Graduation

The Student Alumni Ambassadors and other registered student organizations are sponsoring the first ever Grad Week, a week of events to celebrate the graduating class of 2008. "A lot of people wanted a senior week," said Sarah Losh, junior in LAS and one of the Student Alumni Ambassadors who helped plan the events.

While some students dream of scoring a big business job and making big bucks after graduating from college, others want to experience another side of life.
Stephanie Chin, senior in Business, said she thought about jumping into the 9 to 5 lifestyle by working in marketing for British Petroleum, but she has decided upon a different path.

As the semester's end approaches, it comes time for the University's graduates to move on into the real world. Graduation is a time to celebrate accomplishments, reminisce with old friends, and most of all for some, receive gifts.

T.I.S.Bookstore has found a variety of alumni and graduation memorabilia sell well each year.

The day before his interview with the Chicago Marshall Scholarship panel, Ian Clausen, senior in LAS and the first University student to be awarded the scholarship in more than 10 years, finally bought a suit that fit him.

The Marshall Scholarship provides roughly 40 recipients with two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom, which Clausen will use to study theological ethics at the University of Edinburgh.

Meghan Collins has never been a typical student.

While her elementary school peers aspired to be firefighters, doctors and teachers in their adulthood, Collins declared that she wanted to be a Supreme Court justice in fourth grade.

"I idolized Sandra Day O'Connor," she said.

I was asked to write this column not because I have ever written an opinion piece or have particularly articulate ones, at that. I am the lone graduating senior on the news staff of The Daily Illini, one of few upperclassmen who have not assumed an editor position at this publication.

Not even a year after speaking at my own high school graduation, I am contemplating college graduation - not my own of course, but the University class of 2008.

It's terrifying for me to even imagine graduating college and moving on to the real world right now, but I know it will happen someday.

While the rest of us are weighed down by finals, the class of 2008 is preparing for graduation, new jobs, moving or even continuing their education. Hopefully their time at the University, both in and out of class, has prepared them well for any situation they may face in the future.

After graduation students are faced with finding a new place to live whether they move back home or decide to venture out on their own.

Tenant unions off-campus rarely exist anymore, said Esther Patt, coordinator of the University tenant union.

"In most places, you're not going to be able to find anything like us," Patt said.

No. 2 "Sing along with that blond-haired kid who shoots around campus on his Rollerblades screaming obscure R&B songs," said Ian H. Besler, senior in Journalism. No. 3 "Enjoy the nice weather on the quad because you won't always have these opportunities," said Ajay Khatri, senior in Economics.

No. 18 "Lay on the quad on a beautiful day," said Jenny Mulhern, senior in Human nutrition. No. 19 "Go mud sliding in frat park," said Katie Walsh, senior in Marketing. No. 20 "Study abroad," said Kimberly Kruzynski, senior in Finance. No. 21 "Live with three girls," said AJ Benjavi, senior in Electrical Engineering.