My kids done all growed up

As a professor who can't say no to students, the past month or so my life has been a whirl of exams, assignments, orals, grading, dissertation editing and thesis defences. But it's done ...

school's out for summer !

This won't mean much to those who aren't in academia but I managed to usher six PhD students through their comprehensive exams, 5 PhD students through thesis defences and 2 Masters students through theirs. I got to see most of the latter walk across the stage this past week in their academic gowns*, and I was bursting with paternal pride, and relief, to see them moving on to the next stage of their lives.

I'm also the director of our department's undergraduate program, and this week in addition to scores of students I taught and advised on course choices and career choices, I saw the very first graduate of our new BS degree in environmental science - that I designed and helped to set up - get her diploma. The degree was the culmination  of years of meetings, a small forest was sacrificed to produce the paperwork it entailed, but now it's done.** The fact that she was a delighful student to teach, made it even better.

I don't have children, and in many ways many of my students are like my surrogate kids, and so it's bitter sweet to see them graduate. They'll no longer be around the college halls popping in to ask for advice or to simply chat, no more field trips together and bonding over rainy afternoons in Scotland, sweaty hikes through jungles or lazy afternoons beachcoming on the coast. Or evening in the pub, after a hard days work, unwinding and putting the world to rights over a beer or three.*** But off they go into the big wide world, hopefully equipped with knowledge, skills and enthusiasm and perseverance, that I desperately tried to instill in them. Amany of my old students are still in touch and frequently accost me on facebook, and it's great to see that most of them are still in the field that their degrees set them on, and most doing well for themselves. I still worry about them nonetheless, even though they've flown the nest, and years after they've graduated it's still nice that some still come to me for advice or help.

Being a professor can be exhausting, with long hours of grading, and little thanks for your efforts, as well as incredibly frustrating and infuriating (those friends who have seen my griping on facebook about students cheating on exams/assignments will be able to atest to this). But weeks like this are definitely one of the real perks of the job.


*Sadly a bilious shade of green polyester, but few academic outfits are as trendy as mine - I look like Sevrus Snape when all dressed up in my regalia.
**I was just told this week, that new though the degree is, it's already got more students than the physics and maths departments put together!
***Those of legal drinking age, of course...