10-10-2010, 08:19 PM
The graduation was absolutely fantastic. I started the day off by attending the awards ceremony at the NJ Science Museum Auditorium, where I received the instacert, er, Arnold Fletcher award for earning over 90 credits through non-traditional means (like testing out!). Afterwards, my family split to go eat some lunch and my girlfriend and I toured the TESC campus.
I had no idea we had an actual campus; I was under the impression that TESC consisted of a couple of cubicles on the umpteenth floor of some office building in Trenton, but alas we occupy a couple of old restored buildings next door to the statehouse. They had some light refreshments out and some tables set up with lots of TESC âswagâ (t-shirts and souvenirs) available for purchase. This was my first time ever meeting my fellow students and my first time meeting TESC staff members. My classmates were really nice people and the staff were even nicer. I'm used to people working in education being the sort of people that can take the fun out of anything and make it terrible (is it any wonder I hated school growing up?), but I was pleasantly surprised.
After wondering around the campus, we wandered down to the War Memorial building. It is a gigantic auditorium constructed in 1932. The building is absolutely gorgeous and was renovated about 15 years ago. I went inside to get my gown and it turns out that TESC goofed and ordered me a gray one instead of a black one; I earned both an associates and a bachelor's degree this year. The goof was rectified no problem, and without any hassle. How often does that happen at a B & M school? Then I went upstairs for pictures, and outside to line up for graduation. We lined up in no particular order by degree, with the masters candidates up front, bachelors in the middle, and associates candidates rounding out the rear.
We marched in to the âGeorge Washington Bridge Songâ (pomp and circumstance), were seated, and then the festivities began. Thankfully, there was no annoying valedictorian speaker, but we did have a graduating classmate tell an uplifting tale about how after injury ended his career as a firefighter, TESC allowed him to complete his degree and find alternate employment. Then an Honorary degree was handed out to a self-made venture capitalist who started out life as an orphan and achieved against all odds. Then our graduation speaker was honored with a doctor of humane letters, and he gave his speech about how our TESC education will enable us to function in the new economy and tackle all of the new challenges in the world like climate change and so on and so forth. We were then treated to some music from the Princeton Pro Musica choral group, who also sang âGod Bless Americaâ at the beginning of the ceremony. Then we went up on stage, one by one, to receive our faux diplomas (which contained TESC grad schools apps...). This is where things got interesting, as TESC's genius solution to the age old problem of lining up grads alphabetically by school and then fumbling with name pronunciation was for grads to sate their name into the mic as they walked up onto the stage. At first people just said their names, but as time wore on, people praised Jesus, the Army, the Navy, their families, and even the Philadelphia Eagles. I gave a shoutout to the almighty CLEP test and to all of my people here at instacert. After grad we took a group photo and were done. They even let us keep our caps and gowns, thus avoiding the cluster**** that typically happens when you have to return these items after a graduation.
All in all, it was a fantastic day! It was the most touching real, unpretentious, awesome graduation I have ever been too in my life. I usually cringe when I have to go to a graduation, even my own graduations over the years. This one was different, it was very genuine and very well run. My hat goes off to TESC, and if any of you completing a degree through TESC right now have the opportunity to go when it's your turn, DO IT!!! Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Although even if you can't TESC does broadcast it on the Internet so you can view it at home. Yet one more reason why TESC is the best thing going right now in higher education, IMHO.
I had no idea we had an actual campus; I was under the impression that TESC consisted of a couple of cubicles on the umpteenth floor of some office building in Trenton, but alas we occupy a couple of old restored buildings next door to the statehouse. They had some light refreshments out and some tables set up with lots of TESC âswagâ (t-shirts and souvenirs) available for purchase. This was my first time ever meeting my fellow students and my first time meeting TESC staff members. My classmates were really nice people and the staff were even nicer. I'm used to people working in education being the sort of people that can take the fun out of anything and make it terrible (is it any wonder I hated school growing up?), but I was pleasantly surprised.
After wondering around the campus, we wandered down to the War Memorial building. It is a gigantic auditorium constructed in 1932. The building is absolutely gorgeous and was renovated about 15 years ago. I went inside to get my gown and it turns out that TESC goofed and ordered me a gray one instead of a black one; I earned both an associates and a bachelor's degree this year. The goof was rectified no problem, and without any hassle. How often does that happen at a B & M school? Then I went upstairs for pictures, and outside to line up for graduation. We lined up in no particular order by degree, with the masters candidates up front, bachelors in the middle, and associates candidates rounding out the rear.
