 Thank you. I am a class of 2023 graduate in elementary education with a minor in education for cultural and linguistic diversity. Please join me for an honoring in our land acknowledgment. UBM is located on the waters and lands which have long served as a site of relationship, meeting, and exchange among indigenous peoples for thousands of years in his home to the Western Abenaki people. UBM seeks to honor, recognize, and respect these peoples as the traditional and enduring stewards of the waters and land throughout this expansive region. With these intentions, we will begin today by acknowledging that the institution of the University of Vermont and many in our UBM community are guests on this land. The institution's role as a guest is to respect the indigenous peoples of these lands and watersheds. Their indigenous knowledge, their indigenous rights, their indigenous contributions and innovations, and our collective care for the waters and lands as well as the communities interwoven within this place. While the land acknowledgment is an essential starting point, there is much work ahead as we come to terms with the legacies and trauma of indigenous dispossession and our call to fostering relationships, education, and reconciliation. Please be seated. Associate Dean Kieran Killeen, I invite you to come to the podium. I have the real easy job. So welcome to the College of Education and Social Services 2023 Commencement Ceremony. Let's give it up for these wonderful graduates one more time. I'm Kieran Killeen, I'm an Associate Dean for Graduate Nondegree in Research Programming and an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership. It's my sincere pleasure to welcome you all to this joyful occasion. We gather this afternoon amidst the beautiful green mountains and shining lake to recognize the hard work and considerable accomplishments of our 2023 College of Education and Social Services graduates. We revel in your bright futures. You will hear us reference SESS often today as the abbreviated name of our college. Our college prepares professionals to go into the world to help advance a more humane and just society, maximizing human potential, and the quality of life for all individuals, families, and communities. We are confident that these graduates are poised to make a real and lasting difference in society. During our time together today, I invite you to celebrate the mission of our college, the spirit of our university, and I invite you to celebrate the remarkable potential of this group seated before you. So graduates, friends, family, faculty, staff, and guests, please join me in welcoming SESS Dean Katie Shepard to the podium for her class of 2023 celebratory address. Katie. Greetings all, I am Katie Shepard, the Dean of the College of Education and Social Services, and I am one proud Dean. My pronouns are she and her. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the special day of celebration and recognition. Earlier today, and I know some of you were there, President Garamella conferred degrees at the university ceremony. Now, during our college celebration, our SESS graduates will be individually recognized and congratulated as they receive their diplomas. Please note that the university's commencement program will soon be updated to include all Latin honors and university awards, and will be made available to you online. This is a day of joy and celebration, not only for our graduates, but for their families and loved ones who are here with us now or celebrating from afar. Graduates, please turn to those who are here to celebrate you today and give them a round of applause for their support of you. Here with us on this happy occasion are a number of people who have been central to our success as a college and this important day. I'd like to recognize the following people and ask them to stand when I call their names. Student Director of Strategic Initiatives and Chair of the SESS Student Advisory Board, Maggie Sorrentino. Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, Lynn Whitecloud. Associate Dean and Professor Cynthia Reyes. Associate Dean and Professor Erin Killeen. Vice Chair of the Department of Education, Professor Kelly Clark Keith. Chair of the Department of Social Work, Professor Jan Hoek. Professor of Human Development and Family Science, Christine Prue. Our beloved Emeritus Director of Teacher Licensure, Ellen Baker. She's back. And Human Development and Family Science Program Coordinator and Lecturer, Camilia Mayanu. Social Work Program Coordinator and Senior Lecturer, Emerita J.V. Barna. And at the UVM ceremony this morning, Professors Jenny Prue and Kate Coles led SESS students to the main green of the UVM 2023 ceremony. Please stand. They were up early. Our SESS banner bearer, Shannon Harness, class of 2023. Of course, our distinguished SESS faculty, please stand. I would like to express my deep appreciation to all SESS and university staff, as well as the staff at the Hilton Hotel and here at the Flynn who have worked together to create this beautiful occasion. From this morning's university ceremony to our midday reception and to this final SESS ceremony. SESS staff who are with us today, please stand and be recognized. We can't do without you. So in case I forgot anyone, one more round of applause for everybody who have made this possible. Class of 2023, you hail from 18 states and three countries. You range in age from 21 to 63. Some of you joined us as first year students four years ago and others have joined us along the way. Well, you have done it. You have arrived at the end of your undergraduate college journey with all of its accomplishments, challenges and milestones. Most of you arrived in the fall of 2019. And this has been mentioned a few times today, but it's really worth repeating. A fall in which none of us knew that we would soon enter into a worldwide pandemic and we didn't know what that would mean or what it would be like to experience that. Your years here have been characterized by the impact of that pandemic as well as a host of community, national, sovereign nation and world events that have caused us to ask deep questions about who we are and how we are addressing the needs of the people and places that make up our earth. We have lived through some intense and troubling times and yet you have moved through these challenges, making contributions, learning from the