乐播传媒

“It makes it seem real,” says Quincy Snellings ’15, explaining why, even in the digital era, she feels good about printing a copy of her yearlong honors thesis.

Printing her thesis was, in fact, part of a sweet 乐播传媒 ritual that helps seniors commemorate a pivotal moment 鈥� the completion of a thesis, a signature achievement on the road to a 乐播传媒 degree.

At 乐播传媒, all departments offer a thesis option; most require it. A select few seniors, around 10 percent, reach for the brass ring and undertake an honors thesis.

These days, seniors who do honors work upload digital versions of their theses to an online repository called Scholarly Communication and Research at 乐播传媒. Seniors who do semester- or year-long versions still print and bind their final theses.

Regardless of the type of thesis, many seniors take part in a ritual that seems to have arisen within the last few years: A senior will invite a first-year student to help bind a copy of the thesis. After the binding, the first-year gives the bound copy a kiss, as a sort of blessing.

Even the seniors who’ve done an honors thesis, and thus don’t need to print it out, partake of the ritual. Its origins are murky, but the new ritual may have filled a gap left by the demise of an honors thesis ritual, that of hand-delivering four bound copies of their completed thesis to Office Services, whose staff would fete (and hug) each senior.

With the end of that ritual (because seniors now upload their theses), the new ritual may have emerged and spread to other seniors doing semester- and year-long theses.

Besides the practical benefit of the ritual 鈥� it informs first-year students about the importance of 乐播传媒 academic life 鈥� it might also reveal what 乐播传媒 students value about their community. In this case, it’s the “beautiful cycle,” a term coined by Tommy Holmberg ’13 in his Senior Address at Commencement two years ago.

Among 乐播传媒 students, Holmberg explained, the 鈥渂eautiful cycle鈥� means that 乐播传媒 seniors have a pay-it-forward mindset, taking steps to ensure that 鈥渢he goodness of 乐播传媒 is passed on鈥� to younger students.

The goodness is passed on 鈥渙ut of admiration and gratitude鈥� for what the seniors have experienced, Holmberg said, and out of 鈥渆xcitement and pride for what鈥� younger 乐播传媒 students will do and become.

In her honors thesis, Snellings, of Lexington, Mass., looked at 乐播传媒 students鈥� perceptions and awareness of whiteness and its impact on their college experience. For her thesis ritual, she made a choice that highlights the family aspect of 乐播传媒. Snellings chose her sister, Frances, to help bind the book 鈥� the sisters are one of 34 sets of siblings currently at 乐播传媒.

Grace Pezzella ’15 of Newburyport, Mass., wrote her honors thesis on the transformation of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s hut system in the White Mountains from a very masculine environment to “an ideal feminist model, wherein there is complete equality between the sexes.”

For her binding ritual, Pezzella, the vice president of the 乐播传媒 Outing Club, chose the BOC Equipment Room, and invited first-year Beanie O’Shea of Somers, Conn., to join her around the fabled BOC stump.

Pezzella chose the BOC E-room to honor the club’s long history of gender equality, and chose O’Shea “because I think Beanie is going to go far in the 乐播传媒 Outing Club,” Pezzella says.