Dalhousie – Hail to the Class of 2006!

My daughter’s convocation was both simple and dignified. There was also a very human touch as some graduates brought their small children on stage and some had to be carried in arms. There is no excuse not to graduate, even from medical school!

The dean who conferred the degree was Dr Harold Cook, a world famous pediatrician and my daughter said they were really honoured that he was the person to officiate at their graduation.

I have been to two other convocations in Singapore for my daughters but both seemed quite sterile and just efficient. At Dalhousie, each graduate had a brief exchange of less than a minute with the dean and even the children were not left out. He gave them a High Five and even capped a few of them.

In the USA and Canada, students enter medical school only after a first degree unlike the practice in Singapore and Malaysia and so my daughter and her friends from IMU were at least 4 or 5 years younger than the locals.

If you look closely at the photo you will note that the gals outnumber the guys and so the phenomenon of more girls in university also occurs elsewhere.
There were about eight awards for top students and I think six were won by the girls but one was one by a guy who also won the prize for best student overall.

Security was rather lax and there was not even any checking of bags before we could enter the convocation hall – quite unlike the situation in the USA just across the border. However things may change as they arrested some terrorist suspects on the day we left Canada.