Commencement 2018

Congratulations, Class of 2018!

On May 20, the Boston University School of Law community gathered at the BU Track & Tennis Center for the 145th Commencement ceremony. Nina Totenberg (COM’65, Hon.’11), American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, delivered the Commencement speech in which she urged graduates to keep an open mind as they begin their careers and to seek a range of career experiences.

Following Ms. Totenberg’s address, LLM student Abd Gafur and JD student Kevin Smith delivered two exceptional speeches. Having received their degrees, the roughly 490 graduates joined their friends and families at a reception following the ceremony.

 

Ordering Photos & Videos

Photos

Commencement Photos, Inc. took photographs of students receiving their diplomas and a formal shot once they left the stage. Commencement Photos, Inc. will be contacting students directly with information about purchasing their photos. Candids from the day can be purchased by visiting Commencement Photos, Inc.’s SmugMug page.

DVDs

Convocations are professionally-produced, high-definition, single-camera, archival recordings of individual school, college, or department diploma ceremonies. You may also order a copy of the All-University Commencement at Nickerson Field.

 

Dean Maureen O’Rourke’s remarks

 

Nina Totenberg’s remarks

 

About Ms. Totenberg

Nina Totenberg is NPR’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR’s critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition. Totenberg’s coverage of the Supreme Court and legal affairs has won her widespread recognition. Newsweek says, “The mainstays [of NPR] are Morning Edition and All Things Considered. But the crème de la crème is Nina Totenberg.”

In 1991, her ground-breaking report about University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by Judge Clarence Thomas led the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings to consider Hill’s charges. NPR received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for its gavel-to-gavel coverage—anchored by Totenberg—of both the original hearings and the inquiry into Anita Hill’s allegations, and for Totenberg’s reports and exclusive interview with Hill.

That same coverage earned Totenberg additional awards, among them: the Long Island University George Polk Award for excellence in journalism, the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for investigative reporting, the Carr Van Anda Award from the Scripps School of Journalism, and the prestigious Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in Washington-based national affairs/public policy reporting, which also acknowledged her coverage of Justice Thurgood Marshall’s retirement.

Totenberg was named Broadcaster of the Year and honored with the 1998 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcasting from the National Press Foundation. She is the first radio journalist to receive the award. She is also the recipient of the American Judicature Society’s first-ever award honoring a career body of work in the field of journalism and the law. In 1988, Totenberg won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her coverage of Supreme Court nominations.

Totenberg has been honored seven times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting and has received a number of honorary degrees. On a lighter note, in 1992 and 1988 Esquire magazine named her one of the “Women We Love.”

A frequent contributor to major newspapers and periodicals, she has published articles in The New York Times Magazine, The Harvard Law Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Parade Magazine, New York Magazine, and others.

Before joining NPR in 1975, Totenberg served as Washington editor of New Times Magazine, and before that she was the legal affairs correspondent for the National Observer.

 

Abd Gafur (LLM in Banking & Financial Law) delivers LLM student address

 

Kevin Smith delivers JD student address

 

Awards & Prizes

Sebastian Horsten Prize for Academic Achievement, to the LLM in American Law student who has achieved the highest cumulative average in the Class of 2018: Yong Jin Yeo

American Law Outstanding Achievement Award, for excellence in academic achievement, honorable conduct, and contributions to the class: Mudassar Umar

Graduate Tax Program Academic Achievement Award, for the highest cumulative average in the Class of 2018: Leonard I. Greenberg

Ernest M. Haddad Award, to the graduating Graduate Tax Program student who best exhibits overall ability, taking into consideration academic achievement, character, and potential to serve the public interest: Carolina Maria Nuche 

A. John Serino Outstanding Graduate Banking & Financial Law Student Prize, for overall performance, in terms of academic achievement and dedication to the highest standards of scholarship and service: Sezgi Guler Fuechec

Dennis S. Aronowitz Award for Academic Excellence in Banking & Financial Law, for the highest cumulative average in the Class of 2018: Zehang Chen

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Faculty Award for Academic Accomplishment, for the most scholarly progress in the third year: Michael Juan Torruella Costa

William L. and Lillian Berger Achievement Prizes, for exemplary scholastic achievement: Leonard I. Greenberg and Audra M. Sawyer

Faculty Awards for Community Service, for exceptional dedication to the ideals of community service: Nicole A. Holbrook and Mario N. Paredes

Peter Bennett Prize, to the graduating third-year JD law student(s) receiving the highest grade point average for that year: Lucas L. Fortier

Spencer R. Koch Memorial Awards, for outstanding contributions to achieving the goals of the Esdaile Alumni Center through alumni outreach: Brian J. Hughes and Nicole S. Theal

Honorable Albert P. Pettoruto Memorial Award, for excellence in the field of probate or family law: Katherine E. DePangher

Melville M. Bigelow Scholarship Awards, to members of the graduating class who show the greatest promise as scholars and teachers in law: Haley E. Eagon and Lucas A. Moench

Warren S. Gilford Humanity and Law Prizes, to students who shows humanitarian interest in law, primarily by taking jobs in the public sector after graduation: Vidhi Bamzai and James Willem van Wagtendonk

Alumni Academic Achievement Award, for the highest cumulative average in the three-year program of law study: Lucas L. Fortier

Sylvia Beinecke Robinson Awards, for significant contributions to the life of the School of Law: Peter Lubershane and Rachel Marie Rose

Dr. John Ordronaux Prize, awarded to a member of the graduating class for the most exemplary academic performance and leadership: Brandon A. Winer

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Michael Melton Award for Excellence in Teaching is named for a longtime faculty member who taught in the tax area and was director of the Graduate Tax Program, who died in 1999 at 53: Mark Pettit

 Part-Time Faculty Teaching Award, in recognition of the outstanding teaching of BU Law’s part time-faculty: Michael Schneider