challenges, drawing support from others and shaping your journeys to arrive at this joyous day, looking ahead to all that awaits you in your futures, both planned and unplanned. I hope you will treasure the memories of this journey. I know there are many. You may have stayed up all night to help a friend or a community in need, tried skiing or snowboarding or some other sport for the first time, cultivated your love of many flavors of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, watched the sunrise over Mansfield and set over Lake Champlain. You've learned how to switch from boots to flip flops just like that when the snow melts and grabbed every opportunity to study outside on a sunny day, maybe even in a hammock. You've made friends you will never forget, friends you have studied and played with, laughed and cried with, friends who will change your life. I see you. I see you, class of 2023. I see you working on interdisciplinary learning and active learning, engaged research and social justice. You are committed to bringing about positive change for our students, families, schools and communities and you serve them with a focus on diversity, equity, justice, belonging and inclusion. You have stretched your thinking, developed new perspectives and skills and given of yourselves to reach this milestone that we call commencement, to celebrate your accomplishments not only here but before this time and as you begin the next chapter of your lives. Our tagline in the college is making a difference. My hope is that CES has made a difference in you because I know that you have made a difference in us. In your time here, you have made an incredible imprint on our college and on the university and in all the communities you are part of, like so many before you. So I just wanna take a few minutes to acknowledge some of the differences you've made. First, you have served in our schools, social service organizations and communities. In the tradition of John Dewey, you have devoted tens of thousands of hours to your internships, field placements, service learning opportunities and so on. Through the pandemic, you provided wrap-around supports to children and families, supported early childhood education teachers in Chittenden County, found new ways to engage elementary, middle and high school students in their learning. You worked alongside teachers and social workers who were responding to the immense needs, unprecedented needs of students and families. You served as youth mentors in the dream program and interns at Echo Lehi Center. You supported families impacted by poverty and difficulty with accessing health as well as new American families who came here with refugee experiences. Related to this, you have become advocates who are engaged with social change efforts. You've worked with middle school students in developing their knowledge and skills related to diversity, equity, inclusion, activism and participatory action research. You've participated in community action rallies and protests and testified at the Vermont State Legislature. You planned and implemented social justice projects in your circles of influence and you presented about indigenous knowledge, rights and ways of being in front of your peers and university leaders. Third, you've contributed to research and knowledge creation. Through participation in our Honors College, our SES dollar of distinction program and many collaborations with our faculty on their research, you have explored the questions of our times. You have studied effective practices to teaching and fostering a sense of belonging among multilingual high school students who are in their early days of experiences in our schools and you have explored the factors that make human beings more or less open to new ideas. Fourth, you've brought meaning and joy to others through your participation in the arts and humanities. You have played and sung in the university choir, orchestra, pep band, jazz ensembles. You've participated on the UVM debate team. You are artists, poets, musicians and actors who have shared your talents with one another and with our whole community. And throughout it all, you've served as leaders within and outside of our college. Five of you graduating today served on our SES Student Advisory Board where you proposed changes that have been acted upon and heard by our SES leadership team. You've participated in and led student organizations and clubs all around campus including Think College, Rallython and Camp Kesson to name a few. You've been active in our identity centers, spiritual and religious organizations and undergraduate admissions. Our student athletes and their fans have contributed to UVM's remarkable achievements over the past couple of years, especially this one, that included participation in national conference championships in soccer, basketball, skiing, ice hockey, lacrosse and ultimate frisbee. To the 17 first generation students in the class of 2023, I salute you. You have encountered multiple firsts on your journeys and negotiated each of them successfully to arrive here today. And parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and aunts and uncles with us today, it has been said that education is a chain reaction and you are a part of the spark that set that chain in motion so many years ago. Class of 2023, we are going to miss you but we're excited to see how your postgraduate plans reflect your diversity of experience and community while you are here. Some of you have already secured positions as social workers, mental health workers, outdoor educators and teachers in Vermont and across the country. I talked to a couple of you today who just found out you've got jobs yesterday. It's amazing. Others have been accepted to pursue graduate degrees and social work, counseling, special education, history, Latin, library science and curriculum and instruction. Several of you have been selected for Teach for America and Fulbright Award winners. No matter what your next steps, we hope that you will stay connected so we can follow your accomplishments and continue to celebrate your impact on the world. You are about to join the CES alumni family, a family of more than 16,000 strong. We, all of us in the college are so happy to be a part of your journey. Class of 2023, now I'd like you to just reflect on yourselves, the person you have become and who you are today. Who or what has