International Program Graduation

The Institute's International Business Administration program ended on Thursday with a graduation ceremony. I'd given my final on Tuesday, finished grades that evening and submitted them on Wednesday. This office, headed by Dr. Bobarykina, along with Maria(Masha), Valentina(Valia), and Yulia, work incredibly hard on this program. They pick everybody up at the train station, drop everybody back off, coordinate most transportation, handle ALL documentation, schedule all events, manage classrooms, coordinate schedules(with lots of changes--faculty in this program seem to switch things up a bit very often), produce the ending party, verify, recommend, and handle student excursions to Moscow, and finally graduation. They deserve a lot of credit for the tireless effort and constant strain.
But---it is really about the students. Very courageous young adults from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, China, and one very late arriving German fellow----they are the future of this planet, and programs like this are vital to all of us. They overcame countless cultural obstacles, dealt with a different culture, handled a variety of crazy professors(especially me!), made wonderful new friends(many of them communicated with students from Professor Josh Pachter's class at NOVA-Loudoun----Thank you Josh, Ana, and the rest!), it is with utmost confidence that these brave people will make our world a more understanding and peaceful place. I will miss all of them terribly but they have brought light to my life. Every moment I spent with them made me a better teacher, giving my life incredible meaning. Thank you and congratulations. Pictures to follow.