On Friday July 6th 2018 we held the commencement ceremony for our third EUC cohort. The class of 2018 indulged in a whole week of commencement events among which a pub quiz, a students & staff brunch, an award night and culminated with the commencement ceremony. Over 400 people – consisting of around a hundred students from the class of 2018, their families and friends from all over the world, attended the ceremony. We welcomed the students at EUC for some gown fitting and cap throwing practice while taking a walk down memory lane. There friendly chats and high spirits were complemented by a group photo in formal attire.
For the official part of the day we moved to the Erasmus Building Auditorium, which is our typical location for this occasion. The celebration opened with our master of ceremonies Alex Whitcomb pointing to the identity of this cohort, followed by a welcome speech of our dean prof. dr Maarten Frens. The dean shared some of his fond memories about the class of 2018, stayed true to his liking of popular references and related his advise to the movie Hairspray. He encouraged the graduates to be fearless, adaptable and open-minded.
Our keynote speaker who addressed the graduates was the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag. Minister Kaag spoke briefly about her professional path and touched upon the significance of a liberal arts and sciences degree in terms of substance and vision as being essential for the future generations. She also emphasized on the importance of collaboration, humanism, critique and being critical, as well as the opposition to dogmatism. She finished her speech with the inspiring words to "Never chase the fist star, always look at the horizon. And remember to play it forward, and play it back".
Additionally, the students enjoyed also two musical performances by their peers. One was an original piece by a graduating student, Eva van Reeven, called Blossoms which was inspired by her EUC experience. The other was a modern take on Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi performed by Lucas Vermeer and Amber Winter.
The day wrapped up with a short reception and many interesting snapshots of the students in front of the Erasmus statue.