emerged during your time here as most important and meaningful to you? What are you seeing as your gifts and your purpose and how might you activate your passion and commitment going forward? Who are the people who have shaped this journey through college and what role will they play in your life when you leave this place? I hope that you will consider all that you've learned here about the power of relationships and community and the ways in which you can and should connect to the people, places, and social systems around you. As you graduate from college and commence your next steps in life, my wish is that you will look inward to see your strengths and purpose and outward to identify how you will share those gifts with the community and build reciprocal relationships with others to enact the changes you dream of today. And during the times of your life when your own strength and purpose may seem less clear to you, I encourage you to seek out the people, places, memories, and ideas that fill you and support you and help you to re-engage with what is at the core of you. We do live in challenging times, times of strife and discord, uncertainty and unanticipated changes. It would be easy to feel pessimistic about the future or to go in the totally opposite direction and just be blindly optimistic and think that it will all turn out okay. But I think that neither one of these paths is sustainable on its own because in between them is a path of hope. The path of hope acknowledges these challenges and looks ahead to something brighter and better, something actionable. When I look out into this office, I see and feel hope for the world because I see all that you have done, all that you stand for, and all that you will work to change as individuals and as part of a larger community. One of my favorite quotes comes from American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Edith Wharton. She observed that there are two ways of spreading light, to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. As social workers, educators, counselors, human service providers, and change makers of all kinds, my wish is for you to be both candle and mirror. I hope you will connect with your inner light as it takes shape over the course of your life and that you will spread that light with others in ways that will help them discover their purpose and meaning. In turn, I urge you to reflect the energy and beauty of the light you receive from others in a way that brings you joy, meaning, and peace. In receiving and reflecting the light of others, you will find yourself more connected to the world, more hopeful, and more likely to be part of the changes you imagine. Graduates, this is your day. You are awesome. You've worked hard and we'll continue to commence with you. Thank you for sharing with me these few moments. And now I'd like to invite to the podium, J.B. Barna. J.B. Barna earned her master in social work from California State University Long Beach and demonstrated excellence for many years as a social work practitioner. As would be lucky for us, more than lucky. J.B. joined UVM and the College of Education and Social Services in 2000 as a lecturer and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2006. J.B. is a beloved faculty member, you can kinda tell here, who has served as instructor, program coordinator, and field coordinator in the BSW program. Her commitment to justice, humanity, kindness, and issues pertaining to students of color and the LGBTQ plus community have been recognized. She's an award winner, the Jackie M. Gribbons Award in 2009, the Glenn Elder Leadership Award in 2018, and UVM's Outstanding Advisor Award in 2020, among others. J.B.'s leadership, teaching, and service have left a lasting mark on our students, our college, the university, and the state of Vermont. J.B. is retiring this year, as many of you know, after 23 years with CES, we are gonna miss you deeply. I need to give you one more hug before I talk. We miss J.B., but because she is the person she is, I thought it would be the right thing to do to ask J.B. to deliver our main commencement or celebration address today. So, J.B., you get the podium. All right. After your gift, a present, a present. Thank you. I didn't know they'd be presents. Good afternoon. You know, I've been sitting out there for years now. I've been in Burlington almost 35 years, and it's always watching somebody up here, usually like singing or performing. And I've been jealous, because I haven't had a chance to do something they've done. So, I'm just gonna do it. Ready? Hello Burlington! That was fun. So, I stand here, not just as a faculty member, but as a parent of a rising junior in CES. So, I'm very proud today of our college and of all of you. So, there are three things I want you to know before I start, three things that might help you know better how to listen or what to listen for. Number one, I'm going to focus my talk around these really important words. Complexity, curiosity, and creativity. Number two, kind of fancy myself a storyteller. And number three, I've timed and edited my talk to be exactly 11 minutes and 18 seconds, allowing for approximately a combined total of 38 seconds of clapping and laughing. You're gonna use it all up if you don't care. So, anyhow, I give this guidance to you because I know the distraction factor is pretty high among our graduates right now. It's true, right? I'm guessing that some of you are distracted by this being the first time since high school graduation that your divorced parents are in the same room at the same time, okay? Or, by the fact that the only dinner reservations you could get were past the bedtime, so some members of your party and they aren't too happy about it. Or, by the fact that you've been here 36 hours from now to move completely out of your apartment. Or, finally, by the fact that you still can't believe you paid $80 for the flimsy cap and gown you are wearing. The second half of the sentence is better. I'm gonna read it again. Or, by the fact that you still can't believe you paid $80 for the flimsy cap and gown you're wearing when the dress underneath is very super cute. Okay. So, just breathe, it's all okay. Everything is going to be fine. Do me a favor, turn to your left and right and give a knowing smile to the person sitting there and say, yep, I'm distracted. Just like JB said, but I'm still really happy to be here. I