July 9, 2022 • 32 mins
The school year is wrapping up, and students everywhere are gleefully donning their caps and gowns, eager to graduate. This week, to honour the hard work and dedication of students who are Blind and Low Vision, Christine and JJ describe the visuals of convocation ceremonies and regalia. Congratulations, Class of '22!
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Episode Transcript
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JJ Hunt (00:03):
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt
Christine Malec (00:26):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:28):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to me, where
the visuals of current eventsand the world around us get
hashed out in description richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
It's the time of year for graduations. And in
fact, a friend of mine is sayingshe's going to her stepdaughters
graduation and I thought, Oh,how lovely. It's in person,
because so many people missedout on that time honored
tradition. And so we're going totalk about some of the visuals
of graduation ceremonies andcomplications. And JJ, this came
(01:08):
from a listener request.
JJ Hunt (01:10):
Yes, this came from Mark, who's a friend of the
show, a librarian at LaurierUniversity. And Mark thought
that doing an episode oncomplication and graduation
ceremonies would be an excellentway to kind of recognize all the
hard working blind students andtheir proud friends and family.
So we thought that was a lovelysentiment. And so yeah, so we're
(01:30):
gonna describe all the visualsof those ceremonies, the visuals
of the regalia, you know, allthe pomp and circumstance that
comes with graduation andconvocation ceremonies.
Christine Malec (01:39):
Happy memories! A cap and gown is kind of the
quintessential, you know, it's ait's almost like a meta, it's
become a metaphor forachievement. And so shall we
start there?
JJ Hunt (01:51):
Yeah, I mean, the cap and gown is part of this regalia
that that has serious traditionsthat go back a very long time,
the intercollegiate code ofacademic costume weights. No,
this is this is a link that Markactually sent me is just a
(02:13):
fantastic association. So this,okay, so intercollegiate code of
academic costume actually datesback to 1895. And this is a
unified semiotic system forcaps, gowns and hoods. And the
idea was that creating thesespecifics, creating specifics
(02:35):
and instructions and andcodifying regalia for caps gowns
and hoods, would mean that anyobserver in the no could read a
person's gowns, and understandthe degrees that they held their
alma mater, and any academicdistinctions that they had
achieved during their studies,which is pretty wild, like you
(02:57):
can if you know what's what youcan look at a person at a
graduation ceremony, and you cantell everything about their
studies, which is amazing.
Christine Malec (03:06):
And yet no idea.
JJ Hunt (03:07):
I mean, I kind of knew, but I didn't really know. I
thought when Mark suggestedthis, this is going to be a
fairly nice, easy episode,right? A little bit of research.
But the decoding This clothingis incredible, the colors, the
cuts of the sleeves, the type ofstalls that are being worn, the
hoods, all of these meandifferent specific things. And
(03:30):
of course, there are regionaldifferences, the British system,
the American system, theCanadian system, the hybrids of
all of these things, what Idescribed here isn't necessarily
going to be exactly what theregalia means in your location.
An example of how these codesand traditions are put into
place would be something likeMcGill University in Montreal
(03:51):
degree holders at McGill followthe British tradition, but the
university officials they followsomething closer to like
American tradition. So there arehybrids to these of course, I'm
going to do my best to get allof this code right when I'm
describing these images, butgiven how strict it is and how
precise it is, I'm sure I'mgoing to get some details wrong.
(04:13):
So want to start with like yousay the cap and gown. Yeah,
yeah. All right. So the cap isiconic, right? If you look up
graduation clothing, the firstimage the icon, if you're
looking for like a symbol to puton a on a sign or something like
that, it's going to be thesquare cap. There are soft caps
there are Tam's with four sixsides. Those are relatively rare
(04:36):
compared to the square mortarboard cap that's far and away
the most common the Squareitself is fairly rigid. It each
side of the square is betweeneight and a half and 12 inches
long, depending on if it's for akid or an adult. It sits on top
of the head so this mortar boardsits more or less flat on top of
(04:56):
the head, and it's held in placewith a short to have black
fabric that's called a crown ora headband. And like I said, you
know, the square sits fairlyflat, maybe it's tipped up a bit
in the front. It's worn in adiamond configuration. So in
other words, the points of thesquare at the front and back and
(05:16):
at the sides, not flat edges atthe front, back and sides. And
then there's the tassel. So thetassel is centered at the top of
this rigid mortar board on abutton, there's usually a button
up there and the tassel is tiedaround the button, and then it
hangs down. And this is like,like a thick bundle of threads,
(05:37):
usually not woven, but it hangsdown over the side and then it's
frayed at the at the bottom. Soit's a you know, like a little
like a rope or a collection ofthreads that's then tied and
frayed at the bottom, and ithangs down to the on the side of
the hat to about chin length.
Now, the intercollegiate codeonly permits a black tassel. But
the American Council onEducation Code states that the
(06:02):
tassel may either be black, orbe color appropriate to the
subject. And there's a chart,every subject every academic
subject has a different colorassociated with it. So
agriculture is yellow,specifically, maize yellow is
not to be confused with thesocial and natural sciences
(06:23):
which are golden yellow,education is light blue
dentistry is lilac journalism iscrimson music is pink, physical
therapy, sage green, yada, yada,yada, right. And before a
bachelor student in theirbachelor's program, so a student
who has not yet received adegree before they are handed
(06:44):
their first degree, Bachelorstudents at a convocation will
wear their tassel on the right.
And then once you haveofficially graduated, you can
move the tassel to the left. Um,so if you're someone who's
earning a second or third orfourth degree, you will arrive
at your convocation with yourtassel already on your left so
(07:07):
that if it's on the right,you're indicating to everyone
around that you have not yetofficially received your you've
not yet officially received yourfirst degree. Now, I should
note, I have read online that ifyou choose to wear a colored
tassel to identify your subjectarea, you should only do so for
(07:28):
a bachelor's degree. If you weara colored tassel for a master's
degree or a doctorate degree.
I've read that it's consideredgauche.
Christine Malec (07:39):
Right?
JJ Hunt (07:41):
Yeah, it's very specific. And we haven't even
gotten into the gowns yet. Sothe academic gowns are based on
the cloaks of clergy members whowere teachers at medieval
universities. So and the gownsare, again very specific. A
bachelor's gown is differentthan a master's to get gown and
which is different from adoctoral gown all different, and
(08:03):
not surprisingly, you get moreformal and more intricate, the
gowns are more formal andintricate as you move up the
academic ladder. So truly, bythe time you become a university
chancellor, or you know, thepresident of a university, you
could easily hold court at anyrenaissance fair, like that's
getting more and more elaborateand furred, trimmed, and wilder,
(08:26):
more antiquated hats, no joke,they're huge. A bachelor's gown
is long and black and pleated,generally goes down to boat you
know, ankle mid calf length,that wide sleeves that go all
the way to the to the wrist.
