DOHA, QATAR – Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar celebrated its 7th Annual Convocation on Sunday, August 22. The event officially welcomed the Class of 2014 to the Carnegie Mellon Qatar family. The 85 students, along with Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty and staff, participated in the formal event that was held in the three-story atrium of the Carnegie Mellon building in Education City. Carnegie Mellon Qatar invited an audience of around 450 including parents and family members as well as the corporate community and representatives from Qatar Foundation. The 85 new enrolled students, brings the total student body to 305 undergraduates.
The Class of 2014 is made up of 42 women and 43 men. Twenty-seven students are Qatari nationals, with the remaining 58 students representing 25 different nationalities. Forty-three students plan to study business administration, 21 computer science and 21 information systems.
The convocation ceremony began with the traditional procession of faculty and the new freshman class, led by the Carnegie Mellon bagpiper, John Gasper. Everyone was then welcomed by the student body president, Sara Abbas (class of 2012) who stated, “It is the formal start of your university career, it is a bookend, with graduation being the opposite bookend”. Khadeejah Al-Husseiny (class of 2013) student speaker, enlightened new students by sharing stories and experiences from freshman year and offered advice and insight into what the incoming class can expect at Carnegie Mellon Qatar.
G. Richard Tucker, Ph.D., Dean of Carnegie Mellon, Qatar, admired the work of Howard Gardner—an educational psychologist at Harvard University in his keynote speech. G. Richard Tucker quotes Howard Gardner, to offer advice to the students about being prepared in order to succeed: “The minds that you, our students, will need to succeed in the years ahead are: a disciplinary mind: mastery of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as one “disciplinary craft”; a synthesizing mind: the ability to integrate diverse information and to communicate it clearly and effectively to others; a creating mind: the ability to clarify and uncover new solutions, new approaches; a respectful mind: an awareness of, and an appreciation for, differences among peoples, their values, attitudes and ways of life; and fifth, an ethical mind: fulfillment of your responsibilities as a member of society”.
Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, Tucker served as President of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC and as Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at McGill University. He has published more than 200 books, articles, or reviews concerning diverse aspects of second language learning and teaching. After joining the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1992, Tucker became head of the Modern Languages Department in 1995 and held that post for 12 years. Under his leadership the department prospered, earning a reputation as one of the university’s strongest teaching units. In 2003, he was named the Paul Mellon Professor of Applied Linguistics and in 2006 he was named a University Professor, the highest distinction a faculty member can achieve at Carnegie Mellon. Tucker received the university’s Doherty Award for Sustained Contributions to Excellence in Education in 2007.
The traditional presentation of students, and the candle lighting, unique to Carnegie Mellon Qatar was announced by John Robertson. Each of the new students joined Dean Tucker in raising their candle as a symbol of their new journey together as the class of 2014.
The new freshmen were then formally presented to the program directors in their selected majors. The ceremony concluded with a recessional followed by Iftar.
Convocation is a long-standing university tradition that is held on or before the first day of classes of the fall semester. It is the official start of the academic year, and the welcoming of the incoming class to Carnegie Mellon University.