mean, so happy. We did it. Okay. Did you do it? Graduates? Okay. So, we are sess. If it were slightly more catchy, I'd kind of love it if we could just rename ourselves Che, C-H, the College of Humanity. Kind of the opposite of catchy, I know, but I mean, the work you have all dedicated your studies to is really about humanity, isn't it? You start by seeing the humanity in others. You've learned to appreciate your own humanity. And you want to work with real humans toward creating the lives that they envision for themselves. So, Che, I don't know. I kind of like it. So, because our work requires us to work with humans, it can be quite complex, isn't it? Can't it? Therefore, it takes immense creativity to do it well. And I believe it's through authentic curiosity that you will engage that much needed creativity. Remember, I said I was gonna focus on three words? I just put them in one little neat paragraph for y'all. Complexity, curiosity, creativity. I am going to do my best to use these words to reveal a little secret about how your future work can be made not just easier, but more interesting and more fulfilling. And I'm going to do it by telling you a story. This is a true story from my work as a social worker many years ago. It is about how the complexity of a family became more intimately known through authentic curiosity, which led to a creative solution. So here we go. In the early 1990s, I had a job that gave me the luxury to work with families for many, many hours a week. The goal was to keep families together without the threat of the children going into state custody. One of the families that gave me the honor of relationship was comprised of a 35-year-old mother and four boys, four boys between the ages of six and 12. And all your parents out there doing the math are like, whoa. I'll call the mother Peggy Ann. As I got to know Peggy Ann, I learned that her children were really struggling in school. I also learned that she didn't know much about what their behavior looked like in school and how much of their learning was being compromised. Additionally, I learned that she didn't know what the teachers were doing or not doing to support her children. I became very curious, of course, about what the things were, what things were like when the boys were at home. If she enjoyed being a mother, what was challenging for her, what was rewarding? Suffice it to say, she expressed great love and appreciation for her children and more than anything, she wanted them to have a good life. I told her I had read the referral notes, but that I knew referrals were limited in how they told the story. However, I did mention that the words I read said one of the most concerning things that the state wrote about was that she didn't attend any of the schedule meetings at school for her boys. I got very curious and asked if that was her experience than not attending. And then what she thought was the reason for her not attending. It was in that conversation that I learned she had actually gone to a bunch of meetings but could never make herself walk in the doors of the school. That she had straight up panic attacks when she got close. Together we got curious about those panic attacks. She was responding with a lot of I don't know and shoulder shrugging, we were stuck. But then I simply got curious again about her own experience in school as a child. I asked her to tell me the stories that she remembered. Now y'all are graduating so I know you're following me diligently here and probably have already surmised that she had a pretty awful experience throughout her own schooling. Enough to have her drop out before she graduated high school. Together we discovered that her panic attacks were probably due to the fact that internally she was preparing her adult self to be bullied, to be told she wasn't good enough, to be told that she was unworthy or even that she was going to be getting into a lot of trouble. After that aha moment we looked at each other and said now what? I knew that it was not gonna be as simple as me just taking her out for coffee and telling her hey you're not in trouble, you're worthy, you're good enough. So I got curious with her about what would be helpful as a first step to get to those meetings. She got creative and suggested that we meet in a more neutral place for her first meeting. Battery street park picnic tables seemed like a good plan since it was close to her home and the school. I was going to be the messenger to the teachers and ask about their willingness to meet off school grounds. I broadly explained the panic issue and our idea for a possible first step of eventually getting Peggy Ann into the classroom for meetings with the boys teachers. It wasn't right away but her team eventually warmed up to the idea. We met at the park and it was such a success that our next meeting was on the school's outdoor playground and by the third meeting we were sitting in those short little chairs with our knees to our chests in the classroom of her oldest son. The meetings continued and were going amazingly well. My presence was becoming less and less important. Always a good sign for a social worker. Peggy Ann wanted them to know she was interested and that she wanted to partner with them. They were impressed with her thoughts and ideas for the challenging behaviors they were seeing. She became such a presence in the school that people really got to know and love her. Now Peggy Ann was on a virtual creative role when she casually mentioned to me and one of the teachers that she wished her boys could physically see her as a part of the school team. She wanted them to see her investment. I was asking about the possibility of her becoming a classroom aid or an aid in art classes. She was a really great artist. But Peggy Ann piped up and asked if she could help serve lunch in the cafeteria. Within two weeks she was not only helping in the cafeteria that they hired her for pay. At first her boys were embarrassed that their mom was one of the lunch ladies but it turned out she was a really cool cafeteria worker and the other kids loved her so much that her boys ended up showing pride in their mom and even giving her hugs in public when they saw her in the hallways. Now I've told you just a fraction of this story. It's complex and nuanced and it is to be honest more Peggy Ann's story to tell than mine. But I did think with an audience full of