It's a silky material, but notsilk bachelors. They're not
supposed to be wearing silkgowns. I think that's for
masters and above, but it's likea silky material kind of often
(08:49):
glossy and more like a polyesterfabric really. And students are
very strongly encouraged to zipthem all the way up to the neck,
especially for the ceremony. Buta lot of students especially
younger students in high school,you know, they're dressed up
under there, they're wearingtheir beautiful professional
looking dresses and their finesuits and so high school
(09:10):
students will often unzipped toshow off their duds underneath.
But then for the ceremonies,they're encouraged to zip them
all the way back up when theycross the stage. The Masters
gown quite similar, but theyhave very strange sleeves.
There's an extra panel of fabricthat hangs down from the
forearms. I've heard some peoplecall them wizards sleeves. If
(09:32):
you hold your arms straight outwearing a master's gown, the
sleeves will hang down likeflaps. And if you put your hands
at your side, the flaps arereally quite a bit longer than
your hands. They really doextend quite long. I've seen
some of the cuts that be reallywhat it looks like is you take a
(09:52):
big wide sleeve so it shut atthe end. But instead of sewing
it shut straight you sew it inin a wide arc, so like it kind
of cuts in, and then there'slike a slit halfway up the arm
to allow the hand to comethrough. Oh, very odd. I'm not
sure what the tradition is orhow this came to be, but that's
(10:13):
what the Masters gown lookslike. And then the master
students, they get hoods. hoodsare not for most bachelor
students only for master'sstudents. But we're going to
talk more about the hoods injust a minute. The doctorial
gowns, these gowns are long,they usually have black as the
base color. And they've got bellshaped sleeves, sometimes with
(10:36):
elastics at the wrists, so theykind of billow out and then they
come back in. Oh, and down thefront of the gowns are two long
panels or vertical stripes. Andthese match three horizontal
stripes across the arms. And thestripes are traditionally
velvet, in contrast with thesilky gown. Now, I believe it's
(10:57):
most common to wear a black robewith velvet stripes in the color
of your academic discipline,just like with the tassels. But
I have seen gowns where thediscipline color is the is the
color of the gown, and thestripes are black velvet. So
yeah, I've seen it kind offlipped. And at the doctoral
(11:17):
level, the gowns can be worn,either open or closed. So if
open the long panels of velvethang down like long lapels, but
if closed, those panels ofvelvet kind of joined together,
and it resembles one single widepanel down the front of the
body.
Christine Malec (11:39):
So what about the hoods, that's our new thing
to me, I never never heard ofthat.
JJ Hunt (11:43):
Yeah, so the academic hood. First off, it's not really
a hood, like don't picture likea hood on a hoodie. It's not
quite the same. It's really aloop of fabric, that you were
kind of like a backwardsnecklace, or you wear it like a
cape, but it's not attached tothe gown. It's it's put on on
(12:03):
top of it. And so it does hangdown your back like a cave. But
it loops around, sits on yourcollarbone and then loops back
over the shoulders, and hangsdown the back. Generally
speaking, the hood is black onthe outside, and has panels and
stripes of colored fabric on theinside, often silk on the inside
(12:25):
with velvet borders around theoutside. So the colors and
patterns represent the collegeor university that confers your
degree. And the level of thedegree. So I believe it is the
velvet trim represents thediscipline. And the silk lining
represents the college oruniversity. And you can't just
(12:46):
like throw this on over yourshoulders and let it hang down
your back all willy nilly, youhave to position it just so. So
when you put it on, you have todrape it symmetrically with the
inside opened up kind of liketurned inside out at this low
hanging loop on your back. Andthat so the colored panels on
(13:06):
the inside create a veryintentional pattern. This is a
pattern that kind of like it'ssomewhere between the stripes on
a bird's wings or the panel on aflag. It's really academic
heraldry. Right. And if you havemore than one advanced degree
from more than one university,my understanding is that you
should not wear two hoods. Youeither wear the hood of the
(13:30):
highest degree that you haveearned or I have read that some
people have custom hoods madethat incorporate the colors of
both institutions. But I thinkthat's a little bit you know,
that's you are talking aboutheraldry, right. So if you
create your own hood, you mightyou know, or those who are in
(13:54):
power and you might findyourself... smited? Or smoted?
Smitten? I don't know...
Christine Malec (14:00):
Ha ha ha! Smote.
JJ Hunt (14:02):
Ha ha. Smote? Do you smote? Heh heh.
Christine Malec (14:07):
What is what is the stole?
JJ Hunt (14:09):
So the stoles are interesting. There are stalls
and honor cords which whichgraduates drape over their
shoulders. Both of them aresimilar to like they're worn
kind of like scarfs draped overthe shoulders and down the
lapels, but not tied. So likeimagine wearing these things
like a scarf that you've justdraped over your shoulders and
let hang down the sides. Thesoles are for recognizing
(14:32):
achievements and honors. So thesoles are like, like silk ties,
but without a tapered end. Sothey both come. They you know,
they come to a point it's likeyou know, maybe five inches
across of silk fabric comes to apoint at each end. You drape it
across your shoulders and theyit hangs down your lapels. And
these are recognizing thingslike if you were a
(14:54):
valedictorian, for example, thenyou might get a stole to
represent that and then Kneehonor cords are very similar in
practice. But the material isdifferent. The honor cords are
like long lengths of braidedcords with tassels at the ends.
So it's quite similar inmaterial to the tassel that
you've got on your cap, exceptthat it's really, really long
(15:17):
and braided. And those youearned through academic
achievement. So like a differentlevel of GPA will get you a
different colored chord. You canalso earn honor chords by being
part of a certain club orsociety. And you can wear
multiple individual chords likeif you are, you know, if you've
got a high GPA and you're partof this club or this society,
(15:40):
those bodies might give youmultiple cords. Or what you can
do is you can braid them alltogether. So you can take all
the different colors and braidthem together to make one honor
cord. Kind of cool. There's alsothis really interesting thing
I've never seen before, I'm notsure if this is more of an
American tradition. But I'veseen pattern to stoles being
(16:01):
worn by black students andLatino students as a way of
showing pride. So there's astole called a Kente stole. It's
based on hand woven patterns of,you know, hand weaving from from
Ghana. And these often featurepatterns and geometric shapes
and golds and greens and blacksand reds. And then there's the
(16:22):
Serape, which is a based on handwoven patterns found in Mexico.
