Graduation at Hollins University!

This year we had five graduates in the Certificate in Children's Book Illustration program from Hollins University. A few will be sticking around to continue on to the MFA in Children's Book Writing and Illustrating, but a few will sadly be leaving us. That said, nobody ever truly leaves here, they keep coming back, every excuse they can drum up. It's one of the wonderful quirks about Hollins.
     The ceremony kicked off with opening remarks by program head Ruth Sanderson, and then a lovely slideshow. Ashley Wolff did the commencement speech this year and created a funny poem featuring each student.Then the crowns and diplomas were handed out. The crowns have become quite the coveted item at Hollins! Here are our graduates with the faculty (minus Lauren Mills, who had to depart early). They are from the back, left to right, Ashley Wolff, Mark Braught, Yours Truly, Ruth Sanderson, Kathleen Lorenzo, Martha Failinger, Kary Keppol, Marilyn Mallue, and Lucy Rowe. After the official ceremony, we had a small reception in the gallery space where everybody enjoyed the students' work. It was a nice crowd and friends and family came in to cheer on the new graduates.
We took photos of each of the graduates by their gallery display:   
We are so proud of our new graduates. They all worked so hard. Some of it was because of the assignments, but most of it was because the students were so incredibly driven to get as much growth out of the program as possible, and boy, did they! They found their creative voices, discovered new passions, and most importantly, learned to love the journey of creating. I couldn't be happier for them. And I hope they'll stay in touch!