EUGENE, Ore. -- (Sept. 22, 2010) -- At the University of Oregon, convocation marks the start of the academic year and welcomes students to the university. The 2010 convocation will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, at historic Hayward Field.
Activity will begin at 3 p.m. with a grand parade that will travel down 15th Avenue from Gerlinger Hall lawn to Hayward Field. Convocation is free and open to the public. Following the ceremony, the assembly of faculty and students will parade back to the Gerlinger Hall where University Housing will host a picnic dinner for more than 3,000 students and faculty on the lawn.
According to event organizers in UO Undergraduate Studies, convocation traditions go back several centuries and vary from university to university. In the 16th century, Oxford University used the term to describe an assembly of master's graduates, welcoming them to the order of scholars.
The UO convocation includes many aspects associated with commencement exercises, including faculty wearing their academic regalia, banners to identify the academic schools and colleges, and music associated with the university such as the Oregon pledge song and the "Mighty Oregon" fight song. UO President Richard W. Lariviere will deliver the keynote address.
At convocation, two Oregon high school teachers will be recognized with the UO High School Teacher award. Recipients are Shawn McDevitt, physics teacher at West Linn High School, and Becky Wynne, chemistry teacher at Catlin Gabel High School in Portland. This is the fourth year that UO has presented this award.
McDevitt became a high school science teacher after developing an interest in the process of engineering toy parts while working for Hasbro Toys - an unexpected turn of events for the then marketing major. After completing degrees in integrated science and education, he teaches at West Linn High School.
Wynne, the daughter of two Cornell mathematicians, remembers emphatically telling her mom, "I will never become a math teacher!" At Swarthmore College, she majored in chemistry and after graduation, taught high school chemistry and physics in New York City. She then earned a master's degree in science and math education from Cornell University. A move to the West Coast initiated a return to high school teaching. She worked at OHSU and OMSI before joining the Catlin Gabel School in 1998. At Catlin Gabel, she has taught physics, biology, chemistry and math. She's famous for "Fire Fridays," that enliven her chemistry classes.
"In returning to teach at Catlin Gabel, I did what I swore I would never do - I taught math (and science)," she said.
The UO High School Teacher award nominations are submitted by incoming freshmen from Oregon. The nominations are reviewed by a committee and winners are selected to receive certificates of recognition at convocation. Teachers are recognized for their ability to encourage analytical thinking, strengthen problem-solving skills and promote intellectual curiosity and creativity.
CONTACT: Julie Brown, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
LINK: http://ugs.uoregon.edu/US_Pages/US_Convocation.html
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