teachers and social workers and human service workers that this might just make sense to you and inspire you. You see, we all have complex individual stories to tell, don't we? But sometimes we see a mother not showing up and we think she doesn't care about her children. We think that she's resistant or non-compliant. Her children get seen by others as dysregulated, oppositionally defiant for the sum of their adverse child experiences. But if we, you, all of us can just believe that it's going to take some immense creativity to work through that complexity then maybe we are on to something and to get to that creativity we've got to start with authentic curiosity. We need to genuinely engage with others. We need to get curious about the whole situation, the whole of their lives. Complexity, curiosity and creativity. I'd like to end with some inspiration from the work of Chimamanda Adichie. She is a writer and thinker and humanitarian from Nigeria who talks about the danger of a single story. I highly, highly recommend her work. What I learned most from this amazing woman is that a single story lacks the curiosity I'm talking about and we can be so tempted, I mean, did, to buy the single story, the one narrow way of understanding something. It can be way too easy to read a report or hear a few nuggets of information or meet someone once on a singular day at a singular time and jump to conclusion as to why that person is acting the way they are acting or saying what they're saying or doing what they're doing or not doing what they're not doing. We become tempted to take that single story and diagnose a person or put a label on them. Sometimes the single story makes it easier to say we understand what's going on. We trick ourselves into believing therefore that this single story and diagnosis or label will help us know exactly how to respond but it lacks curiosity and therefore creativity doesn't stand a chance. If we had stayed with that story about Peggy Ann and her boys, we wouldn't, you haven't ever gotten to the place that we got to. Shimamanda Adichie says a single story flattens our experience and overlooks the many other stories that form us. She says the single story creates stereotypes. The single story is incomplete. It robs us of our dignity. And finally she says it makes it hard, really, really hard to recognize our equal humanity. So I say while it is tempting to hear and to tell and to even be satisfied with a single story of one's life, we are oversimplifying experiences that are much more complex. We are eliminating our ability to be creative in that complexity and we are oppressing our childlike curiosity about the world and the humans around us. One of the hopes I have for you all as you go from this place to the next is one of the last things I set in class to the senior social work students a couple of weeks ago and I'll now share it with you. My hope is that you will continue to develop deep and authentic curiosity about all of our unique individual life stories and that you will continue to know deep down that these stories don't fit neatly into boxes of prescribed language or diagnoses or judgment because they need to be told and heard and witnessed in order to be truly known. And it's only in knowing that complexity that we can truly help each other out. Thank you. As the great Tiffany Spencer said at the Mosaic Award dinner a couple of weeks ago, this is about you, it's not about me, but thank you very much. Now I would like to invite Associate Dean Cynthia Reyes to present the recognition of student scholars and she will be accompanied by Dean Katie Shepard and Assistant Dean Lynn Whitecloud, three of my favorite people. Thank you, that was beautiful. I'm a huge fan of J.B.'s storytelling and I think one of the things that I really love about her storytelling is that I think about it hours later and I'm still pulling out themes and connecting it to my own experience and so thank you J.B. for leaving us with this legacy. Did you get your glasses? So now graduates, family and faculty, please join me in recognition of the academic achievements of CES class of 2023 graduates. I would now like to ask all human development and family science students to rise and be recognized. You may now be seated. Thank you. I would like to ask all social work students to rise and be recognized. Be seated, thank you. I would like to ask all students who created an individually designed major to rise and be recognized. Please be seated, a small but mighty group. I would like to ask all education students to rise and be recognized. Please be seated. CES students who graduated from both the College of Education and Social Services and the Honors College are Taylor, Mary Krupp and Claire E. Lennon. Taylor and Claire, please rise and be recognized. Taylor's thesis is titled, Identity, Protective Cognition and Elementary School Educators. Claire's thesis is titled, Emergent Bilingual Classroom Support, a Comparative Study in Secondary Mathematics Education. Let us now recognize those students who have achieved the highest academic honors bestowed upon graduating seniors, summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude. Latin awards for CES students were awarded to students with a cumulative GPA of 3.95 and above in rank order within the overall class size. As I call your name, please rise. Please family and friends, I'll hold your applause until all names have been read. Summa cum laude, Magdalena Ann Sorrentino, Natalie Renee Haskell, magna cum laude, Sarah Elizabeth Bassett, Naomi Park, Shannon Benjamin Harness, Jamie F. Griffith, Madeline McClain Kerr, Marissa Nicole Jedsiniak, cum laude, Kristen Amalia Arles, Sarah Jessica Doherty, Elizabeth Race McConnell, Cassidy Schrowen, Neve Margaret Joyce Stokes, Sarah Rose Hochman, Mackenzie Marie Hewitt, Madison Y. Parisekis, Benjamin David Stewart, Eleanor Grace Worthington. Let us please acknowledge these graduates for their high academic, thank you, please be seated. I would now like to next recognize students who served for multiple years on our CES Student Advisory Board. This advisory board of student leaders form a reciprocal relationship with CES students, faculty, and senior leaders to discuss, shape, and assess college priorities. The board represents the CES mission, priorities, and diverse ideas, concerns, and recommendations of the undergraduate student body. They elevate student