AOUG at Degree Ceremonies
AOUG celebrating with new graduates.
The degree ceremony season began in March with the Yorkshire event, which was held at the Conference Centre, in Harrogate, and runs throughout the year, with a short break over the Summer. Then right up until the end of October when the Portsmouth ceremony will close the festivities.
AOUG members have assisted at these ceremonies since 1987, when the then Vice- Chancellor John Horlock, invited members of the Steering Committee to attend. Their role was to explain to new graduates about a wonderful new opportunity available to them, that of an Association of Open University Graduates that was due to be officially launched the folowing June. Gowns were provided by The Open University and AOUG members have been able to share a mutual empathy with the graduants about to be presented on the various platforms.
Over the years, AOUG members have continued to attend to talk to new graduates and their families This year, although disappointed not to be allowed our own stand, some AOUG Members have volunteered to assist on The Open University`s own Alumni stand, to continue to meet and greet the graduates and their families. Their role this year is to give them the Alumni badge and information. AOUG information is also available but now on the Alumni stand for anyone interested to take away and this year it is presented in a bright colourful new folder that we hope will catch the graduates eye.
However AOUG still continues to be part of the procession party, in our own right, sitting up on the stage during the actual ceremony and this we consider a real honour. Each ceremony venue has a different style but each is so special, with their unique mixture of traditions and celebrations, the seriousness of a right of passage, matched with the spontanious outbursts of congratulatory celebrations from the friends and family attending. I personally have witnessed everything from enthusiastic clapping and standing to cheer, right through the spectrum of celebration to one that will always remain in my memory. That was of one at a Cardiff ceremony in St David`s Hall, when not only did the rugby rattles come out in full volume but a full sized bedsheet was unfurled from the balcony with Congratulations Rhian in large letters painted across it, bringing the whole auditorium to their feet.
Most graduates only get one chance to celebrate so why not make the most of the occasion! We as AOUG members are lucky a we get the chance to re-live the experience over and over again. Each of these graduate crossing the many, many different stages, has a story to tell. A story of struggle and sacrifice: a story of dedication matched sometimes with despair: but all ending with the story of sucess, achievement and a new found confidence in themselves. For AOUG members sitting there clapping away on the stage, the strong feelings of empathy as the memories of our own struggles and achievements come flooding back and we get to experience those feeling over again.
If you would like the chance to be part of one of these platform parties and to process on behalf of AOUG, then please contact the AOUG Office and who knows you might be sitting up there on a degre ceremony stage very soon.