Commencement is an occasion that always pulls at my heartstrings. I get choked up watching proud moms fiddle with bobby pins to secure mortarboard hats and proud dads snapping photos. Everyone is happy.
But each year, as I watch graduates march to the traditional chords of “Pomp and Circumstance,” I also can’t help but marvel:
How on Earth do those young women function in such ultra-high heels?
At AIB’s commencement Sunday afternoon at Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center (aka Veteran’s Memorial Convention Center), 157 students “walked” – meaning they attended the event and crossed the stage to receive their diplomas. That’s almost half of this year’s 323 graduates.
The 2013 AIB graduating class includes 201 students who earned bachelor of science degrees and 122 students who earned associate in applied science degrees.
Des Moines Mayor T.M. Franklin Cownie addressed the graduates, saying that when he became mayor, he assumed that action on issues important to him would readily move forward.
“But I found myself on the back end of a lot of 6-to-1 votes,” he said. “I realized I had to work a little more diligently than I thought. You have to show leadership. You have to get engaged.”
Cownie told graduates they must be both passionate and compassionate. “Each and every day, you have to get up, suit up and show up; and you have to prove every single day you’re the kind of leader that’s going to make a difference in your organization,” Cownie said.
During the ceremony, AIB President Nancy Williams presented Cownie an honorary Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Leadership.
A Des Moines native, Cownie attended Iowa State University with the intention of becoming a lawyer before returning to Des Moines to own and operate Cownie Furs, a store that has been in his family for generations.
“I believe that through your business successes and for your service to our city, you have more than earned an Honorary Baccalaureate Degree from AIB College of Business,” Williams told Cownie.
Cownie said he hopes most of the graduates will stay in Des Moines. He should be pleased that preliminary figures gathered by AIB show at least 241 of its new graduates have secured employment, and 173 of those are employed within the metro area.
It’s exciting to imagine the great career achievements these graduates will attain. No doubt, 20-some years from now, my successor will be writing alumni stories about their outstanding accomplishments.
After a couple decades, these graduates will be even more worldly wise and seasoned with maturity, sophistication and hard-earned expertise. They’ll have done AIB proud.
By then, some even may have acknowledged that life is much easier to navigate in comfortable, low-heeled shoes.