2005 COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY
BANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
New York, May 24-- Bank Street College of Education is holding its 2005 commencement on Thursday, May 26 at St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue and 112th Street, at 4:00 p.m. Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters will be presented to:
Wendy Ewald ~ photographer, writer, and educator, travels the world working in communities such Labrador, Appalachia, Columbia, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Holland, teaching photography to children. Partnering her observational skills and with her students' imaginations, she encourages them to use cameras to create individual self-portraits and portraits of their communities, and to articulate their dreams and hopes while working with her in visual and verbal collaboration. Ms. Ewald is the creator of Literacy Through Photography and has received numerous awards and recognitions, such as a Fulbright Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Visual Arts Fellowship.
Bryan Stevenson ~ Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama in Montgomery, Alabama and a Professor of Law, New York University School of Law. Mr. Stevenson's work with the poor and people of color has been nationally recognized through numerous awards such as National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year, the Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice, the ABA Wisdom Award for Public Service, the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Olaf Palme Prize for International Human Rights, and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award Prize.
Bank Street President Augusta Souza Kappner feels that this year's honorees hold a special place in education today, and are making a profound and positive change for future generations of learners. "The work and accomplishments of these honorees," she says, "represent the importance of education and the support of children throughout the world. Their dedication to human rights and literacy through the arts makes our world a more compassionate and meaningful place for children and adults alike."
Schedule:
Procession and Conferral of Diplomas: 4:00 p.m.
Graduation Reception at Synod House: 6:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.
Procession of honorees, drummers, graduating class, and faculty:
This colorful and festive procession marches along 112th Street, starting at Bank Street College, crossing Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, traveling up the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and ending inside the Cathedral. Once inside, Bank Street President Augusta Souza Kappner will present the doctorates to the honorees, followed by the conferral of master's degrees for the graduating class.
Bank Street's mission, unchanged since its inception in 1916, is to improve the education of children and their teachers by applying to the educational process all available knowledge about learning and growth, and by connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, including family, school, and the larger society in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in education the opportunity to build a better society.
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