At First Masters Ceremony, Deborah Ball Urges Graduates to  Never Forget the Power of Skillful Teaching

READ At Second Masters Ceremony, C. Kent McGuire Calls for Reforms That Support the Whole Child

Published Wednesday, May 20, 2015