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• Cap and Gown Convocation – A time of transition for RIC’s graduating seniors

Cap and Gown Convocation – A time of transition for RIC’s graduating seniors

“Life is a series of transitions,” RIC’s graduating seniors were told at the annual Cap and Gown Convocation on May 5. The event marked the official start of commencement season, with the big transition – from undergrad to graduate occurring at commencement exercises on May 22.

Photo gallery

Family and friends of the students were invited to the Roberts Hall Auditorium celebration, which recognized the soon-to-be grads with a capping ceremony and presentation of nearly 50 departmental awards.
Anne E.S. Carty, professor of nursing who was selected by the senior class to provide the Cap and Gown address, said, “Every transition begins with an ending. For each of you…your current ending is graduating from Rhode Island College.”

Carty added that transitions are “positive or negative – planned or unexpected.”
Such changes, she said, can be “life-altering” and “require that we leave behind the familiar and force us to adjust to new ways of living.”

Carty outlined in a rhyme what she termed “practical strategies” to manage transitions.

Text of address

RIC President Nancy Carriuolo said that each student had obstacles to overcome in pursuing educational excellence, and each had a story to tell.

Daniel Fisher’s story – academically – was compelling. He was a triple award winner, taking the American Institute of Chemists Award, Ronald J. Boruch Award for Excellence in the Physical Sciences, and Departmental Physics Award. Fisher will graduate with a bachelor of science in chemistry and a bachelor of arts in physics with an overall GPA of 3.95.

Other multiple departmental award winners:

• Alicia Kristen Roberts, who received the James Houston Award in Anthropology and Eleanor M. McMahon Award, presented to a graduating senior in the College Honors Program for scholastic achievement and senior honors project.

• Theresa Toscano, winner of the Wall Street Journal Award and Bertha Christina Andrews Emin Award for Scholastic Excellence

• Christopher Cordeiro, who claimed the Richard A. Howland Award Computer Science Award and Christopher R. Mitchell Award, presented to the outstanding mathematics major among the graduating class.

• Justin Roy Montoya, recipient of Elementary Education Award and Josephine A. Stillings Award for Elementary Education.

Departmental awards list

Sixty-four RIC seniors gained entry in “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges,” and were recognized at the ceremony.

Who's who list

Joshua Laguerre, president of Student Community Government, was chosen by his class to be speaker. “We’re almost there,” he told his classmates. As graduates, they were entering a world that is “unpredictable and constantly changing,” so he urged them to “think about you future and your dreams.”

Laguerre also received the Rose Butler Browne Award for leadership potential.



Class officers Kervin Leonidas (president), Nikhol Bentley (vice president), Anike Akinbulumo (secretary) and Aaron Acquisto (treasurer) presented Carriuolo with the senior class gift: a $10,000 donation to the RIC Foundation toward building a terrace outside the Recreation Center in memory of Ivy Denise Locke, a RIC vice president who passed away in March.

Processional and recessional music and the college’s Alma Mater song were performed by the RIC Wind Ensemble.

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