Slightly over 300 students—spanning nearly two generations and representing a myriad of professions and backgrounds—attended the School of General Studies Class Day on Monday, where speakers lauded the completion of their “nontraditional education.”
Keynote speaker Philippe Reines, GS ’00 and a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressed students and family members on South Lawn about his own unusual rise from student to politician. Reines explained that he was “not a traditional 21 year-old finishing off four tidy years of college,” but rather, he had several stints in academia, including at the Harvard University Extension School, before beginning a full-time career as a student at GS in the fall of 1998.
One GS political science degree later, he had little knowledge of what he wanted to do with his life. Reines decided to throw all his eggs in one basket and “take that basket” to work as a member of Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000. This so-called nontraditional approach, he later explained, embodies the atypical track for which General Studies students are renowned.
“Professionally speaking, everything good that has happened in my life stems from that campaign,” Reines said.
He warned the crowd to “never let them see you sweat” as Reines recalled his first interview with Clinton, who he said “keeps her office pretty toasty.” It was during this interview that he was offered his first job with her.
He noted the significance of his experience at GS, saying that, “there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about and value my time here.” Reines also told the graduates that “your experiences before and during your time here will prove much more valuable than you might realize at this moment.”
Other speakers at the ceremony echoed Reines’ focus on GS students’ nontraditional courses of study. Peter Awn, dean of GS, ruminated on the diversity of students that comprise the school.
“Whether our students are dancers, entrepreneurs...or firefighters...whether they are international students or Americans, they receive the same superb education as all Columbia undergraduates,” he said.
University President Lee Bollinger followed Awn’s remarks by further commending the wide array of GS students. “There is no group that will graduate from Columbia today or in the next several days that more embodies the spirit of what education really is than you,” Bollinger said. “You’re the most diverse class in the Ivy League in every possible way...your heart is the purest for education of anybody here at Columbia.”
Class salutatorian Emily Holland discussed her own atypical path to graduation, chronicling the lessons that she has learned from her experiences in Europe, from her current job as a yoga instructor, and from her fellow classmates. Her peers, she said, “speak greatly to what it means to be human.”
Following the presentation of graduates and the awarding of several departmental honors, David Hylden, who is known for his anthropological work in Cambodia and elsewhere, gave the valedictory address. He, like the speakers that preceded him, reflected on the significance of the “different” choices he and his classmates have made. “As GS students, we also appreciate the lessons we learned from making uncommon choices,” Hylden said. “We achieve differently... but the end result is that we make it happen.”