So Serape blankets are very,very common in Mexico, these
hand woven blankets, you know,and the stalls have horizontal
stripes in lots of differentcolors. So, you know, stacks of
similarly colored pallets of youknow, so you've got like blues
(16:44):
and purples and grays or maybethere's a, there's a Serape
stole in greens, and reds andwhites, all different kinds. And
because these aren't, thesearen't academic, these are kind
of pride fashion, the rulesabout them aren't as strict. So
people make their own or, youknow, there are companies you
can go to online, and you canbuy some of these. And they
(17:06):
actually have sometimes sayingsor phrases or things woven right
into the material. So I've seensome that say class of 22, or
whatever they say the name ofthe of the high school that you
know that students go to, I'veseen some that say black lives
matter, some that say black girlmagic, I've seen some that say
(17:27):
Si Se Puede! which is Yes, wecan! Really kind of cool to see
these being used, again, notacademic. So you see them more
at a high school level and lessat a college and university
level, the rules are a littlebit different there.
Christine Malec (17:41):
judging by the apparel. What happens at the
ceremony is probably quitecircumscribed as well. Is that
pretty pretty regimented, too?
JJ Hunt (17:52):
Yeah. So I mean, lots of the elements of the
commencement ceremonies arepretty standardized. I mean,
it's obviously a littledifferent place, the place. And
some of the visuals are worthnoting, for those who aren't
taking in the ceremony visually.
Obviously, if you're going to acommencement ceremony, it's it's
very speech based. So a lot ofit's going to be easily
discernible, but there are somevisuals that are kind of
(18:14):
interesting. So I mean, firstoff a hall or a stadium or a
field, a crowd of happy youngpeople in matching academic
robes and caps. It's really it'sreally quite lovely, right? That
kind of uniformity in costumeand regalia is really pleasing
to look at right? It does, youlook across a field of of
(18:36):
students wearing the sameoutfit. And you do get that
sense of belonging to aninstitution, right. So visually,
that's pretty cool. Theprocessional of students
actually receiving theirdiplomas. That's kind of
interesting, like you said, veryformal, often rigidly so. So
when and administrators will inadvance instruct students on how
(19:00):
to do this on how to go throughall of these steps very, very
precisely because, you know, inorder to do it both efficiently
and in a way that doesn't lookawkward, if you get this
crossing the stage handshakereceiving diploma thing wrong,
over and over and over again,the whole ceremony looks messy.
So there's it's reallyprescribed so gently. A common
(19:22):
way for this to happen isstudents all get up from their
chairs, a full row at a time,and they've been seated
alphabetically, then the wholerow moves to the side of the
stage. And one by one, thestudents step up onto the stage,
and they will have a name cardwith them that they filled out
themselves with their nameexactly as they would like it
read out, and they pass that tothe official the marshal or
(19:44):
something before they step ontothe stage. And then that ensures
that the correct name is readout when the student is walking
across the stage. That isn'talways the case. If the marshal
is reading from a list. All youneed is one person to be missed.
thing, and then the whole listof goes wrong. So this like this
name card system is really goodfor that. So the graduates name
(20:05):
is read as they crossed thestage. And at the far side of
the stage is the UniversityPresident and the Chancellor or
the principal depending on whatlevel it's at. And they are
waiting with the diploma. Andthis interaction, like I said,
it's highly coordinated. It'sdifferent in COVID times, there
were some very differentprocedures that went on. But
traditionally, the recipientextends the right hand, and the
(20:28):
Chancellor shakes hands withtheir right hand. And then while
they're shaking hands, thechancellor extends their left
hand, and they hand over thediploma. So perhaps it's a
rolled and tied piece of paper,like a piece of paper tied with
a ribbon or something, perhapsit's flat and in some kind of
formal folder. But the recipientaccepts that with the left hand
(20:50):
and continues shaking hands withthe right. And the reason you do
this is because there's likely aphotographer there, official or
unofficial, who's snapping aphoto of this moment. So you get
the moment where you're shakinghands with the right receiving
with the left. In someceremonies, the graduate takes
this opportunity, after thehandshake to then move their
tassel from right to left,sometimes the chancellor does
(21:13):
it. Sometimes they don't do itat all, in this moment, they do
it later, when the graduatingclass is back at their seats,
that's actually much morecommon. But if you're earning an
advanced degree, you step ontothe stage with your hood draped
over your arm. So it's notalready on your, you know, on
your body, it's not alreadydraped over your shoulders.
Instead, it's draped over yourleft arm with the velvet trim at
(21:36):
the elbow. And then the graduatewalks across the stage and takes
that off of their arm and handsit to the person who's hurting
them. And that official standsbehind the graduate, maybe the
graduate will have to crouch alittle bit sometimes the
official is given a small riserto stand on. And then the
official loops the hood over therecipients head. So sometimes
(22:00):
over the big wide mortar board,but sometimes the student takes
off the mortar board so thatthat's a little bit more
convenient than the officialloops it over the head and
positions it very precisely downthe back making sure to turn it
colored silk inside out todisplay the colors of the
institution. And like I said,when properly turned inside out,
(22:21):
there are the stripes on eitherside of the loop that should be
symmetrical, they should cometogether in the middle and make
a V shape at the bottom veryprecise. So then the graduate
leaves the stage with their hoodon displaying their you know
their their colors at the back.
So then the ceremony comes to anend. If the students have not
(22:44):
already shifted their tasselsfrom left to right, they are
instructed to do so in person.
So the chancellor or thepresident declares that all here
have met all the requirements,yada yada, yada, they usually
end with something like Ipresent to you the graduating
class of 2022. And then there'shis great moment, lots of video
footage of this stuff. Becauseevery parent is snapping
(23:05):
pictures and videos. And a lotof students within crowds now
are now taking their own cellphone videos of these moments.
So the chancellor declare,declares I present the classes
with graduating class of 2022.
And all the students kind ofglance about it. Is this is this
the moment is this the moment?
