Today was a sob fest! The first student to present at graduation could barely get through the first line of her speech.  When the second student came up to introduce herself, there room was already in tears. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place! Of course the goal of the workshop is to teach the students the basic fundimentals of photography…but really that’s not the end goal. Our goal is to give our students a voice and provide a transformative experience allowing them to explore who they are and what makes and their communities unique. By the way people were sobbing during the last group show, I’d say it seems like maybe we’ve been able to accomplish that. Seriously, tears everywhere!

Once the ceremony finished, almost 2 1/2 hours later, the crowd dispersed  to the exhibition space to view the art and eat food. It was so obvious that the students were proud of what they had done this week. The energy was electric. Things slowly fizzled out close to 5 o’clock, the relief of another week well spent came crashing down on us. We’d all like to get out and go see Athens, but I think our first priority is going to be dinner and catching up on some rest.