voice and priorities for the administration through representation, collaboration, and the creation of data and narrative-informed proposals. The members serve as CES ambassadors at signature events. Please rise and thank you for your service. Sarah Bassett, Lea Endler, Una Gorley, Maggie Sorrentino, and Mackay Yerkes, please be seated. Shannon Benjamin Harness, CES Banner Bearer. You are invited to come stand next to Dean Shepard and Assistant Dean Lynn White Cloud. The CES Banner Bearer was nominated for this honor by multiple members of the CES senior class and faculty. And Shannon was selected to lead the entire College of Education and Social Services graduating class of 2023 during the UBM commencement ceremony and our CES commencement celebration. Shannon is from Waterbury, Vermont, a graduate of social work earning magna cum laude and completed a previous undergraduate degree in hard-door recreation leadership. Shannon served as the co-president of the Social Work Club, was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, and recently completed a nine-month internship at Pathways, Vermont, transforming the lives of people experiencing mental health and other life challenges by supporting self-directed roads to recovery and wellness in an atmosphere of dignity, respect, choice, and hope. Starting in summer, Shannon will begin UBM's Masters in Social Work program and plans to use his social work degrees to work with the veteran population upon graduation. Shannon is kind, compassionate, and enormously curious about the lives of others, especially those with identities that are very different than his own. While Shannon is very focused on the field of social work, he embodies the mission and value of the entire CES community. Shannon will be giving the closing remarks at our celebration today. Please accept our gifts from CES. To Danford, Peter Beakers, and Scribe with the UVM seal. And please remain standing here on the stage. We need to keep you just a little bit longer. Next, we will recognize a CES graduate being presented with a CES College-Wide Award. This recipient's name has been kept confidential until this ceremony. I'm so pleased to share with you that the CES Janet Boussange Leadership Award is being given to Sarah Elizabeth Bassett. Thank you. Sarah, you need just what to do. The Janet Boussange Leadership Award recognizes a graduating student who exemplifies what it means to be a compassionate and purposeful leader and has begun to have a significant social impact in the fields of education and or social services. This award is named after Janet Boussange, who was a beloved college leader in CES and who was a quiet force of scholarship, service, diligence, and kindness. The recipient of this award, Sarah Bassett, majored in early childhood education and minored in special education, earning magna cum laude. Throughout her years at UVM, Sarah engaged in five different community-based learning experiences, serving young children and their families. She worked as an employed early educator and essential worker throughout the pandemic at the Greater Burlington YMCA. Sarah was also awarded the UVM Student Leadership and Community Engaged Learning Award and is featured in a comprehensive spotlight on the CES website. Mentor teachers, directors, and even an elementary school principal describe her as looking and functioning like a seasoned teacher well before her time, says CES program coordinator, advisor and lecturer, Lauren McKillop. She recognized her as gifted and as a perpetual learner, always eager to reflect and improve upon her practice. A longtime dancer, Bassett serves as the vice president of Dance Force, UVM's all-inclusive dance company. Helping to develop the club from its inception was an effort to promote greater accessibility and belonging. Soon, Sarah will begin her professional career as a first grade teacher at Modern Christie School in Burlington, Vermont. Please accept a gift from CES, a UVM motif blanket and a certificate of recognition that includes a modest financial award to be provided to you in July from the Bassage Scholarship Fund. Next, we will recognize a graduate who received a CES Collegewide Award earlier this semester, and we would like to welcome them to the stage of this ceremony too. Magdalena Cataldo, please join us on stage to stand with Dean Katie Shepard and Dean Lenard Plattencures. Magdalena was awarded the CES Award for Academic and Social Justice Distinction at the annual UVM Mosaic Diversity and Social Justice Awards Ceremony. Magdalena is a graduate of Early Childhood Education. Magdalena minored in American Sign Language and matriculated into the Accelerated Master's Program in Early Childhood Special Education here at UVM. A faculty nominator chaired, from the very beginning, I was struck by Magdalena's commitment to inclusion and equity for children from diverse backgrounds and abilities. Magdalena extended her commitment to belonging to her peers and demonstrated ways to examine and support diversity and equity in the field of education. I witnessed her routinely supporting fellow students, whether with a great joke, a warm smile, or offering insights and help on course content and assignments. ASL faculty invited Magdalena to be a teaching assistant in ASL courses for several semesters. Magdalena had shared her ASL teaching materials with a faculty nominator who said, I was in awe of her application of differentiated instruction and multiple means of representing her lessons core content. In what I have observed so far, Magdalena shows up in every classroom, ready to include each and every learner. Throughout her college career at UVM, Magdalena has personified the ideals of social justice and education as a peer, as a future teacher, and as a CES TA. Please accept a gift from CES, a UVM motif blanket. Now we have our last award. Earlier today at the main UVM commencement ceremony, six undergraduate university awards were announced. CES is so delighted to announce here at our CES ceremony that one CES member of the class of 2023 received a UVM university award. The award is the Mary Jean Simpson Award given to the senior who best exemplifies the qualities of character, leadership, and scholarship. The award is named for Mary Jean Simpson, Dean of Women from 1937 to 1954, who displayed her commitment to students, their education, and the community. Award recipient is Maggie