Yes, they reach up they take offtheir caps and they toss them in
the air. And all the caps fly inthe air. The tassels are all
(23:30):
flitting about and because ofthe rigid shape these can really
fly right like they can reallyget up there and on everyone
cheers. But my personal favoritemoment because I have a somewhat
perverse sense of humor is thatin the next few minutes, which
is not something that usuallymakes the highlight reel, when
(23:51):
all these new graduates havethrown their hats in the air and
they've landed somewhere in thiscrowd. All the graduates have to
scramble to make sure they gettheir cap back. Because it's
probably a rental don't want toget dinged for either not
returning it or returning adamaged hat. So everyone like
quickly gathers up their hatsand you know, whatever and they
put them back on Yeah, it's veryfun moment.
Christine Malec (24:15):
Now, because it's young people all of this
rigidity is just asking to betoyed with, isn't it? You know,
I don't have that much ofimagination when it comes to
this kind of thing but evenongoing Okay, somebody must be
playing games with thesetraditions and having having at
them in you know, what, inwhatever spirit but playing
(24:37):
around with them. So are youwere you finding any examples of
people playing fast and loosewith some of this rigid formal
stuff?
JJ Hunt (24:45):
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially at the high schoollevel. So you know, 100 years
ago cap and gown ceremonies werejust for college and university
graduates. A student thatcompleted high school 100 years
ago might have something like apicnic or a banquet You wouldn't
have this kind of cap and gownceremony. But these days, high
schoolers have the formalgraduation ceremonies. Kids from
(25:05):
middle school, elementaryschool, kindergarten, even
preschoolers or daycares havethese kinds of ceremonies where
little kids get dressed up inthese outfits, these costumes.
And yeah, when you get into theyounger years, and it's not as
of you know, it's not asofficial, it's not as formal.
(25:25):
The trappings of formality arethere, but not the rigid
adherence to those traditions.
So visually, the caps and gownsin high school and younger tend
to be much more colorful, notblack. So dark blue is a color
that's often used. But a lot ofschools, especially high schools
will choose school colors. Soorange, red, yellow, sky blue,
(25:49):
really, you name it, but it'salways uniform within the
school. So all of the studentswill still be wearing the same
color. But then yeah, the highschool students, they like to
kind of muck around a littlebit. So yeah, you're seeing like
tick tock and Instagram is fullof like teenagers snapping
selfies in the middle of theceremony. So like, including the
(26:12):
very moment when they'reaccepting the diplomas, shook
hands with the right grab withthe left, and then they pull
their hand away from from thechancellor, reach into the
pocket, pull out a cell phone,hold it high in the air and take
a picture of themselves. Yeah,so you get that kind of thing.
But the real kind ofpersonalization that I've seen
comes with the mortarboard cap.
So I've seen high some highschoolers who decorate who
(26:36):
personalize their caps the topflat surface of the cap with
messages and sayings they painton them. Some turn them into
like the pages of a scrapbooklike a really fancy scrapbook or
a motivational poster. I don'tknow like I've seen caps that
people have put enlarged photoson them or like the their
(26:57):
yearbook photo or a photo oftheir you know, group of friends
or whatever or collages of withyou know, pictures from all of
their friends and clubs andwhatnot. I've seen people who
take the top of the motherboardand kind of paste it with like a
like a wallpaper basically, it'slike you can put patterned
fabric or really lovely finepaper on there. I've seen people
(27:17):
write phrases on them like thisis where the motivational poster
stuff comes from. So things likeso the adventure begins, be the
change you wish to see. Oh thePlaces You'll Go like
inspirational quotes and insidejokes that obviously I didn't
get you know, like like the kindof yearbook quote that you would
write someone's book people putthose on their hats. Sometimes
(27:39):
they're done with like, stencilsand stickers. If you go to a
craft supply store, you can getstencils letter by letter. So
these can end up looking reallyprofessional. But some people
just like take glitter pens andfabric paint and they glue
plastic flowers and craftingsupplies onto them like
sometimes they get really thickbecause they're they're like
(28:01):
fake flowers and you know trimon them, they end up looking
like highly decorated cakesfrosted and sometimes they look
like the chalkboard outside of avery Frou Frou coffee shop, you
know, fancy lettering? Yeah, Ihave a feeling that good folks
at the International registryfor academic costume might have
opinions about some of thispersonalization of the very
(28:26):
traditional mortarboard
Christine Malec (28:29):
And given the popularity of social media, did
you troll around there to findout what what are the young
people doing graduation tables?
JJ Hunt (28:39):
Yeah, I took a look on Instagram and took a look at
some tick tock compilationvideos that were on YouTube. And
one of the things that is doneoften on Tiktok and instagram
videos, I probably I wouldembarrass myself if I called it
a trend, because that's probablyjust how these videos are put
together. But they are splicedtogether with you know, lots of
(29:02):
short clips and editing trickslike match cuts to make really
interesting videos. So a matchcut is an edit that uses an
element from one shot totransition into another shot. So
like heavy Tik Tok users havemastered this technique and make
some pretty cool videos andthere's lots of them that are
kind of graduation themed So anexample would be a young person
(29:24):
standing in front of theircamera dressed in a school
hoodie and jeans, you know, nomakeup on or anything but
looking directly at us likeJorrit looking directly into
their computer or phone camerassmiling and posing a little bit
and then they snap their fingersand suddenly they have on a
mortar board hat in an academicgown and all of their makeup.
(29:47):
Probably matching this if it'son you know on tick tock they
match it with a kind ofinspirational pop song like you
know, I was young or here'shere's my life moving forward,
whatever the song is Dosomething you know,
inspirational. A lot of highschoolers filming tick tock
videos during the hat toss, likewe said the selfie videos also
(30:08):
this other kind of match shotthing that I saw that I thought
was really cool. A young womancut together this anyways, we
may be 15 second long video, andit starts with her walking
across the screen from left toright wearing her graduation
gown. And first she walks pastthe front door of a preschool.
And then when she reaches theend of the screen, there's a
(30:31):
quick match cut. And so shejumps back to the left and
continues walking from left toright in front of an elementary
school. Another match cut, shejumps to the left walks past her
middle school than her highschool and it's all totally
seamless. So her pace her gait.
Everything is totally seamless.
And then the last cut of courseis her continuing her stride all
(30:54):
the way across the stage at herconvocation when she receives
her diploma. Nicely done.
Christine Malec (31:00):
Oh lovely. Well congratulations to anyone for
whom this is current if you'regraduating or supporting someone
who is, congratulations!We love making this podcast. If
you love hearing it, perhapsyou'll consider supporting its
creation and development bybecoming a patron. We've set up
a Patreon page to help cover thecosts of putting the show
(31:22):
together. You can contribute asa listener or as a sponsor to
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(31:44):
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Description.
