{"id":8,"date":"2020-09-21T09:22:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T16:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/?p=8"},"modified":"2020-09-25T13:45:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T20:45:35","slug":"we-celebrate-the-class-of-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/we-celebrate-the-class-of-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"We Celebrate the Class of 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a show of love, respect and admiration for the class of 2020<\/strong>, the Alumni Association gathered written and video tributes to the class from alumni around the world, who joined together to offer a heartfelt virtual embrace<\/a>. Academic departments held receptions via Zoom to reflect on seniors\u2019 accomplishments, President Maria Klawe created personalized congratulatory posters upon request, and there was a Senior Celebration webinar May 17.<\/p>\n

We also wanted to hear about the creative ways families celebrated their student\u2019s graduation from Harvey Mudd. Thank you to everyone who shared comments and\/or photos of their events; this is just a small sample from our 208 spring graduates. We look forward to when we can gather with the Class of 2020 on campus for the traditional HMC Commencement ceremony.<\/p>\n

Alex Moody<\/h2>\n

\"Alex\u201cWe played ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ while Alex opened the diploma he received in the mail. We had a Zoom party where family and friends gave him advice. It was very nice\u2014 four relatives over 93 years old and six under 30 and all ages in between. And, he had his good friends from HMC and CMS swim team \u2019shelter in place\u2019 with him for two weeks to celebrate graduating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Lucy Carrico P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Anant Kandoi<\/h2>\n

\"Anant\u201cThank you HMC for giving a wonderful four years to Anant and imparting invaluable knowledge and overall development to him. We celebrated Anant\u2019s home quarantine graduation ceremony in Mumbai, India, by decorating our house with photos of Anant\u2019s memories of the time spent at HMC. We had a couple of friends over to celebrate the occasion. We had requested messages from some professors, and they were extremely kind to send their personal congratulatory video messages for Anant. Anant\u2019s friends from HMC made a very nice video of their time and journey of four years. We popped a celebratory champagne and had a celebration cake and lunch for Anant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Prashant Kandoi P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Elena Romero<\/h2>\n

\"Elena\u201cWe had a small celebration with local family and a champagne toast in a Zoom get-together with family in other states.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Bryan and Christina Romero P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Bashir<\/h2>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Michelle Lilly<\/h2>\n

\"Michelle\u201cWe celebrated Michelle\u2019s HMC graduation with a surprise drive-by of family and friends. We put out an HMC banner and congratulations balloon bouquet and sent Michelle out to the front of the house at the designated time. It was a great success! Lots of honking, waving and signs and her favorite surprise: her twin sister, Kate, cycling by (after an 18-mile ride from her house)!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Heather Allen-Lilly and James Lilly P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Cole Kurashige<\/h2>\n

\"Maria\u201cCelebrating our graduate Cole in the time of COVID\u2013 19! We watched the two programs online, and I had tears whenever I saw his name or his picture. Decorations, a special dinner, cake and, of course, gifts!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Anne Kurashige and Reid Kurashige P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Meenakshi Venkatraman<\/h2>\n

\u201cMeena\u2019s cousins in India planned a special treat by getting everyone to dress up just as we would have for graduation. We had a Zoom meeting with family in Bangalore, Mumbai, San Diego and Singapore. We each talked about our memories of her and her achievements at various stages in her life. It was a very special moment for her knowing everyone was there cheering her on and celebrating the momentus occasion!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Pushpa Venkatraman P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Madeleine Carolyn Kerr<\/h2>\n

\"Madeleine\u201cMadeleine\u2019s sisters and brothers celebrated a two-day party in honor of their sister. Beaches reopened, and we took a shoreline walk from the Hermosa Beach Pier to Malaga Cove Market to have an iced coffee and dolmas. Afterward, we enjoyed Madeleine connecting with the physics department and her fellow classmates. The following day, we surprised Madeleine with a decorated home and entryway with balloons and huge picture posters of Madeleine in action as a physicist and actor. We watched President Klawe\u2019s address and later enjoyed an outdoor meal with grandparents and masks, detailing our favorite memories of Madeleine\u2019s college life. We unanimously agreed: \u2018Isaac\u2019s Eye\u2019 and Madeleine as Macbeth at Pomona College were top experiences. Thank you, Mudd and The Claremont Colleges!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Stephanie Culver P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephanie Blankley<\/h2>\n

\"Stephanie\u201cWe hosted five additional HMC students who shared Easter, Mother\u2019s Day and Stephanie\u2019s graduation with us. Sangrias and mojitos were the graduation theme, with an \u2019open house\u2019 staggering of guests outdoors and plenty of food throughout. Three dogs and a pool added to the celebration on a gorgeous sunny day. \u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Marie Blankley P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Miles President<\/h2>\n

\"Miles\u201cAs Miles\u2019 parents, we made an extra effort to ensure Commencement weekend was made particularly special for him. We decorated the inside of the house as well as the outside (to Miles\u2019 mild embarrassment), and I made his favorite dinner and dessert. We had not played a board game in ages, so we played Monopoly on Saturday night. That was very much appreciated by Miles as he always enjoyed playing board games with us when he was younger. There was lots of laughter that night. A few family and friends joined us on Commencement day to celebrate while maintaining social distancing in our backyard. Our nextdoor neighbors also stopped by with balloons, a \u2019congratulations\u2019 sign and sprayed silly string on Miles while playing Kool & the Gang\u2019s \u2019Celebration.\u2019 It was a happy and memorable weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Jitske De Groeve P20 and Kevin President P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Forest Kobayashi<\/h2>\n

\"Forest\u201cThe highlight was the math department\u2019s Zoom celebration for the seniors! And, we made pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Richard Monkman P20<\/span><\/p>\n

Jenna Kahn (and Isaac Zinda, Syndey Wallace, Prakarsh Pandey)<\/h2>\n

\"Jenna\u201cWhen HMC closed, our daughter, Jenna, returned home to Georgia\u2014with three friends. The four Mudders completed their classes living in our basement. We held our own little graduation ceremony in the living room with \u2019diplomas\u2019 we made ourselves. Danny officiated in his own graduation gown from his MBA ceremony. Even the dog, Honey B, participated. Each Mudder also received a cool cutting board adorned with a \u2019steampunk\u2019 brain and inscribed with Harvey Mudd Class of 2020 (awesome Etsy find). We completed the celebration with a home-cooked feast and champagne in our dining room festooned with graduation decorations. Congratulations HMC Class of 2020!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Diane Harris, Danny Kahn, Maya Kahn P20<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a show of love, respect and admiration for the class of 2020, the Alumni Association gathered written and video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}