We marched in to the âGeorge Washington Bridge Songâ (pomp and circumstance), were seated, and then the festivities began. Thankfully, there was no annoying valedictorian speaker, but we did have a graduating classmate tell an uplifting tale about how after injury ended his career as a firefighter, TESC allowed him to complete his degree and find alternate employment. Then an Honorary degree was handed out to a self-made venture capitalist who started out life as an orphan and achieved against all odds. Then our graduation speaker was honored with a doctor of humane letters, and he gave his speech about how our TESC education will enable us to function in the new economy and tackle all of the new challenges in the world like climate change and so on and so forth. We were then treated to some music from the Princeton Pro Musica choral group, who also sang âGod Bless Americaâ at the beginning of the ceremony. Then we went up on stage, one by one, to receive our faux diplomas (which contained TESC grad schools apps...). This is where things got interesting, as TESC's genius solution to the age old problem of lining up grads alphabetically by school and then fumbling with name pronunciation was for grads to sate their name into the mic as they walked up onto the stage. At first people just said their names, but as time wore on, people praised Jesus, the Army, the Navy, their families, and even the Philadelphia Eagles. I gave a shoutout to the almighty CLEP test and to all of my people here at instacert. After grad we took a group photo and were done. They even let us keep our caps and gowns, thus avoiding the cluster**** that typically happens when you have to return these items after a graduation.
All in all, it was a fantastic day! It was the most touching real, unpretentious, awesome graduation I have ever been too in my life. I usually cringe when I have to go to a graduation, even my own graduations over the years. This one was different, it was very genuine and very well run. My hat goes off to TESC, and if any of you completing a degree through TESC right now have the opportunity to go when it's your turn, DO IT!!! Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Although even if you can't TESC does broadcast it on the Internet so you can view it at home. Yet one more reason why TESC is the best thing going right now in higher education, IMHO.
DEGREES EARNED: [SIZE="1"]
BA, History, TESC '10
AAS, Mechanics and Maintenance, TESC '10
[/size]
TESTS PASSED:[SIZE="1"]
CLEP Social Sciences & History - 70/50
CLEP American Government - 65/50
CLEP English Composition General - 68/50
CLEP A & I Literature 70/50
CLEP Sociology 73/50
CLEP College Math 74/50
CLEP Intro Psychology 72/50
CLEP College Algebra 65/50
CLEP Macroeconomics 73/50
CLEP Microeconomics 70/50
CLEP Western Civ. I 79/50
CLEP Western Civ. II 70/50
CLEP US History I 79/50
CLEP US History II 78/50
DSST Technical Writing 63/46
DSST Intro to Computing 463/400
DSST Substance Abuse 463/400
DSST Fundamentals of Algebra 433/400
DSST World Religions 467/400
DSST The Civil War and Reconstruction 68/47
DSST A History of the Vietnam War 78/44
DSST An Introduction to the Modern Middle East 80/47
DSST Western Europe since 1945 71/47
DSST Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union 70/45
[SIZE="2"]ON DECK:[/SIZE]
A B.E. or an MBA
[/SIZE]
BA, History, TESC '10
AAS, Mechanics and Maintenance, TESC '10
[/size]
TESTS PASSED:[SIZE="1"]
CLEP Social Sciences & History - 70/50
CLEP American Government - 65/50
CLEP English Composition General - 68/50
CLEP A & I Literature 70/50
CLEP Sociology 73/50
CLEP College Math 74/50
CLEP Intro Psychology 72/50
CLEP College Algebra 65/50
CLEP Macroeconomics 73/50
CLEP Microeconomics 70/50
CLEP Western Civ. I 79/50
CLEP Western Civ. II 70/50
CLEP US History I 79/50
CLEP US History II 78/50
DSST Technical Writing 63/46
DSST Intro to Computing 463/400
DSST Substance Abuse 463/400
DSST Fundamentals of Algebra 433/400
DSST World Religions 467/400
DSST The Civil War and Reconstruction 68/47
DSST A History of the Vietnam War 78/44
DSST An Introduction to the Modern Middle East 80/47
DSST Western Europe since 1945 71/47
DSST Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union 70/45
[SIZE="2"]ON DECK:[/SIZE]
A B.E. or an MBA
[/SIZE]