2012

Monday, May 16, 2011

Elizabeth's Graduation 2011



How lucky I am to have such a special daughter. (And three special sons, too, I know!)The photo above shows her with her Honors cords, her Omicron Delta Kappa cords, and her ODK medal.
It was a looong weekend, but what wonderful events took place!! On Friday John got up very, very early and drove home from near St. Louis. I picked Brent up and by 11 am we were all on our way to Iowa City. Our goal was to get Elizabeth to the Political Science Departmental awards and graduation reception by 12:45. We should have left the car at her apartment because I think we ended up parking farther away than that because the Law School Graduation was going on across the hall. She wondered if she could wander across the stage there and save herself 3 years of work (and $). :-)
Elizabeth presented her poster entitled "Presidents, Congress, and Crime Control, a Comparative Analysis of Omnibus Crime Legislation, 1984-1994", which was part of a paper and presentation for a class. She was one of 4 to present and the others had made posters as part of their Honors requirements. The presenters only had to stand by their poster and provide information to those who inquired, some of whom were judges. The young woman who had been to Iceland to do part of her Honors research won the poster award (prize: a 4gb Hawkeye flash drive). Then the awards were announced. The student with the highest overall GPA for a graduating Political Science Major was....Elizabeth!!!!!! The student graduating with the highest GPA in Political Science classes was again the girl who did research in Iceland. And again the prizes were really nice flash drives. We had some refreshments, walked back past the Old Capitol for photos, and went for lunch.


Next, we sensibly left the car at Elizabeth's apartment and walked back to the IMU for the Honors Program Graduation and presentation of Commendations. Elizabeth received her white honor cords and her four commendation certificates. Lots of her friends were there so there were lots of photos taken here, too.
Afterwards, we loaded as much as we could in the car and left for home. The disadvantage of having all your children fly the nest is that you are left to do some moving on your own. :-) We went to bed early. In the am hours John and JT arrived and I got to give JT a snuggle as he went back to sleep.
EARLY in the morning we were up again and piled into the car for an arrival at Elizabeth's at 7:45. The area around the stadium, arena, and university hospital is so congested at times like this. But traffic kept moving and we were able to drop Elizabeth near the arena just a bit late. We walked about 1/2 mile after parking, in a light rain, so we were happy to finally be able to take our seats. JT did really well for a 3 year old who had to spend a lot of time in the car followed by sitting for a couple of hours. He was pretty quiet!
I can only imagine what it meant to her, after four years of hard work, to hear the words,
"Elizabeth Weyer, with Honors in Political Science, and with Highest Distinction."

It was too congested inside for photos and too rainy outside. I don't have as many as I'd like but I do have some good ones.
We went back to the apartment to dry out a little and then headed to a local restaurant, Bob's Your Uncle. Yum!! Lots of Elizabeth's friends were there with their families so...more fun photos with family and friends.!




I had worked on the gardens and lawn for weeks anticipating a day when we could be outside for the Graduation picnic. Alas, it rained buckets. We grilled just inside the largest garage and ate inside at Grandma Weyer's house. But, all our family who could be there came, Brent's local family came, and we had a wonderful time! Elizabeth got lovely gifts, and some were so very special and touching.