Sorrentino. Please join Dean Katie Shepard and assistant dean line after. Maggie graduated Summa Cum Laude and majored in elementary education with a minor in education for cultural and linguistic diversity. Maggie will work as an academic advisor to incoming first year students this summer within the CES student services office and begin a master's program at UVM in curriculum and instruction in the fall. Maggie served multiple years as the CES student director for strategic initiatives and is the CES student advisory board facilitator. UVM student government association leaders recognized the CES student advisory board as an exemplary leadership model, a model that Maggie helped to shape. Maggie represented CES at numerous admitted student visit days, commencement celebrations, board of advisor meetings, and as a member of the recent CES dean search committee and the provost appointed UVM diversity group. She has led and collaborated on special working groups to diversify and create universal pedagogy, belonging events, holistic advising, and well-being initiatives, high impact practices, and tactical planning. She is a change maker, mediator, and mentor who builds inclusive and civically engaged communities. UVM and CES will be creating social media spotlights on her leadership. Her nominator describes her as a transformation leader of kindness, aspiration, purpose, heart, and spirit. Please accept a gift from CES, a UVM motif blanket. Welcome to the podium. This is really important. And now welcome to the podium, the readers for this year's ceremony. Camelia Mayanu and Ellen Baker, would you come to the podium please? Good afternoon. I'm Camelia Mayanu, program coordinator and lecturer in the human development and family science program. And alongside my colleague, Ellen Baker, former director of educator licensure programs. It is our pleasure to be the name readers for this year's ceremony. Graduation is a time to celebrate you, the class of 2023. Now is the moment you've all been waiting for. It's time for individual recognition. Graduates, you will receive your diploma on stage from Dean Katie Chepard. Then greet the chair of your department, look out at the audience, descend the stage, and have your photo taken by the designated photographer. Please then keep moving directly to your seats per the marshals instructions so we can keep the diploma ceremony moving on stage and the aisles open. As the graduates approach and cross the stage, family and friends are welcome to come closer to take pictures. But this is important. Please don't come beyond the fourth row of chairs near the stage so that flashes don't go off in the eyes of the readers and so that the area will not become blocked for others taking pictures or witnessing all graduates receiving their diploma. Please keep the areas on the sides of the graduates seating clear so that graduates can return to their seats. Thank you. Marshals, please get ready to present our graduates row by row. Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science, Human Development and Family Science, Ruby Bryan, Harper Colburn, Stephanie Conlon, Curly, Nicholas Fetch, Una Gurley, Anna Hester, Mackenzie Hewitt, Sarah Kelly, Sophie McCarty, Lorraine Patricia Nunez, Olivia Rudolph, Anna Schmelzer, Kerry Singer, Bachelor of Social Work, Social Work, Nathaniel Anand, Alexandra Appel, Kristen Amalia Arliss, Francine Bahati, Brittany Blakeman, Amelia Buche, Meredith Burke, Megan Eustace, Kate Gilmond, Brooklyn Goller, Caitlin Gordon, Shannon Harness, Jake Kelly, Mary Jean Lapierre, Sarah Leigh, Andrew Little, Chloe Lombra, Jamie Malone, Stella Marsh, Christina Oaks, Sabrina Orazetti, Sydney Parton, Hilary Rubin, Anna Ryan, Siemens, Jess Sizing. So before I read the names, I would like to say that I've been in education for over 50 years and my phonetic skills are pretty well developed, but I'd like to apologize in advance if I mispronounce anybody's name. Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Music Education, Music Education, Marissa Dzedniak, Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Art Education, Serena Anair, Sarah Hoffman, Samantha Jacinski, Althea Kane, Ayana, sorry, McDaniel, Isabella Matola, Sophie Piedamonte, Sydney Pientka, Carter Vizacaro, Alyssa Wakavokiak. Samuel Wees, individually designed, Dawson Hemingway, major focus in examining the intersection of behavioral management and child life specialist professions. Carter Larson, focus in holistic disability education and disability culture studies. Naomi Park, cultivating holistic wellness through social, emotional, educational practices, trauma-informed social services, and integrative health coaching. Anna Olmsted Posey, intercultural education and applied human development. Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education, Early Childhood Education, Sarah Basette, Sadie Bedeck Bloom, Lily Burkhout, Magdalena Gabriela Cataldo, Sophie Decker, Sarah Eastwood, Delaney Jacobs, Madeline Kerr, Ella Smith McCarthy, Riley McFawn, Harley Nickel, Cassidy Sherawyn, Nev Stokes, Sarah Weinstein, Sally Weinstein, I've done this before, so sorry. Molly Rattle, Early Childhood Special Education, Elizabeth Ellsner, Allison Swetolsky, elementary education, Talara Anderson, Randy Barry, Georgia Berry, Lizzie Brown, Taylor Sharland, Sarah Sioti, Michael Deming, Sarah Doherty, Laura Donovan, Chloe Echo, Teresa Frick, Haley Goulette, Rachel Guerrera, Charles Guillermo, Natalie Haskell, Ella King, Jonathan Krauss, Taylor Krupp, Audrey Kate Laban, Melanie Lejeure, Michaela Malick, Elizabeth McConnell, Harper Mead, Madeline Meyer, Meg Moore, Allison Oestreicher, Maddie Pazoreskis, Michaela Pepin, Rachel Purcell, Katie Schroeder, Natalie Schaefer, Magdalena Sorrentino, Jack Thibault, Elizabeth Sarah Welch, Carly Whiteside, Kaley Woudell, Serena Zopeda, Middle-Level Education, Ivy Befeller, Gabby Churchman, Caleb Marcus, Megan Zalaskis, Physical Education, Louis Angeloni, Seth Baird, Haley Burns, Zoe Lang, Kyle Roy, Mackay Yerkes, Secondary Education, Daniel Alessio, Kylie Benton, McKenna Basette, Leah Endler, Jamie Griffin, Colin Henke, Sam Joyner, Caitlin Cavunas, Avery Kupfer, Claire Lennon Honors College, her thesis, Emergent Bilingual Classroom Support, a Comparative Study in Secondary Mathematics Education, Kristin Mangipanello, McPherson, Jenny O'Neill, Megan Roche, Benjamin Stewart, Tyler Willard, Annora Worthington. It's