Has John Kopriva said hello to you lately?
In his speech, the senior, who won the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, suggested that instead of saying goodbye to one another, his fellow graduates should look up from their phones and say hello.
During the second Columbian College commencement ceremony on Saturday afternoon, Elizabeth Nicole Settoducato, a classical studies and women’s studies major, won the GW Alumni Association Prize, and school marshal Michael King recognized every graduate, from Phi Beta Kappa inductees to anybody who had finished an exam, by asking them to stand before they walked.
1. ‘Out of a rut and into a new groove’
Faculty speaker Alexander Dent, an associate professor of anthropology and international affairs, told the audience the story of the night after his own college graduation. An “unruly” friend, he said, burst into his room at 3 a.m. and declared: “There’s a fine line between a rut and a groove.”
The line, Dent said, comes from a 1977 Ram Jam song, “Keep Your Hands On the Wheel.”
“My wish for all of you,” he said, “is that you keep your hands on the wheel in a groovy fashion.”
2. The power of ‘hello’
Kopriva, a chemistry major and men’s basketball player, recalled the day he arrived in D.C. for Colonial Inauguration. He said he did what any “wide-eyed Midwesterner” would do and said hi to everyone.
Over the years, Kopriva said he had lost the urge to say “heartfelt hellos” to acquaintances at GW, but recently, he’s begun to do so again, because he recognized that the small act could brighten someone’s day.
Kopriva, who graduated “in an arena that has been such a big part of my GW experience,” will begin applying to medical school next year, as well as teach and coach at Marquette University High School, his alma mater, in Milwaukee, Wis.
3. But first, let me take a selfie
As in the first CCAS graduation, Columbian College dean Ben Vinson told graduates to “make history” by examining the seemingly meaningless parts of their days. He said the graduates “astonished” him with the range of their accomplishments and the breath of their knowledge as artists, scientists, visionaries, romantics and thinkers.
Once again, Vinson used a selfie stick to “freeze time” and capture the Class of 2015 on his iPhone.