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt
Christine Malec (00:26):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:28):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to me, where
the visuals of current eventsand the world around us get
hashed out in description richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
It's the time of year for graduations. And in
fact, a friend of mine is sayingshe's going to her stepdaughters
graduation and I thought, Oh,how lovely. It's in person,
because so many people missedout on that time honored
tradition. And so we're going totalk about some of the visuals
of graduation ceremonies andcomplications. And JJ, this came
(01:08):
from a listener request.
JJ Hunt (01:10):
Yes, this came from Mark, who's a friend of the
show, a librarian at LaurierUniversity. And Mark thought
that doing an episode oncomplication and graduation
ceremonies would be an excellentway to kind of recognize all the
hard working blind students andtheir proud friends and family.
So we thought that was a lovelysentiment. And so yeah, so we're
(01:30):
gonna describe all the visualsof those ceremonies, the visuals
of the regalia, you know, allthe pomp and circumstance that
comes with graduation andconvocation ceremonies.
Christine Malec (01:39):
Happy memories! A cap and gown is kind of the
quintessential, you know, it's ait's almost like a meta, it's
become a metaphor forachievement. And so shall we
start there?
JJ Hunt (01:51):
Yeah, I mean, the cap and gown is part of this regalia
that that has serious traditionsthat go back a very long time,
the intercollegiate code ofacademic costume weights. No,
this is this is a link that Markactually sent me is just a
(02:13):
fantastic association. So this,okay, so intercollegiate code of
academic costume actually datesback to 1895. And this is a
unified semiotic system forcaps, gowns and hoods. And the
idea was that creating thesespecifics, creating specifics
(02:35):
and instructions and andcodifying regalia for caps gowns
and hoods, would mean that anyobserver in the no could read a
person's gowns, and understandthe degrees that they held their
alma mater, and any academicdistinctions that they had
achieved during their studies,which is pretty wild, like you
(02:57):
can if you know what's what youcan look at a person at a
graduation ceremony, and you cantell everything about their
studies, which is amazing.
Christine Malec (03:06):
And yet no idea.
JJ Hunt (03:07):
I mean, I kind of knew, but I didn't really know. I
thought when Mark suggestedthis, this is going to be a
fairly nice, easy episode,right? A little bit of research.
But the decoding This clothingis incredible, the colors, the
cuts of the sleeves, the type ofstalls that are being worn, the
hoods, all of these meandifferent specific things. And
(03:30):
of course, there are regionaldifferences, the British system,
the American system, theCanadian system, the hybrids of
all of these things, what Idescribed here isn't necessarily
going to be exactly what theregalia means in your location.
An example of how these codesand traditions are put into
place would be something likeMcGill University in Montreal
(03:51):
degree holders at McGill followthe British tradition, but the
university officials they followsomething closer to like
American tradition. So there arehybrids to these of course, I'm
going to do my best to get allof this code right when I'm
describing these images, butgiven how strict it is and how
precise it is, I'm sure I'mgoing to get some details wrong.
(04:13):
So want to start with like yousay the cap and gown. Yeah,
yeah. All right. So the cap isiconic, right? If you look up
graduation clothing, the firstimage the icon, if you're
looking for like a symbol to puton a on a sign or something like
that, it's going to be thesquare cap. There are soft caps
there are Tam's with four sixsides. Those are relatively rare
(04:36):
compared to the square mortarboard cap that's far and away
the most common the Squareitself is fairly rigid. It each
side of the square is betweeneight and a half and 12 inches
long, depending on if it's for akid or an adult. It sits on top
of the head so this mortar boardsits more or less flat on top of
(04:56):
the head, and it's held in placewith a short to have black
fabric that's called a crown ora headband. And like I said, you
know, the square sits fairlyflat, maybe it's tipped up a bit
in the front. It's worn in adiamond configuration. So in
other words, the points of thesquare at the front and back and
(05:16):
at the sides, not flat edges atthe front, back and sides. And
then there's the tassel. So thetassel is centered at the top of
this rigid mortar board on abutton, there's usually a button
up there and the tassel is tiedaround the button, and then it
hangs down. And this is like,like a thick bundle of threads,
(05:37):
usually not woven, but it hangsdown over the side and then it's
frayed at the at the bottom. Soit's a you know, like a little
like a rope or a collection ofthreads that's then tied and
frayed at the bottom, and ithangs down to the on the side of
the hat to about chin length.
Now, the intercollegiate codeonly permits a black tassel. But
the American Council onEducation Code states that the
(06:02):
tassel may either be black, orbe color appropriate to the
subject. And there's a chart,every subject every academic
subject has a different colorassociated with it. So
agriculture is yellow,specifically, maize yellow is
not to be confused with thesocial and natural sciences
(06:23):
which are golden yellow,education is light blue
dentistry is lilac journalism iscrimson music is pink, physical
therapy, sage green, yada, yada,yada, right. And before a
bachelor student in theirbachelor's program, so a student
who has not yet received adegree before they are handed
(06:44):
their first degree, Bachelorstudents at a convocation will
wear their tassel on the right.
And then once you haveofficially graduated, you can
move the tassel to the left. Um,so if you're someone who's
earning a second or third orfourth degree, you will arrive
at your convocation with yourtassel already on your left so
(07:07):
that if it's on the right,you're indicating to everyone
around that you have not yetofficially received your you've
not yet officially received yourfirst degree. Now, I should
note, I have read online that ifyou choose to wear a colored
tassel to identify your subjectarea, you should only do so for
(07:28):
a bachelor's degree. If you weara colored tassel for a master's
degree or a doctorate degree.
I've read that it's consideredgauche.
Christine Malec (07:39):
Right?
JJ Hunt (07:41):
Yeah, it's very specific. And we haven't even
gotten into the gowns yet. Sothe academic gowns are based on
the cloaks of clergy members whowere teachers at medieval
universities. So and the gownsare, again very specific. A
bachelor's gown is differentthan a master's to get gown and
which is different from adoctoral gown all different, and
(08:03):
not surprisingly, you get moreformal and more intricate, the
gowns are more formal andintricate as you move up the
academic ladder. So truly, bythe time you become a university
chancellor, or you know, thepresident of a university, you
could easily hold court at anyrenaissance fair, like that's
getting more and more elaborateand furred, trimmed, and wilder,
(08:26):
more antiquated hats, no joke,they're huge. A bachelor's gown
is long and black and pleated,generally goes down to boat you
know, ankle mid calf length,that wide sleeves that go all
the way to the to the wrist.
