What day is greener than the day of Wagner commencement? Sitting on the green grassy Oval, Dr. Guarasci and honored guests swathed in green robes, hundreds of green diploma covers held high, all awash in Wagner pride: There is no greener day.
What day is bluer than the day of Wagner commencement? Marching under a cerulean sky, tears flow and hearts twist as graduates and parents and inseparable friends realize four wonderful years have come to an end: There is no bluer day.
But green and blue don’t just represent Wagner pride and emotion, grass and sky: The ceremony itself swims in literal color. In fact, the colors and costumes that lend commencement day its dignity have as rich a story to tell as do the speakers who step up to the podium.
The use of the academic costume dates back to Medieval Europe, and to this day colorful ensembles of diverse styles are commonly used abroad, where academic attire is distinctive to each university.
At American colleges and universities, by contrast, styles and colors for the academic costume were established by an intercollegiate agreement in 1895, so that the mortarboard cap and the gowns for bachelor’s and master’s candidates, and the master’s hoods, are prescribed in style.
But, here is where the color begins: Wagner master’s hoods indicate the field of study by color, and all students may wear stoles, sashes, and cords that indicate where they studied abroad, what honor societies or fraternal organizations they belong to, or other aspects of their membership in this community.
So, in this feature, let’s unpack some of the stories our graduates have to tell about their Wagner experiences, all shown in the colors they wore on this year’s biggest day on the Wagner calendar — Friday, May 22.
Alyssa Connors ’13 M’15, master’s in early childhood and special education, shows off her master’s hood (lined in blue for education) as well as her Kappa Delta Pi education honors purple and green cord.
Colby Carolin, BS in international affairs and business, sports a stole representing his study abroad in Spain, as well as the maroon and gold cord of fraternity Delta Nu; Lauren De Blasi, BS in nursing, wears a purple and white cord to signify Sigma Theta Tau nursing honors and a green cord for community health nursing; Carmine Coppola, BS in business administration (finance concentration), has a Delta Nu cord, Delta Mu Delta business administration honors purple and gold cord, ODK cords, and a lei for his Expanding Your Horizons study trip to Hawaii.
Physician assistant master’s graduates wear a gold-lined green and white hood: Rick Leung (also wearing a Pi Alpha green and blue cord for P.A. honors), headed for a job in spinal surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; Nicole D’Angelo, whose first job is in the neonatal ICU at Richmond University Medical Center; Brenna Dean, specializing in orthopedic spine surgery at the Kirshner Spine Institute; and Kara Clark, who is working at a private practice in Brookfield, Connecticut.
Greeting President Guarasci, Leo Schuchert, BS in psychology, was a member of psychology honors society Psi Chi (silver stole and cord) and of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (green and yellow cord).
Daniel Cimilluca ’14 M’15, master’s in microbiology, wears a hood lined in gold indicating his science degree.
Seahawk football players show off their championship rings as well as their green and white student athlete cords. Ralph Greene, left, is going to get his MBA in media management at Wagner, while Jarrid Williams, who adds the gold and green cord of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, is going for a Wagner MBA in marketing.
Steve DiVuolo, BS in business administration, wears the Wagner green gratitude stole. After commencement, graduates give their gratitude stole to someone who has made a difference in their academic career. He is surrounded by his biological family, who just happen to also be one big Wagner family as well: His parents, Roberta Farrell ’85 M’89 DiVuolo & Tom M’90 DiVuolo, stand to his left; his brothers, Matthew ’16 and Brian ’18, also business administration majors, stand on either side. On the far left are his aunt and uncle, Marion Farrell Anderson ’86 M’89 and Robert Anderson; on the far right, his cousin Catherine.
Abeer Mishal, whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, painted on her mortarboard the Palestinian flag and the Greek initials of her honor society memberships: Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership), Phi Alpha Theta (history), and Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish). Her cords also represent those three honor societies, plus civic engagement, the Muslim Student Association, and the Honors Program. Her stole represents Argentina, where she studied abroad, and Palestine, where she made paintings on a Gaffney grant.
Portia Emory (red-and-yellow stole for study abroad in Barcelona, green and white student athlete cord), Grace Zhang (red stole for Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority; red, green, and white stole for study abroad in Kenya; cords for Omicron Delta Kappa national honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society, and Order of Omega Greek leadership honor society), Angela D’Amico (green, white, and red stole for study abroad in Italy, gold cord for Honors Program), Kelly Yamahiro (lei for her home state of Hawaii, stoles for Alpha Sigma Alpha and study abroad in Grenada, Spain), and Anthony Carrington (cords for being a student athlete and member of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement).
Credits: Story by Laura Barlament; photographs by Vinnie Amessé
For more than three decades, Wagner College students researched papers and studied for finals in a library shoehorned into the attic of the Admin Building.
What day is greener than the day of Wagner commencement? Sitting on the green grassy Oval, Dr. Guarasci and honored guests swathed in green robes, hundreds of green diploma covers held high, all awash in Wagner pride: There is no greener day.
