The sounds of joy and good cheer could be heard across downtown Monterey on Saturday May 18 as friends and family of 284 Monterey Institute students hailing from 31 countries gathered to celebrate their achievements at 2013 Spring Commencement. The ceremony took place on the broad lawn in front of Colton Hall, the original capitol building of the state of California.
In her address to the graduates, commencement speaker and former Monterey Institute president Dr. Clara Yu called her appearance “a very emotional homecoming for me.” Yu was president at MIIS from 2006 through 2008, playing a key role in strengthening the school and preparing it to become a graduate school of Middlebury College, where she previously served as a professor of Chinese and vice president for languages. After a warm welcome from a crowd of 1,800 students, faculty, staff, alumni and family members, Yu exhorted the graduates to be generous—with words and things, with their minds and actions, and with themselves.
Look for more coverage of commencement, including features on student speaker Adnan Adel Al-Hammody and Alumni Achievement Award recipients William Godnick, Sylvio Baltodano, and Amaury Cooper, in the week ahead.