AGS Commencement 2018: Graduates from Four Continents Receive AGS's American Master's Degree in the French Senate

The American Graduate School in Paris Class of 2018 Commencement was held on June 1^st in the French Senate, under the sponsorship of Senator Catherine Morin-Desailly, President of the Senate’s Commission on Culture, Education and Communication. Graduates from numerous parts of the globe, including the United States, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, the Philippines, Liberia, and Ghana gathered with their professors, families and friends in this landmark of French democracy to celebrate the successful completion of their two years of studies in Paris. They were awarded AGS’s Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy, accredited in the United States in partnership with Arcadia University. Dual degree graduates additionally received a Europe-accredited Master in Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiation from AGS’s partner Université Paris Sud.

“Both our students and our faculty come from all over the world, and tonight’s graduates alone represent four continents," said AGS Director, Professor Larry Kilman in his introductory speech, "but the international profile of our students is not the only thing that’s impressive about them,  “They are remarkable individuals. (…) They come to Paris from all walks of life and for a variety of reasons, but they all share a commitment to helping others and contributing to both their societies and the international community.”

The Commencement speaker this year was AGS’s Professor of Diplomacy Ambassador Michael Einik. Ambassador Einik has had a long diplomatic career including assignments in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, and served as US Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia from 1999-2002. As a diplomat who has witnessed and been part of historic events, he gave an inspiring address to the students. “Many of you who have taken my classes have often heard me urge you to find your own voice. To mark out a path for yourselves different than the herd. Our job here at AGS has been to give you the tools, both theoretic and practical, to do so.”

Building on Henry Kissinger's remarks about the Internet causing “human cognition (to lose) its personal character” by having its users “ emphasize retrieving and manipulating information over contextualizing or conceptualizing its meaning”, Ambassador Einik added: “Let me (…) urge you to once in a while put down the phones, get off the Internet and think, embrace the quiet, reflect and ponder, not just search. If you can find one, go to a bookstore and read a real book, better yet open up an untouched new book and smell it, that smell is the ink, feel the paper, that’s five hundred years of knowledge. Think of Adam Smith writing the 1000 pages of Wealth of Nations in long hand and without a search engine. When faced with a decision don't have your first impulse be to google the question, but take a moment and think about it, savor the question, roll it around in your head, turn it inside out, and create something of your own.”

Following the conferring of degrees, one of the graduates, Chloe Bingham (M.A. 2018, Summa Cum Laude, Candidate in the LL.M. dual program), shared a few words capturing her AGS experience, which she recalled recently exchanging with a potential student seeking insider’s advice: “Like most schools and most opportunities in life, AGS is what you make of it. If you are looking for a rubber stamp on a diploma from a big name school with instant recognition, maybe look somewhere else. But if you are willing to put in work, to listen, to think, to learn, to take opportunities, to talk to the professors - you will be very welcome here. (…) At AGS, we get to not only hear, but converse with ambassadors, practitioners, journalists, lawyers, academics, economists, and more I’m sure. We get to meet people.” 

The AGS graduation ceremony has taken place in the premises of the French Senate every year since 2004, under the sponsorship of a member of the French Senate. Commencement speakers in the previous years have included French former Prime Ministers Michel Rocard and Alain Juppé, Lebanese Ambassador to UNESCO Samira Hanna El Daher, democracy activist Jeremy Kinsman, New York Times writer and journalist Alan Riding, and Canada's current Ambassador to France Lawrence Cannon.

See photo album of the AGS Commencement 2018 on Facebook

A link to the video of the ceremony will be posted here soon.