Diplomas 2005

Two New Diplomates

7 July 2005 -- On Tuesday 14 June 2005, the Assembly met at the campus and granted diplomas to Autumn Philpot and Mike Hudecheck.  Both diplomates were approved by resounding majorities.

Autumn's thesis defense was held on Thursday 26 May 2005.  She gave a masterful presentation of her statistical studies of the influences on teenagers and others in free school environments.  She also gave an account of her time at The New School and ended the presentation with a rendition of "Ave Maria."  Her poise and candor during questioning left no doubt about the advisory vote at the end of the evening.  Autumn's written thesis is available here.

Mike's defense was held on Tuesday 31 May 2005.  His presentation was wide-ranging and touched on a good deal of economic history, in support of his written thesis regarding the psychological causes of recurring bull markets.  Mike's presentation unexpectedly showed him to have a flair for comic timing and good-natured interplay with the audience, as well as a good grasp of economic history, stretching from the tulip markets in 17th Century Holland to the Tokyo real estate markets of the 1990s.  At the end of the presentation, the audience was left with smiles and relieved laughter, as their heads spun with facts they* had never dreamed of knowing so much about.  The question and answer portion of the evening was at times tense and challenging but over-all was very satisfying.  The advisory vote was strongly in favor of Mike's receiving a diploma.

At the Assembly meeting, both Autumn and Mike were charming in summarizing their arguments for their receiving diplomas.  The gathered members of the Assembly agreed, and both were voted diplomas by strong margins.

Mike will be entering college in the Fall, studying liberal arts and entrepreneurship at Babson College in Massachusetts.  Autumn has taken a job with the Boys and Girls Clubs in Delaware and is working as part-time staff at The New School's summer day camp this year.

Congratulations are due to both Mike and Autumn.  Both were valuable members of the School Meeting;  each served at various times as JC Clerk and as Chair of the School Meeting, as well as in many other capacities during their careers.  Both Mike and Autumn have been influential in helping other students during their time in the School (Mike has been in the School for five years; Autumn for four years). Their participation as students will be missed.  Their permanent membership in the Assembly of the School, as diplomates, will be an asset to the School.  We hope that they will visit often;  Autumn has promised that she will be around often at least during the coming school year.  

John Hiner

*The third-person plural form is here used as a the third-person singular generic pronoun, since the word "student" in the School's usage denotes a group of persons as well as the condition of an individual;  see, The American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996) Sec. 18 "they with singular antecedent.".