Yesterday 1,478 students from the Faculty of Mathematics received their degrees from the University of Waterloo, including 1,286 undergraduates, 161 master’s students and 31 PhDs.
Due to the large number of graduates, there were three convocation ceremonies for Math: one at 10:00 a.m. (Computer Science), one at 2:30 p.m. (Statistics and Actuarial Science) and one at 6:30 p.m. (Applied Mathematics, Combinatorics and Optimization, and Pure Mathematics).
Each ceremony included a ceremonial procession, featuring graduates, the newly gifted Eagle Staff commemorating the University’s commitment to Indigenization, the University mace, faculty members and the Chancellor’s party.
“On behalf on all of our faculty members, I congratulate you on this, your graduation day,” said Mark Giesbrecht, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, in his convocation speech. “You should be very proud of yourselves for everything you have accomplished.”
During the afternoon ceremony, an honorary Doctor of Mathematics was awarded to convocation speaker Dr. Trevor Hastie, the John A. Overdeck Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Stanford University. During the evening ceremony, an honorary Doctor of Mathematics was awarded to convocation speaker Arlie Petters, the provost at New York University Abu Dhabi.
In addition to the conferring of degrees, students heard from Giesbrecht, President Vivek Goel, convocation speakers and math valedictorians. Medals and awards were also conferred: the Albert Sherwood Barber Medal to Orson Andrew Baines, the University of Waterloo Alumni Gold Medal to Theodore Luo Wang and the University of Waterloo President’s Award of Excellence to Xinyue Xie.
Graduation is always a joyous occasion, but the event was especially meaningful for a class that spent a large portion of their university education dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic required us to persevere, and that’s exactly what we did,” said Advitya Chhabra (Bachelor’s of Software Engineering) in his valedictorian speech. “When we came back to campus, we came back a more resilient class than ever.”
After each ceremony, graduates had the opportunity to pose for photos with family and supporters, eat special Math-themed cookies, and pick up some Math alumni swag. Yesterday’s graduates join a network of more than 242,000 Waterloo alumni around the world.
“Whether you have a job lined up, you are heading to graduate school or you’re still figuring out what you want to do next, you can be assured that all of us – your professors, your classmates and your many, many supporters – are cheering you on,” Giesbrecht said. “You are going to do so many amazing things. You already have.”
Congratulations, class of 2023!
You can read more about Waterloo’s spring 2023 convocation on the Math News page as well as the Waterloo News page. Read a profile of exceptional undergraduate Laura Bumbulis, and learn more about featured PhD in Statistics and Actuarial Science graduate Dr. Carlos Andrés Araiza Iturria.
