Seventy-six students in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development earned their doctorates Thursday at a Lisner Auditorium ceremony.

Dean Michael Feuer, the school’s dean and dissertation chair, gave graduates light blue hoods, clocks to symbolize their time as a student and flowers to be gifted to someone who supported and encouraged them throughout their studies.

“You are about to become a part of a very, very special group,” Feuer said.

Interim Associate Dean of Research and External Relations Diana Burley and Associate Dean of Doctoral Studies Sharon Anderson Dannels introduced each student and read a note of recognition written by each student’s dissertation chair.

Though Feuer, the event’s only speaker, said he kept his remarks short to allow dissertation chairs to discuss the graduates’ work, he congratulated the students on their paths to a new career beginning with their degree.

“You have worked hard, you have been determined and you have bounced back – even from GW’s bureaucracy,” Feuer said.

He added that because the Class of 2018 graduates represented an array of ethnicities, genders and age groups, the class’ diversity is what sets them apart from others.

“Today I see a racial, gendered, chronological and linguistic mosaic that represents the American educational experiment,” Feuer said.

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