Sun sets over graduates’ time at New College

On her sleeves, Amy Bernard wore her senior thesis. Literally.

She loves that it’s a New College of Florida tradition to curb the usual cap-and-gown garb for something more personal during commencement ceremonies, so she couldn’t think of anything better to wear than her greatest accomplishment.

Clad in the set of armor cleverly crafted in geometric spikes, Bernard addressed her 170 peers and their families as the sun set Friday evening, leaving a pink hue over the bay-side campus.

“Who knew there would be one more presentation to give?” she opened with a joke. “Last one.”

She recounted uniquely New College things, like coming to terms with the fact she didn’t need to wear shoes to class, crying about a Banyan tree and getting to know every single person on the small campus.

“I remember all of the times I was endlessly sick of this place, and yearned for it when I went home,” she said.

While her time at New College is through, she said she will never stop learning and never stop seeking change.

“It may feel as though that power to enact real change always belongs to somebody else,” she said, “and while this is true to some extent, I have seen so many of my fellow graduates changing the world every day.”

From protests to counter protests, Bernard was proud to stand in unison with her peers and professors.

The guest speaker at the ceremony hailed from Columbia University: George Lewis, professor of American music.

The composer and MacArthur Fellowship recipient parted some wisdom in history. He told the tale of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, made up of a group of black “experimentalists” who created, improvised and fine-tuned their own music. He related it to one of New College’s tenants of forging one’s own path.

“People hear our noise and say, ‘No one told me music could be like that; I wonder what else they haven’t told me,’” Lewis said during his speech. “Or they say, ‘Wow, that music is really different.’ And once they start down that road, their thoughts inevitably turn to, ‘What else might need to be different around here?’”

Just before the ceremony began, though, Bernard shared her favorite memory of her time in college — the salty air wafting through the open doors of College Hall as her peers, dressed as Wonder Woman, as a unicorn, as a Roman, waited to receive their diplomas.

“This is a pretty good one,” she said, beaming. “This is a pretty good memory.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 10:37 PM with the headline "Sun sets over graduates’ time at New College."