{"id":116250,"date":"2018-05-29T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=116250"},"modified":"2023-01-24T14:44:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T19:44:00","slug":"from-bigfoot-to-girl-power-mortarboard-art-from-seven-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/05\/29\/from-bigfoot-to-girl-power-mortarboard-art-from-seven-seniors\/","title":{"rendered":"From Bigfoot to girl power, Commencement mortarboard art from seven seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you walk among the capped-and-gowned seniors lining up on Alumni Walk before Commencement begins, you can’t miss the occasional splash of color \u2014 the paint, paper, tape, and stickers that some graduates-to-be use to make their mortarboards their own.<\/p>\n

On May 27, we asked members of the Class of 2018 to show us how they personalized their mortarboards, and what their decorations meant to them.<\/p>\n

1. A ‘winna’ of a cap<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap<\/strong>: “From ya wake up this morning, yous a WINNA”<\/h5>\n

Raegine Clouden Mallett \u201918 of Brooklyn, N.Y., had a lot to feel great about on Commencement, so she and her sister Nyiesha, 17, decorated her cap with a lyric from the song \u201cCheers to Life,\u201d by the soca artist Voice. In the corner of the cap is the flag of Grenada, Mallett\u2019s mother\u2019s home country.<\/p>\n

2. Granite a degree<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cB.S. Geology \u2014 My adventures will never be taken for granite \u2014 Thanks Mom & Dad\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ashley Kulesza ’18 of Great Falls, Va., painted her cap to commemorate her geology major. Kulesza and her sister spent a few hours making the cap.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3. You are strong<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cHey Black Child \u2014 do you know how strong you are?\u201d<\/h5>\n

Aria Sanders \u201918 of Fort Worth, Texas, used lines from a poem by Useni Eugene Perkins to represent strength, particularly when it comes to hair. \u201cI wanted to show that even if you have curly hair, you can wear your graduation cap with pride,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

4. A perfectly square piece of home<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap: Jamaican flag<\/h5>\n

Mickoy Nichol \u201918 of Dennis Port, Mass., decorated his cap with the Jamaican flag. \u201cIt\u2019s where I call home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

5. Girl Power, proven<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap:\u00a0\u201cGrl Pwr\u201d<\/h5>\n

Economics major Leah Dy \u201918 of Laguna Hills, Calif., noticed there weren\u2019t many women in her major or in her field, and she has worked to change that. She said she felt gratified upon learning that the company she\u2019ll work for after graduation, the investment research firm Morningstar, had hired many women. Friend Sarah Daehler \u201919 made the cap for her to celebrate. \u201cI wanted to carry that theme through Commencement,\u201d Dy said.<\/p>\n

6. Reppin’ squatchin<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap:\u00a0\u201cGone squatchin\u201d<\/h5>\n

Kelly Philbrook ’18 of Auburn, Maine, is a Bigfoot believer who once went \u201csquatching\u201d \u2014 searching for Sasquatch \u2014 in the White Mountains. She ordered a sticker to put on her cap.<\/p>\n

7. Sunny state<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cap: sunflower<\/h5>\n

Ivette Partida \u201918 of Norwalk, Conn., painted a sunflower on her high school graduation cap. She decided to do the same for college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Jamaican flag, a sunflower, an homage to black hair, and a shoutout to Bigfoot are some of the ways Bates grads personalized their mortarboards. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":116257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,11012],"tags":[10831,11604],"class_list":["post-116250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-student-life","tag-commencement","tag-commencement-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116250"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117334,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116250\/revisions\/117334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}