Thread by @gauravsabnis

Ordered regalia for the Undergraduate Commencement (Graduation) next month. I'll be sitting on the stage looking like a Hogwarts teacher surrounded by solemn colleagues, and jumping up going "WOOHOO" every time one of my students walks. 😁

This year is extra special, obviously.

By typical US standards, Stevens is a small university with an even smaller business school with an even smaller Marketing undergrad program. And I teach almost all undergrad courses. And am the only advisor for marketing majors.

So I get to know these students extremely well!

So these 40 or so marketing major/minor/concentration students who will graduate next month, I have an extra soft spot for. They & I navigated these years which were literally THE worst years to be a teacher, but way way worse to be a student. Such bad luck for the students.

I got to know them first back in 2018-19 as these fresh faced enthusiastic high school graduates entering college in this very exciting location, Hoboken, with so much fun stuff for a college student, and of course, Manhattan just a 10 minute train ride away.

And then the virus.

Ugh!

Imagine being a college student in NYC! Pre-pandemic, I used to feel jealous cos no matter what your interests are, from theatre to food to art to music to binge drinking in classic dive bars till 4 AM lol, they had easy access to it all!

But then the virus.

The range of their possibilities as a 20 year old went from all of NYC and NJ to a room mostly with their parents, staring at a computer screen and pretending like it's almost as good as being in class on campus.

While paying the same tuition. 😢

This cohort of undergrads is the unluckiest cohort in a century. Some of the best years of their lives spent locked down and masked up. Brings a tear or two to my eyes, cos I've gotten to know most of them really well. We've bonded the way only crises bond people.

Here's the weird irony. Although this is the undergrad cohort I know the most as people in my 15 year career, it is also the cohort I'll be least likely to recognize if I run into them a few years later on the street.

Cos masks. We all have to be masked still.

Thankfully, NY-NJ are practically back to normal. So at least these students can make the most of whatever few weeks they have left. Why I'm a bit extra lenient this year with obvious cases of #senioritis. If any generation ever earned senioritis flakiness, it is this one. 😍❤️

I feel like this cohort got a raw deal in terms of my teaching, cos I struggled with the transition to zoom teaching. But they keep taking my classes (all electives), a dozen of them even 600 level grad classes! That is some great validation. And they are always so diligent too!

So yeah, tho Commencement is special every year, this one is a bit more special.

This is the cohort that first taught me about TikTok and spiked seltzer being a thing back in 2018 and now have made professional analyses of TikTok & spiked seltzer on par with any consultant.

And all this growth from them in the middle of a pandemic too! Just sitting at home staring at screens pretending like it's actual class.

This lot is going to do great things, I can tell!

Prediction - I'm going to cry happy tears sitting on that stage as each of em walks. 😭