It's a silky material, but notsilk bachelors. They're not
supposed to be wearing silkgowns. I think that's for
masters and above, but it's likea silky material kind of often
(08:49):
glossy and more like a polyesterfabric really. And students are
very strongly encouraged to zipthem all the way up to the neck,
especially for the ceremony. Buta lot of students especially
younger students in high school,you know, they're dressed up
under there, they're wearingtheir beautiful professional
looking dresses and their finesuits and so high school
(09:10):
students will often unzipped toshow off their duds underneath.
But then for the ceremonies,they're encouraged to zip them
all the way back up when theycross the stage. The Masters
gown quite similar, but theyhave very strange sleeves.
There's an extra panel of fabricthat hangs down from the
forearms. I've heard some peoplecall them wizards sleeves. If
(09:32):
you hold your arms straight outwearing a master's gown, the
sleeves will hang down likeflaps. And if you put your hands
at your side, the flaps arereally quite a bit longer than
your hands. They really doextend quite long. I've seen
some of the cuts that be reallywhat it looks like is you take a
(09:52):
big wide sleeve so it shut atthe end. But instead of sewing
it shut straight you sew it inin a wide arc, so like it kind
of cuts in, and then there'slike a slit halfway up the arm
to allow the hand to comethrough. Oh, very odd. I'm not
sure what the tradition is orhow this came to be, but that's
(10:13):
what the Masters gown lookslike. And then the master
students, they get hoods. hoodsare not for most bachelor
students only for master'sstudents. But we're going to
talk more about the hoods injust a minute. The doctorial
gowns, these gowns are long,they usually have black as the
base color. And they've got bellshaped sleeves, sometimes with
(10:36):
elastics at the wrists, so theykind of billow out and then they
come back in. Oh, and down thefront of the gowns are two long
panels or vertical stripes. Andthese match three horizontal
stripes across the arms. And thestripes are traditionally
velvet, in contrast with thesilky gown. Now, I believe it's
(10:57):
most common to wear a black robewith velvet stripes in the color
of your academic discipline,just like with the tassels. But
I have seen gowns where thediscipline color is the is the
color of the gown, and thestripes are black velvet. So
yeah, I've seen it kind offlipped. And at the doctoral
(11:17):
level, the gowns can be worn,either open or closed. So if
open the long panels of velvethang down like long lapels, but
if closed, those panels ofvelvet kind of joined together,
and it resembles one single widepanel down the front of the
body.
Christine Malec (11:39):
So what about the hoods, that's our new thing
to me, I never never heard ofthat.
JJ Hunt (11:43):
Yeah, so the academic hood. First off, it's not really
a hood, like don't picture likea hood on a hoodie. It's not
quite the same. It's really aloop of fabric, that you were
kind of like a backwardsnecklace, or you wear it like a
cape, but it's not attached tothe gown. It's it's put on on
(12:03):
top of it. And so it does hangdown your back like a cave. But
it loops around, sits on yourcollarbone and then loops back
over the shoulders, and hangsdown the back. Generally
speaking, the hood is black onthe outside, and has panels and
stripes of colored fabric on theinside, often silk on the inside
(12:25):
with velvet borders around theoutside. So the colors and
patterns represent the collegeor university that confers your
degree. And the level of thedegree. So I believe it is the
velvet trim represents thediscipline. And the silk lining
represents the college oruniversity. And you can't just
(12:46):
like throw this on over yourshoulders and let it hang down
your back all willy nilly, youhave to position it just so. So
when you put it on, you have todrape it symmetrically with the
inside opened up kind of liketurned inside out at this low
hanging loop on your back. Andthat so the colored panels on
(13:06):
the inside create a veryintentional pattern. This is a
pattern that kind of like it'ssomewhere between the stripes on
a bird's wings or the panel on aflag. It's really academic
heraldry. Right. And if you havemore than one advanced degree
from more than one university,my understanding is that you
should not wear two hoods. Youeither wear the hood of the
(13:30):
highest degree that you haveearned or I have read that some
people have custom hoods madethat incorporate the colors of
both institutions. But I thinkthat's a little bit you know,
that's you are talking aboutheraldry, right. So if you
create your own hood, you mightyou know, or those who are in
(13:54):
power and you might findyourself... smited? Or smoted?
Smitten? I don't know...
Christine Malec (14:00):
Ha ha ha! Smote.
JJ Hunt (14:02):
Ha ha. Smote? Do you smote? Heh heh.
Christine Malec (14:07):
What is what is the stole?
JJ Hunt (14:09):
So the stoles are interesting. There are stalls
and honor cords which whichgraduates drape over their
shoulders. Both of them aresimilar to like they're worn
kind of like scarfs draped overthe shoulders and down the
lapels, but not tied. So likeimagine wearing these things
like a scarf that you've justdraped over your shoulders and
let hang down the sides. Thesoles are for recognizing
(14:32):
achievements and honors. So thesoles are like, like silk ties,
but without a tapered end. Sothey both come. They you know,
they come to a point it's likeyou know, maybe five inches
across of silk fabric comes to apoint at each end. You drape it
across your shoulders and theyit hangs down your lapels. And
these are recognizing thingslike if you were a
(14:54):
valedictorian, for example, thenyou might get a stole to
represent that and then Kneehonor cords are very similar in
practice. But the material isdifferent. The honor cords are
like long lengths of braidedcords with tassels at the ends.
So it's quite similar inmaterial to the tassel that
you've got on your cap, exceptthat it's really, really long
(15:17):
and braided. And those youearned through academic
achievement. So like a differentlevel of GPA will get you a
different colored chord. You canalso earn honor chords by being
part of a certain club orsociety. And you can wear
multiple individual chords likeif you are, you know, if you've
got a high GPA and you're partof this club or this society,
(15:40):
those bodies might give youmultiple cords. Or what you can
do is you can braid them alltogether. So you can take all
the different colors and braidthem together to make one honor
cord. Kind of cool. There's alsothis really interesting thing
I've never seen before, I'm notsure if this is more of an
American tradition. But I'veseen pattern to stoles being
(16:01):
worn by black students andLatino students as a way of
showing pride. So there's astole called a Kente stole. It's
based on hand woven patterns of,you know, hand weaving from from
Ghana. And these often featurepatterns and geometric shapes
and golds and greens and blacksand reds. And then there's the
(16:22):
Serape, which is a based on handwoven patterns found in Mexico.
