Congratulations to the HBS Graduate!

As of Thursday, June 4, 2009, Chris is now a graduate of Harvard Business School. He graduated with approximately 7,000 people university wide and 900 people at the Business School. I have to say that I don’t think I have ever been more proud of him. He has really enjoyed being at HBS and learning everything that he possibly could while here. And, he has excelled! I think I have officially lost the “who is smarter” battle in our household, and I have to admit that I really don’t mind at all. He really does deserve any and all accolades that he receives for such a great accomplishment. Chris, I know I have told you many times before, but I love you and I am so very proud of you!

As I mentioned last week, Chris and I had a pretty busy week with all of the graduation festivities as well as having family in town. I don’t want this post to be too overwhelmingly long, so I will just post about graduation for now and the rest of our fun filled weekend later this week.
All the graduation fun started on Wednesday with Class Day. This was a very relaxed and casual day for the HBS graduates. The Class Presidents spoke, Professor awards were given, a member of the Class of 2009 spoke, and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, concluded the ceremony. It was a nice way to get the events of the week off to a good start. I believe that Harvard chooses to do class day so that the actual graduation ceremony does not last into the wee hours of the morning. I can imagine that our Thursday would have been much longer if the Class Day ceremony was not held. For that, I think we were all very thankful.

Jamie Dimon

Chris with his parents, Mike and Kathy

Chris and I with his parents

Chris and I with my parents, Arlene and Gary

Just the two of us

Thursday was by far the longest and most exciting day. Of course it was the most exciting because Chris was receiving a degree from Harvard! And, it was the longest day, especially for Chris, Chris’ mom and I, because we all had to be somewhere before 7 am. I snapped a picture as Chris walked out the door at 6:15 am on his way to join his section before marching over to Harvard Yard. He looks tired but excited at the same time.

The next time he saw our apartment he would be an HBS Alum.

So, the reason we all had to be up so early was because the Harvard wide commencement ceremony started at 9:45 am with the procession starting around 9 am. Chris had to line up for the procession and Kathy, Chris’ mom, and I had to be there early enough to get a seat. Harvard only allows two tickets per student and there still isn’t enough seating for everyone. The gates opened at 6:45 am. We got there around 7 and still sat 4 rows from the back. I can imagine that when the gates opened at 6:45 it was a like a herd of cattle trying to get the best seats in the house. Thankfully, we could see a screen that showed the people on stage, since we could not make them out from our seats. We weren’t even able to see Chris enter the area because they ended up coming in from another direction. Hey, at least we knew he was there, lol! See the pictures below that Chris got of himself with some of his sectionmates on the way to Harvard Yard.

A little blurry, but still a good pic of Chris with some Sectino F'ers.

Chris and Patrick Barnes with Eric Salsa sneaking in between them, lol!

Chris with Brad Barkin, Patrick Barnes and Jared Miller

Chris and Brad Simmons

The Sheriff of Middlesex County called the meeting to order. It was pretty cool to see a regular sheriff speaking as if he was in the 17th century and calling a commencement ceremony to order. It was very cool for us to be able to witness the tradition that goes on at Harvard. After being called to order, there were three speakers, one who gave a speech in Latin, an undergraduate speaker, and a graduate speaker. We all really enjoyed the student who gave his speech in Latin, completely from memory. Thankfully, the screen we could see had the English translation so that we actually knew what he was saying. The most exciting part of the ceremony was when the degrees were conferred upon by the President of the University to the Harvard Business School graduates. It was just so exciting to hear the President of the University as she read off their degree and their ability to go out and now lead people and organizations. The HBS graduates had to be the most excited of the groups as they cheered loudly before and after receiving their degrees.

The sea of graduates and guests at the Harvard wide commencement ceremony!

After the Harvard wide commencement ceremony, Kathy and I quickly made our way out of there to meet the rest of the family to attend the Harvard luncheon. It was just a quick breather with food before we all had to head over to Baker Lawn on HBS’s campus for the HBS commencement ceremony. This day included a speech by Jay Light, Dean of HBS, and then the graduates received their diplomas. It was so exciting to see Chris walk across the stage and receive his diploma for MBA with Distinction. The person announcing the names almost forgot to say “distinction”, but she corrected herself just as Chris was about to head off the stage. Thank you! Those were my exact words! After the ceremony, we attended a reception hosted by HBS where we all inhaled lots of yummy desserts.

Dean Jay Light

Chris getting his diploma!!!!

Baker Library

Chris and his parents

The Jarrett Family (Mike, Patti, Jared, me, Chris, Karlie and Kathy)

Chris with his nephew Jared and niece Karlie

Chris, Baby J and I

Chris and I with my parents

Everyone who came to celebrate Chris' graduation!

Chris and I with Teal and Laren (gonna miss those guys!)

Chris and Teal

Laren and I

Chris in his Section's RC classroom

I have to say that this has to of been the most exciting graduations that I have ever attended. I can’t believe it’s over already and I know that Chris can’t either. We will hold the memories of HBS in our hearts and remember it as a great experience that has made our lives that much better!