Photos & Phi Beta Kappa + Food

Earlier in the month, I drove to Abby's college town, Oxford, OH, to take some photos of her in her cap and gown. We knew from friends and from seeing photography shoots on campus towards the end of the school year that college graduation photo shoots are a "thing" for some. Abby and I both wanted professional photos taken on campus. Well, we didn't end up with professional, but we got photos :). 

The campus of her school, Miami (of Ohio) is somewhat large but not huge so walking to several locations on campus was not that big of a deal, except towards the end when Abby's feet started to hurt due to her shoes. I took over 500 pictures but was able to easily condense that number pretty quickly. I'm posting just a few of the ones that I liked.

We started at the famous sun dial on campus. There's a story about it/ behind it, -whatever that is I have long since forgotten since Abby's campus visit when she was in high school.

She's not in her gown here (obviously!!). She wanted some pics with her gown and some without. Also, she didn't wear her cap in any of the pictures. She will wear it on graduation.

All of the locations that we went to (except the sun dial) had some meaning for Abby. I enjoyed walking around with her and hearing about the various places that she took me to for photos. 

About a month ago, Abby received an email from her school stating that she had been nominated to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. It's an honor society for arts and science majors. It has chapters in only 10% of all colleges in the US and only about 10% of arts and science students are invited to join.

Her school had an induction ceremony on Thursday. Since we're so close to Abby's school, it was a no- brainier to go to it (parents were invited!).

The ceremony was really nice: not super long, impressive speakers were super complimentary of the group of students being inducted, and Abby got more graduate bling. Win, win, win. 

We are so proud of our Absy Cadabsy!! Abby didn't go to high school her senior year of high school. She was homeschooled per choice (we didn't call it that; I didn't instruct her, but she did all of her instruction at home) her senior year of high school. She took dual high school/ college classes online, worked part time at Donnie's firm and was a fitness influencer- just a tad bit an atypical senior in high school. Then she started college in the fall and she went from being at home a lot to living away from home at school. She changed her major after her first year. She found her "people." Yes, there were other non partyers at the party school. (I think all five of them are friends! Just kidding, there are probably more than that.)  But she really did find people like her- people who took, not necessarily the road less traveled but the road differently traveled... And that road has brought her to an amazing place. 

Proud papa and Abby

I mentioned food (in the title- mainly for the word's alliterative quality)- the ceremony started at 5:00 pm. We had no idea exactly how long it would be but seemed likely it would end around dinner time. We planned to get something out to eat somewhere in Oxford afterwards. Abby may or may not have been able to join us as she had an evening obligation to attend. Much to our surprise, after the ceremony there was a reception with a very nice array of appetizer type food. We ate enough to satiate our hunger and didn't need to go out to eat. That saved us time and money- another win win (this evening was full of win-win and win-win-wins; perhaps that should be the post's title!!).

These sugar cookies were so good. And how cute are they? (Dare I say, win-win due to the good flavor and presentation?)

The ceremony was held at the student union. We stopped at the restrooms on our way out of the ceremony and when I saw a pillar with a quote from Benjamin Franklin about education, I wanted to get a picture of it. And then one with Abby and me and the quote:

While we were taking this, the president of the university walked out of the room where the ceremony had been and Abby asked him if she could get a picture with him. I loved that she wanted a picture with President Crawford. Speaking of the president- he received an award at the ceremony and so we got to hear his (and his wife's who also received an award) prestigious academic achievements. Both President Crawford and his wife received Phd's in physics. President Crawford was at one time dean of engineering at Brown University and then prior to his tenure at Miami, he was vice president and associate provost at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to that, he is an innovator. He has twenty one patents to his name! Super impressive- I didn't know all that about him prior to the ceremony. It makes me feel better about Miami and the dollars that we've spent on Abby's education- that its president is a man of great intellect and that he's a doer and creator. When we met him, he was super personable, friendly and  complimentary of Abby (I mean, he doesn't know her personally but he took the time to ask her questions and express that he was proud of her achievements). 

The entire evening was one filled with gratefulness for Abby's diligence in the work she's done at Miami these past four years and getting to celebrate that with her.

 

Linking up with Joanne for Talking About it Tuesday