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Faculty and staff of the iSchool gathered in UW’s Red Square on June 9 for a pre-convocation reception with students, families and friends. This lovely summer evening in Seattle included dessert, espresso and jazz tunes from The Mosaic Quintet. Afterwards, graduates from all four academic programs, including the iSchool’s second and third PhD graduates, received their diplomas in Meany Theatre.
Dean Harry Bruce was especially proud of doctoral students, Lorri Mon and Martha Kellogg Smith, who are among the iSchool’s first PhD graduates. Lorri’s dissertation was titled “User Perceptions of Digital Reference Services” and Martha’s dissertation title was “Art Information Use and Needs of Non-Specialists: Evidence in Art Museum Visitor Studies.”
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Betty Mayfield, Head Librarian at Vulcan, Inc. and Bruce Brown, Chief Information Officer at T-mobile gave “welcome to the profession” speeches to the MLIS, Informatics and MSIM grads and a number of awards were presented to top students. including the Eisenberg Award for Excellence in Informatics given to who graduated from the undergraduate program.
Selected by his peers for outstanding and excellent work, Andrew Martin won the Eisenberg award this year. Andrew came to the UW iSchool from the University of California in 2003. Studying cognitive and computer science in California’s sunny bay area, Andrew came to Seattle to work with Dr. Melody Ivory-Ndiaye on the Universal Benefits from Information Technology (UBIT) program. Andy has taken his excellent information skills to Seattle based aQuantive, Inc. where we know he’ll do a stellar job.
In total, 130 graduates walked across the stage of the Meany Theatre and each enjoyed a moment in the limelight. Dean Harry Bruce declared the evening a resounding success. In his closing remarks, Dean Bruce paraphrased author Garrison Keillor by stating that our iSchool graduates are certainly “above average.”