SCT hosts winter commencement at Temple Performing Arts Center

photos by Ethan Schwartz

August 2011 and January 2012 graduates from the School of Communications and Theater returned to campus Feb. 3 for the winter commencement ceremony.

Since they have completed their classes, many have been working toward their first jobs, preparing for advanced degrees or planning their next steps.

The day before graduation, Kaitlin Murphy, StOC ’12, landed her first job as the public relations coordinator at The Hill at Whitemarsh, an assisted living facility in Lafayette Hill, Pa. After applying for more than 100 positions, she’s excited to be gaining on-the-job experience, continuing to network in her field and, of course, earning a regular paycheck.

Murphy just was one of 420 undergraduates and 19 graduate and doctoral students were conferred degrees, each of whom had his or her own story.

Joseph Dempsey, BTMM ’12, has taken the past few weeks off to refresh after completing his undergraduate education and to “map out a plan.” He aspires to become a late night talk show host, but is ready to jump into the broadcasting field however and wherever possible.

The graduates were represented on stage by one of their peers – student speaker Jason Miller, BTMM ’12. Miller, who started his SCT education in the late 1980s, returned to Temple after a 17-year break to complete his degree.

He said his return was “an incredible experience. I observed the landscape; the place sure looked different.”

He recalled an on-campus collision with another student who had his attention focused on his smart phone as a moment that spoke volumes to the changes on campus since his departure. The other student apologized, saying he was making notes of a solution to a physics problem he had been working on for a long time. That’s when the “low battery” alarm sounded on Miller’s cell phone.

“He was wearing a jacket with a solar panel in it and offered to charge my phone as we collected our things,” Miller said.

Deborah Veney Robinson, who earned her master’s degree in mass communications in 1997, addressed the graduates as the alumni speaker. The senior communications officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation brought with her several “pearls of wisdom” to share. These ranged from “it’s not important what happens to you, but how you react to it,” to “learn all you can, because you never know when it will come in handy,” to “the written word lasts a long time.”

Veney Robinson also suggested the graduates keep someone in their lives who would always tell them the truth. “You are never as good or as bad as you think you are,” she said.