Eighty-five new students officially joined the Carnegie Mellon family at the Class of 2014 Convocation. Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s newest batch of students includes 42 women and 43 men. Twenty-seven students are Qatari nationals, with the remaining 58 students representing 25 different nationalities.
Forty-three students of the new students plan to study business administration, 21 plan to study computer science and 21 plan to study information systems. The 85 new students bring the total undergraduate student body to 305.
The Class of 2014, along with thee entire Carnegie Mellon Qatar community, participated in a formal event in the three-story atrium of the Carnegie Mellon Building in Education City. More than 500 invited guests, including parents, family members, the corporate community and representatives from Qatar Foundation, attended the event.
The convocation ceremony began with Carnegie Mellon bagpiper John Gasper leading the procession of faculty and the new class. Student body president Sara Abbas (class of 2012) then welcomed everyone to the event. “It is the formal start of your university career. It is one bookend, with graduation being the opposite bookend,” said Abbas.
Student speaker Khadeejah Al-Husseiny (class of 2013) enlightened the new students by sharing stories and experiences from her first year and offering advice and insight into what the incoming class can expect at Carnegie Mellon Qatar.
In his first address as dean, G. Richard Tucker, Ph.D., chose the words of Harvard educational psychologist Howard Gardner to offer advice on being prepared to succeed. Tucker quoted the five minds students need to succeed in the years ahead.
– Disciplinary mind for mastery of the liberal arts and sciences as well as one disciplinary craft.
– Synthesizing mind for the ability to integrate diverse information and to communicate it clearly and effectively to others.
– Creating mind to have the ability to clarify and uncover new solutions, new approaches.
– Respectful mind for an awareness of, and an appreciation for, differences among peoples, their values, attitudes and ways of life.
– Ethical mind for fulfilment of your responsibilities as a member of society.
John Robertson, assistant dean for academic affairs, led the traditional presentation of students to their department heads. This included a candle lighting ceremony unique to Carnegie Mellon Qatar. Symbolizing the passing and sharing of knowledge, Dean Tucker lit a candle from the central candle. He then passed that light to the department heads who, in turn, passed it to the new students. The students joined Dean Tucker in raising their candles as a symbol of their journey together as the Class of 2014.
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.
