Graduation and Graduation Ball

We officially graduated from IMD on December 3rd, with a morning ceremony in the school's largest auditorium. The graduation speaker was Bill Roedy, the CEO of MTV Networks International, and his speech focused on always pushing for what you want to do, pursuing your dream. We each got to walk across the stage as our name was called to receive our diploma and gifts from the university.

The graduation ceremony was followed by the graduation ball in the evening, which turned out to be the party of the year. The event was organized exclusively by the students, but paid for by IMD, and we rented out the grand ballroom of The Palace hotel in central Lausanne, generally considered to be the best or 2nd best hotel in the city. It was a formal event, complete with tuxes and ball gowns, or the option of wearing traditional ceremonial dress from our respective countries.

The ball started at 7pm with cocktails, continued with dinner at 9pm, and was interspersed with "Oscar" awards and singing and dancing performances put together solely by the students and partners. The Oscar awards included awards such as "Best Actor and Actress in a Leading Role" (the students who created the most lasting memory in our minds), "Best Costume Design" (the student who had the most outrageous fashion during the year), and "Best Director" (our favorite professor).

I performed in three acts, first singing "You've Got a Friend" while Thom played guitar, then doing a choreographed pop dance with my classmates Juliet and Bei, and then singing with our "IMD choir" Shoshaloza and We Are the World.

The performances were followed with dancing, and although the party was scheduled to end by 4am at the latest, we were surprised to discover that when they finally kicked us out it was nearly 6am! (Meaning the party lasted nearly 11 hours, and that we danced continuously for more than 7 hours).

It was a fantastic end to an intense year, and none of us wanted it to end.