{"id":3519,"date":"2022-05-24T09:28:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T08:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/?p=3519"},"modified":"2022-05-27T16:05:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T15:05:03","slug":"michael-crick-my-abiding-memory-is-the-sheer-joy-of-the-occasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2022\/05\/24\/michael-crick-my-abiding-memory-is-the-sheer-joy-of-the-occasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Crick: My abiding memory is the sheer joy of the occasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Award-winning journalist Michael Crick witnessed several of our May graduation ceremonies in Canterbury Cathedral.\u00a0 As you can see f<\/span>ro<\/span>m this blog, he was in his element! <\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“I became a lay member of the council of the university last autumn, but during my first few months on the council it was difficult to get a proper feel for the university because of Covid restrictions.<\/p>\n

“Then I saw an appeal in the email news bulletin for volunteers to help out on graduation days.\u00a0 \u201cWhy not?\u201d I thought.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do one day in each of the four sessions in 2022, and it will be great way to meet recent students, their families, and members of staff, and to immerse myself in what the university is all about.<\/p>\n

“I did two ceremonies one day in Canterbury a couple of weeks ago.\u00a0 I loved it.\u00a0 I was kitted out in a blue and gold gown (strictly it should only have been blue only.)\u00a0 I helped with laying the programmes on the seats and in guiding people to their places, but then I was asked to hand out the graduation certificates.<\/p>\n

“I was in my element.\u00a0 As each new graduate walked past I gave them a big smile to catch their eye, and then handed over the certificate whispering a few words, trying to vary what I said each time, or making a joke of it, say, when someone got an especially loud cheer from their friends.\u00a0 I was meeting people for only for 2-3 seconds, but it felt like making friends for life \u2013 almost 400 in one day!<\/p>\n

“There was also plenty of time both before and after the formal ceremony to speak to people about what they thought of the university and the course they\u2019d studied.\u00a0 I\u2019m actually quite a shy person, but as a TV reporter I\u2019ve learnt how to seize the moment and go up to strangers, introduce myself and chat to them (and the blue and gold gown helped on this occasion).\u00a0 One trick outside on the lawn was to approach a group taking photos of themselves, and offer to take a photo of all of them altogether.\u00a0 They almost always accepted \u2013 it broke the ice and the conversation flowed.<\/p>\n

“My abiding memory is the sheer joy of the occasion.\u00a0 This was one of the exciting, memorable days of these new graduates\u2019 lives, taking part in a great historic setting, the culmination of several years hard work.\u00a0 Now for one day free of work and pressure, they were joined by their proud parents, families and friends.\u00a0 It was great to take part in that, to share their happiness and sense of achievement, to watch young men and women setting off on their careers and new lives.<\/p>\n

“I can\u2019t wait to do it again, and I strongly recommend to all university staff and also my fellow council members, that they volunteer for a ceremony or two.”<\/p>\n

You can see some of the highlights of the ceremonies here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Award-winning journalist Michael Crick witnessed several of our May graduation ceremonies in Canterbury Cathedral.\u00a0 As you can see from this blog, he was in his … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56138,"featured_media":3521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118124],"tags":[25218,148224,260523,905],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3519"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3600,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions\/3600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}