So Serape blankets are very,very common in Mexico, these
hand woven blankets, you know,and the stalls have horizontal
stripes in lots of differentcolors. So, you know, stacks of
similarly colored pallets of youknow, so you've got like blues
(16:44):
and purples and grays or maybethere's a, there's a Serape
stole in greens, and reds andwhites, all different kinds. And
because these aren't, thesearen't academic, these are kind
of pride fashion, the rulesabout them aren't as strict. So
people make their own or, youknow, there are companies you
can go to online, and you canbuy some of these. And they
(17:06):
actually have sometimes sayingsor phrases or things woven right
into the material. So I've seensome that say class of 22, or
whatever they say the name ofthe of the high school that you
know that students go to, I'veseen some that say black lives
matter, some that say black girlmagic, I've seen some that say
(17:27):
Si Se Puede! which is Yes, wecan! Really kind of cool to see
these being used, again, notacademic. So you see them more
at a high school level and lessat a college and university
level, the rules are a littlebit different there.
Christine Malec (17:41):
judging by the apparel. What happens at the
ceremony is probably quitecircumscribed as well. Is that
pretty pretty regimented, too?
JJ Hunt (17:52):
Yeah. So I mean, lots of the elements of the
commencement ceremonies arepretty standardized. I mean,
it's obviously a littledifferent place, the place. And
some of the visuals are worthnoting, for those who aren't
taking in the ceremony visually.
Obviously, if you're going to acommencement ceremony, it's it's
very speech based. So a lot ofit's going to be easily
discernible, but there are somevisuals that are kind of
(18:14):
interesting. So I mean, firstoff a hall or a stadium or a
field, a crowd of happy youngpeople in matching academic
robes and caps. It's really it'sreally quite lovely, right? That
kind of uniformity in costumeand regalia is really pleasing
to look at right? It does, youlook across a field of of
(18:36):
students wearing the sameoutfit. And you do get that
sense of belonging to aninstitution, right. So visually,
that's pretty cool. Theprocessional of students
actually receiving theirdiplomas. That's kind of
interesting, like you said, veryformal, often rigidly so. So
when and administrators will inadvance instruct students on how
(19:00):
to do this on how to go throughall of these steps very, very
precisely because, you know, inorder to do it both efficiently
and in a way that doesn't lookawkward, if you get this
crossing the stage handshakereceiving diploma thing wrong,
over and over and over again,the whole ceremony looks messy.
So there's it's reallyprescribed so gently. A common
(19:22):
way for this to happen isstudents all get up from their
chairs, a full row at a time,and they've been seated
alphabetically, then the wholerow moves to the side of the
stage. And one by one, thestudents step up onto the stage,
and they will have a name cardwith them that they filled out
themselves with their nameexactly as they would like it
read out, and they pass that tothe official the marshal or
(19:44):
something before they step ontothe stage. And then that ensures
that the correct name is readout when the student is walking
across the stage. That isn'talways the case. If the marshal
is reading from a list. All youneed is one person to be missed.
thing, and then the whole listof goes wrong. So this like this
name card system is really goodfor that. So the graduates name
(20:05):
is read as they crossed thestage. And at the far side of
the stage is the UniversityPresident and the Chancellor or
the principal depending on whatlevel it's at. And they are
waiting with the diploma. Andthis interaction, like I said,
it's highly coordinated. It'sdifferent in COVID times, there
were some very differentprocedures that went on. But
traditionally, the recipientextends the right hand, and the
(20:28):
Chancellor shakes hands withtheir right hand. And then while
they're shaking hands, thechancellor extends their left
hand, and they hand over thediploma. So perhaps it's a
rolled and tied piece of paper,like a piece of paper tied with
a ribbon or something, perhapsit's flat and in some kind of
formal folder. But the recipientaccepts that with the left hand
(20:50):
and continues shaking hands withthe right. And the reason you do
this is because there's likely aphotographer there, official or
unofficial, who's snapping aphoto of this moment. So you get
the moment where you're shakinghands with the right receiving
with the left. In someceremonies, the graduate takes
this opportunity, after thehandshake to then move their
tassel from right to left,sometimes the chancellor does
(21:13):
it. Sometimes they don't do itat all, in this moment, they do
it later, when the graduatingclass is back at their seats,
that's actually much morecommon. But if you're earning an
advanced degree, you step ontothe stage with your hood draped
over your arm. So it's notalready on your, you know, on
your body, it's not alreadydraped over your shoulders.
Instead, it's draped over yourleft arm with the velvet trim at
(21:36):
the elbow. And then the graduatewalks across the stage and takes
that off of their arm and handsit to the person who's hurting
them. And that official standsbehind the graduate, maybe the
graduate will have to crouch alittle bit sometimes the
official is given a small riserto stand on. And then the
official loops the hood over therecipients head. So sometimes
(22:00):
over the big wide mortar board,but sometimes the student takes
off the mortar board so thatthat's a little bit more
convenient than the officialloops it over the head and
positions it very precisely downthe back making sure to turn it
colored silk inside out todisplay the colors of the
institution. And like I said,when properly turned inside out,
(22:21):
there are the stripes on eitherside of the loop that should be
symmetrical, they should cometogether in the middle and make
a V shape at the bottom veryprecise. So then the graduate
leaves the stage with their hoodon displaying their you know
their their colors at the back.
So then the ceremony comes to anend. If the students have not
(22:44):
already shifted their tasselsfrom left to right, they are
instructed to do so in person.
So the chancellor or thepresident declares that all here
have met all the requirements,yada yada, yada, they usually
end with something like Ipresent to you the graduating
class of 2022. And then there'shis great moment, lots of video
footage of this stuff. Becauseevery parent is snapping
(23:05):
pictures and videos. And a lotof students within crowds now
are now taking their own cellphone videos of these moments.
So the chancellor declare,declares I present the classes
with graduating class of 2022.
And all the students kind ofglance about it. Is this is this
the moment is this the moment?
Yes, they reach up they take offtheir caps and they toss them in
the air. And all the caps fly inthe air. The tassels are all
(23:30):
flitting about and because ofthe rigid shape these can really
fly right like they can reallyget up there and on everyone
cheers. But my personal favoritemoment because I have a somewhat
perverse sense of humor is thatin the next few minutes, which
is not something that usuallymakes the highlight reel, when
(23:51):
all these new graduates havethrown their hats in the air and
they've landed somewhere in thiscrowd. All the graduates have to
scramble to make sure they gettheir cap back. Because it's
probably a rental don't want toget dinged for either not
returning it or returning adamaged hat. So everyone like
quickly gathers up their hatsand you know, whatever and they
put them back on Yeah, it's veryfun moment.
