"A Very Special Place"
As Matt McCloat joined Cornell's glorious graduation procession Sunday, he thought back to when his ILR career was derailed by an unmarked pole on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks.
The 2007 accident resulted in multiple leg fractures and forced him to leave school for a semester.
The support McCloat received from ILR during that difficult time included weekly -- and sometimes daily -- phone calls to his mother from ILR Student Services Director Laura Lewis.
"It's a very special place, ILR. I'm very grateful for their help," said McCloat, one of more than 200 to receive an ILR undergraduate degree Sunday.
Graduation, he said, found him "proud, a little sad, very happy … I have a huge sense of pride for my school, my family, my self."
"I loved it," he said, referring to the school. "I would love to be here another four years."
During June, McCloat will interview for human resource positions in Boston.
At the ILR diploma presentation ceremony Sunday in Lynah Rink, degree recipients were told by Harry Katz, Kenneth F. Kahn Dean and Jack Sheinkman Professor, that they are in a position to help rebuild the economy.
“ … Our graduates are well equipped through their classes to not only help diagnose the causes of the financial crisis, but more importantly, to develop better organizational forms and to create better management and reporting structures with which to bring the long-term interests of the individuals, corporations and society into alignment,” he said.
Despite the economy, most graduating from ILR this year with bachelor's or advanced degrees have found jobs, he said. "You've done remarkably well on the job market."
Katz urged graduates to "take time to think about the ways your family helped you get here."
He also encouraged them to maintain their ILR and Cornell friendships. "They'll provide depth and meaning in your lives." The full text of the dean's speech can be found at the bottom of this page.
Tara Moriarty, who graduated from ILR on Sunday, starts Teach for America training Wednesday in Houston. She begins a two-year assignment there Aug. 25.
Moriarty expects to teach social studies to fourth graders.
In service work, she said, "You learn so much about the important things in life."
Moriarty said that short of being a swim coach, she has no teaching background.
A labor history and collective bargaining background from ILR, though, will help in the classroom, along with the experience of being the eldest in a family of five children, she said.
Moriarty hopes to become proficient in Spanish this summer so that she can communicate with her students' parents, many of whom do not speak English.
Teach for America, a non-profit organization which began in 1990, serves low-income communities.
Related Destinations