time for me to give you your charge. University of Vermont College of Education and Social Service graduates, I leave you with a quote from John Dewey. The things in civilization we most prize are not ourselves. They exist by the grace of the doings and sufferings of the continuous human community in which we are a link. Ours is the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying, and expanding the heritage of values we have received. But those who come after us may receive it more solid and secure, more widely accessible, and more generously shared than we receive it. You are entering professional fields that are essential to a just, equitable, vibrant, and prosperous democracy. You are amazing. You represent the best, the best of your generation, and I charge you to lead, not for just the moment, but for future generations in the longevity of our increasingly fragile planet. My friends, I present to you the Class of 2023. You truly are an amazing class. We're so proud of you, so proud of how you've handled a wild four years, and we wish you all the best. Before we leave, we have one more important set of words to hear from. We have, as you know, beginning and middle, and an end to our ceremony. So I now invite our Cess Banner Bearer, Shannon Harness, to the podium to guide us to the closing of our 220-second commencement. Joining Shannon on the stage is fellow social work graduate, Kristen Arles, who will sign Shannon's address. Shannon, I invite you to the podium to give the closing. Six months into my junior year, I walked into class early, her protocol, said hello to a few classmates, and took my seat. One looked at me, and noted that we were dressed similarly. Twinsies, I thought nothing of it. I wore the same thing every day. Very mountain casual, you know, and last year's fashion was dressing like it was 1994 in Seattle. Slowly, other students started filtering in, and a pattern emerged. Flat flannel, jeans, ball cap, sunglasses. They said the same thing each time, and then sat beside each other. By the sixth person, they were all lined up in a row next to me, getting a big giggly, and I became suspicious, looking down at my flat flannel, jeans, ball cap, and sunglasses. Then it hit me. It was April 1st. April Fool's Day. Embarrassed and blushing, I said, oh, it's April Fool's Day, and I'm the fool. Swiftly, one of them said, no, we're just big Shannon fans. That's when I knew I had found my people in Vermont, and I was where I belonged. It was the first time since leaving Colorado, I felt part of the community again. When I joined the Social Work Program as a non-traditional, first-generation, 40-year-old transfer student in 2020, my wife and I had just relocated from Colorado to an isolated farm in Vermont. We had no friends nearby, had just quit and started new jobs, and I lived away from home five days a week to attend classes at UVM. To say it was a stressful and lonely time is an understatement. I loved the classes, the conversations we would have, but I wondered how I could ever fit in with my classmates who were 20 years younger than me. I felt like an imposter. I missed my Colorado community, and I wondered how I could ever get through three years of school at an academic level I had never experienced without the support of my people. It's scary to leave everything you've known behind and go off into the unknown. To leave your friends, family, the familiar places that have shaped you into yourself, I faced this situation many times in the past 30 years. I left Kansas City, Missouri where I was born and raised at 19 for the Marine Corps. Four years later, I left my Marine brothers in Iraq as my service ended and I was thrust back into the civilian world. Seven years later, I was again faced with entering the unknown. One night, I was talking to my mom on the phone about being afraid of leaving my family and relationships behind for a job in Colorado, a dream I'd had since I was 13. My mom said bluntly, Shannon, don't wait for some day because some day it may never come. At each of these crossroads, I faced a choice staying where I felt stuck but familiar and safe or taking a risk, stepping into the unknown a failure and the potential of growth. Every major transition has cost me something but what I've gained has been invaluable. Expanded community, new friendships and relationships, love, purpose and meaning, drive, inspiration, knowledge and wonder. I'd never have found my place in this community without taking a risk. Over the past two years, my classmates and I have transformed from nervous and anxious imposters into confident social workers. We've grown together, confided in each other, argued, cried, learned from one another and taken up each other's battles. As much as we'd like to think that we are, our cohort isn't special. I am certain you've all formed similar bonds with your classmates during your time at UVM. Don't throw that away. You're going to need those people to support you through your next transition and they're going to need you. When you get to where you're going find your people and build upon the community you've found here. Find more people that share your values. Find more people who promote personal and professional growth. Find more people who you can be vulnerable with. Find more people who will fight for you. Find more people who will dress up in a plaid flannel, jeans, ball cap and sunglasses on April Fool's Day just to show you how much you mean to them. As you take the next risk these people will be your safety net. So, pull out your phones. I know you have them on you. Get the contacts of the person on your left and your right. The people who have helped shape you Yeah, you might already have them. The people who have helped shape you over the past few years and the person sitting here at graduation today. The people who make you think of your April first. Don't let them slip away and don't wait for some day. Thank you. At this time I would like to ask the audience and graduates to stand if able. While we begin our recessional please remain in your seats until the platform party, faculty and student recessional has ended. I leave us with this reflection from the National Youth Poet Laureate and Activist Amanda Gorman. There's always light only if we are brave enough to see it only if we are brave enough to be it. Dean Katie Shepard recessional and congratulations 2023 UVM SESS graduates.