Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A Wonderful Moment With Wonderful People in our Certificate Ceremony-- What an Exciting Time!!!! by Dorra Amira (Tunisia) & Mario Sergio Sobrinho (Brazil)

In our last administrative meeting with Randy, he mentioned that we (myself and Mario) would have to do the next blog about the VCU Humphrey certificate ceremony. We were excited by the idea. However, at the same time we had the feeling that it would be a big challenge for us because we don’t have experience writing blogs. When we started to think about, there was a big discussion between us in order to get the best content.  Finally, we  agreed about the idea and the pictures that we were going to present. Hope that you enjoy it ……!!
Graduation Program
We had many guests arriving that mingled at the Richmond Valentine History Center. Here is how the ceremony started.J
-       The opening remarks were made by our "diamond" (Crystal Thomas, Assistant Coordinator). After that the "big boss" (Bob Balster, Coordinator) presented the Fellows to the audience. Randy Koch (Associate Coordinator) played the part of the fashionable presenter so he introduced Dr. R. Mackenna Brown, the Executive Director of the VCU Global Education Office to give the keynote speech. 
-       Maia and Omar gave an entertaining presentation about what we accomplished over the year and some of the fun times that we had.
-       Nut had special presentation also; singing the song “You’ve Got A Friend” by James Taylor and the audience joined in. It was such a spontaneous, memorable and sensitive moment !!! 
-       Surely,  we cannot forget the big support from the U.S. Department of State, as John Seldins offered his usual words of inspiration.
-        At the end we (the Fellows) presented some gifts to our coordinators. It was just a symbol to express our feelings of gratitude and appreciation to them.
We will misssssssssss  uuuuuu  Guys : Bob, Randy, Crystal and Alison  L
Here we would just like to say that our VCU Humphrey coordinators and the IIE (Insitutue of International Education) staff have done very good job with all of us during this year. Unfortunately, Judy Gibson who is the current Executive Director at IIE, couldn’t come. She had a previous engagement but IIE sent a wonderful letter expressing their sentiments.  The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) was represented by Dale Weiss and Lisa Jordre who attended.  They provided for us all the news and information that we need regarding the grants and research opportunities.
The Department of State gave us the support that we need to accomplish our individual missions and to continue our careers in the best ways with the best opportunities (Thanks John Sedlins).
Humphrey’s receiving the certificates:
In these pictures you may see from left to right John Sedlins (State Department), Dale Weiss (NIDA), Robert Balster, "Humphrey graduate", J. Randy Koch, Alison Breland and Crystal Thomas (VCU Humphrey Program coordinators and staff).


This is me J Dorra (Tunisia) receiving my certificate.


This is Dafina (Kosovo) my beautiful roommate.


This is Mario (Brazil) our Prosecutor


Here you can see Maia (Russia) with Taisiia (her daughter) who was sticking close to her. Maybe she was scared that her would mom go too far away from her J
This is Omar (Egypt) you can see him smiling aning like he appears in this picture all the time. J
Here you can see Nut (Thailand) our Humphrey photographer with her amazing national dressJ

This is Rogerio (Brazil) our DJ since we were in Eugene together J
Here you can see Moses (Nigeria) enjoying his moment
Ceremony guests
All friends, advisors and friendship families of the Humphrey Fellows were invited and we shared great time together at the reception in "The Garden" of Richmond Valentine History Center. It lasted about one hour and half and finished at 7pm.
Through these pictures that Mario and I will present to you will notice the nice ambiance that we experienced. 
LET’S SEE…. !!!!
Moses with his Nigerian friends from the church

Maia with her two daughters (Diana & Taisiia), her mother and her friendship family, The Hoffmans
Randy, his  wonderful wife Diane (she gave us much support during this year) and Bob’s wife, Sam 
Here you can see my wonderful friendship family (Lynn, Chip and their two beautiful daughters)
In the middle is Larry, half of Dafina's Friendship Family (his wife Trudie is not pictured), and I could say mine too (I’m luckyJ).

Mario, his wife Suili, two daughters Amanda and Bianca, their friend from Brazil, Andrea (Rogerio’s wife) amd me (Dorra)
As usual we like to have a funny picture with The Big Boss Bob J
Look at these guys J……!!!!  Omar, Olga (our fellow Fellow from Penn State University), Maia and Dafina.
Here is Maia's daughter Diana. She left our celebration to play in the water fountain. So cute!

Finally, this is our usual "crazy" picture that we always take --minus Moses who was already resting by this time :)
We had a most memorable afternoon.  It was an excellent ending to a year of growth and enrichment.  Hope you liked this blog and see you next time with Rogerio’s blog about our end Retreat in Cumberland and I think it will be very exciting.
Bye …..!                             
~~with love from Tunisia and Brazil (Dorra and Mario) J