Reynolds School's graduation reception celebrates spring 2019 graduating class

More than 100 students graduate from the journalism school, the largest class in its history.

May 20, 2019
Krysta Scripter
A man in graduation robes smiles before a large group of students.

Associate professor Bob Felten, who retired this semester, stands before the spring 2019 Reynolds School of Journalism graduating class during the graduation reception.

Reynolds School's graduation reception celebrates spring 2019 graduating class

More than 100 students graduate from the journalism school, the largest class in its history.

May 20, 2019
Krysta Scripter

Associate professor Bob Felten, who retired this semester, stands before the spring 2019 Reynolds School of Journalism graduating class during the graduation reception.

A man in graduation robes smiles before a large group of students.

Associate professor Bob Felten, who retired this semester, stands before the spring 2019 Reynolds School of Journalism graduating class during the graduation reception.

The spring class of 2019 was the largest graduating class in the Reynolds School of Journalism’s 97-year history.

Dean Al Stavitsky shared this fact with the large crowd of soon-to-be-graduates and their families in a packed atrium inside the Reynolds School on Thursday, May 16, 2019. This spring, 105 students graduated, including five graduate students from the school’s master's program. The graduation reception offered students a chance to gather with friends, family and faculty before the university’s campus-wide graduation ceremony in the Lawlor Events Center.

“It’s really nice to have an event where we all get to see each other again,” graduating senior Charis Nixon said. “It feels very emotional, very momentous.”

Nixon attended the reception with her family, including her father, Tom Nixon. “It’s just nice to come to such an event ahead of the actual graduation ceremony to spend some time with the graduates and the other parents,” he said.

The graduation reception also had a functional purpose – the graduate photo taken on the steps of the atrium. This semester’s large class spilled out past the stairs, and some family members had to watch the proceedings from the second or third floors.

Dr. Paul Mitchell, coordinator of recruitment and retention, usually gives one last word of advice to the graduating class. This semester, however, Mitchell asked associate professor Bob Felten, who retired this semester, to share final advice.

“They’re leaving much different from the way they came in,” Felten told the crowd. “And while we – my colleagues over here – have something to do with that, mostly, it was them.”

Felten praised the graduating class for their work over the years, telling them what they have learned to do is hard. He told students to remember the standard they set in this building, even as others may compliment work they know not to be their best. 

“As you go out, remember that standard,” he said. “The Reynolds standard is what? Good?”

“Is not good enough!” the graduating class answered back.

Take a look at the event photos below. Congratulations, spring class of 2019!

A faculty member and a student chat indoors.
A student smiles indoors.
The back of two graduation caps.
Two students pose with a faculty member for a selfie indoors.
Back of a grad cap that reads, 'History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.'
Back of a grad cap.
Two students and the dean speak in the atrium.
A parent takes a picture of her student and the dean with her phone.
A student, the dean and a parent pose for a picture.
Three stories of the Reynolds School filled with parents and students.
The group of students and faculty pose in regalia for a photo.
The group of students and faculty do a funny pose in the atrium.
A faculty member speaks to the students in the atrium.
A faculty member speaks to the students in the atrium.
A faculty member speaks to the students in the atrium.
Students and a faculty member pose on the atrium steps.
The graduate students pose in the atrium.
May 20, 2019
Krysta Scripter

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