Christine Malec (24:15):
Now, because it's young people all of this
rigidity is just asking to betoyed with, isn't it? You know,
I don't have that much ofimagination when it comes to
this kind of thing but evenongoing Okay, somebody must be
playing games with thesetraditions and having having at
them in you know, what, inwhatever spirit but playing
(24:37):
around with them. So are youwere you finding any examples of
people playing fast and loosewith some of this rigid formal
stuff?
JJ Hunt (24:45):
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially at the high schoollevel. So you know, 100 years
ago cap and gown ceremonies werejust for college and university
graduates. A student thatcompleted high school 100 years
ago might have something like apicnic or a banquet You wouldn't
have this kind of cap and gownceremony. But these days, high
schoolers have the formalgraduation ceremonies. Kids from
(25:05):
middle school, elementaryschool, kindergarten, even
preschoolers or daycares havethese kinds of ceremonies where
little kids get dressed up inthese outfits, these costumes.
And yeah, when you get into theyounger years, and it's not as
of you know, it's not asofficial, it's not as formal.
(25:25):
The trappings of formality arethere, but not the rigid
adherence to those traditions.
So visually, the caps and gownsin high school and younger tend
to be much more colorful, notblack. So dark blue is a color
that's often used. But a lot ofschools, especially high schools
will choose school colors. Soorange, red, yellow, sky blue,
(25:49):
really, you name it, but it'salways uniform within the
school. So all of the studentswill still be wearing the same
color. But then yeah, the highschool students, they like to
kind of muck around a littlebit. So yeah, you're seeing like
tick tock and Instagram is fullof like teenagers snapping
selfies in the middle of theceremony. So like, including the
(26:12):
very moment when they'reaccepting the diplomas, shook
hands with the right grab withthe left, and then they pull
their hand away from from thechancellor, reach into the
pocket, pull out a cell phone,hold it high in the air and take
a picture of themselves. Yeah,so you get that kind of thing.
But the real kind ofpersonalization that I've seen
comes with the mortarboard cap.
So I've seen high some highschoolers who decorate who
(26:36):
personalize their caps the topflat surface of the cap with
messages and sayings they painton them. Some turn them into
like the pages of a scrapbooklike a really fancy scrapbook or
a motivational poster. I don'tknow like I've seen caps that
people have put enlarged photoson them or like the their
(26:57):
yearbook photo or a photo oftheir you know, group of friends
or whatever or collages of withyou know, pictures from all of
their friends and clubs andwhatnot. I've seen people who
take the top of the motherboardand kind of paste it with like a
like a wallpaper basically, it'slike you can put patterned
fabric or really lovely finepaper on there. I've seen people
(27:17):
write phrases on them like thisis where the motivational poster
stuff comes from. So things likeso the adventure begins, be the
change you wish to see. Oh thePlaces You'll Go like
inspirational quotes and insidejokes that obviously I didn't
get you know, like like the kindof yearbook quote that you would
write someone's book people putthose on their hats. Sometimes
(27:39):
they're done with like, stencilsand stickers. If you go to a
craft supply store, you can getstencils letter by letter. So
these can end up looking reallyprofessional. But some people
just like take glitter pens andfabric paint and they glue
plastic flowers and craftingsupplies onto them like
sometimes they get really thickbecause they're they're like
(28:01):
fake flowers and you know trimon them, they end up looking
like highly decorated cakesfrosted and sometimes they look
like the chalkboard outside of avery Frou Frou coffee shop, you
know, fancy lettering? Yeah, Ihave a feeling that good folks
at the International registryfor academic costume might have
opinions about some of thispersonalization of the very
(28:26):
traditional mortarboard
Christine Malec (28:29):
And given the popularity of social media, did
you troll around there to findout what what are the young
people doing graduation tables?
JJ Hunt (28:39):
Yeah, I took a look on Instagram and took a look at
some tick tock compilationvideos that were on YouTube. And
one of the things that is doneoften on Tiktok and instagram
videos, I probably I wouldembarrass myself if I called it
a trend, because that's probablyjust how these videos are put
together. But they are splicedtogether with you know, lots of
(29:02):
short clips and editing trickslike match cuts to make really
interesting videos. So a matchcut is an edit that uses an
element from one shot totransition into another shot. So
like heavy Tik Tok users havemastered this technique and make
some pretty cool videos andthere's lots of them that are
kind of graduation themed So anexample would be a young person
(29:24):
standing in front of theircamera dressed in a school
hoodie and jeans, you know, nomakeup on or anything but
looking directly at us likeJorrit looking directly into
their computer or phone camerassmiling and posing a little bit
and then they snap their fingersand suddenly they have on a
mortar board hat in an academicgown and all of their makeup.
(29:47):
Probably matching this if it'son you know on tick tock they
match it with a kind ofinspirational pop song like you
know, I was young or here'shere's my life moving forward,
whatever the song is Dosomething you know,
inspirational. A lot of highschoolers filming tick tock
videos during the hat toss, likewe said the selfie videos also
(30:08):
this other kind of match shotthing that I saw that I thought
was really cool. A young womancut together this anyways, we
may be 15 second long video, andit starts with her walking
across the screen from left toright wearing her graduation
gown. And first she walks pastthe front door of a preschool.
And then when she reaches theend of the screen, there's a
(30:31):
quick match cut. And so shejumps back to the left and
continues walking from left toright in front of an elementary
school. Another match cut, shejumps to the left walks past her
middle school than her highschool and it's all totally
seamless. So her pace her gait.
Everything is totally seamless.
And then the last cut of courseis her continuing her stride all
(30:54):
the way across the stage at herconvocation when she receives
her diploma. Nicely done.
Christine Malec (31:00):
Oh lovely. Well congratulations to anyone for
whom this is current if you'regraduating or supporting someone
who is, congratulations!We love making this podcast. If
you love hearing it, perhapsyou'll consider supporting its
creation and development bybecoming a patron. We've set up
a Patreon page to help cover thecosts of putting the show
(31:22):
together. You can contribute asa listener or as a sponsor to
help ensure that accessible andentertaining journalism
continues to reach ourcommunity. Visit
patreon.com/talk Description Tome that's pa t ar e o n.com/talk
description to me have feedbackor suggestions of what you'd
like to hear about here's how toget in touch with us. Our email
(31:44):
address is top description tome@gmail.com. Our Facebook page
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Description.
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