Dear GSAPP Family,
As the semester and academic year comes to an end, I want to express my gratitude and my thanks. Faculty, administrators, alumni, colleagues, and friends: thank you for carrying the school (and its spirits) to the “finish line” with your care, empathy, and dedication.
This time is always bittersweet as we prepare to witness another generation of students graduate and launch into the world. This year, we are deeply saddened by our inability to come together in person to celebrate this crucial moment of transition. But we are holding this sadness together with the knowledge that there will be other occasions to return and come together again.
We are also holding all of the uncertainty of this moment with the certainty that our togetherness is more than a ritual we reenact every year: it is a practice that we must actively reconsider and re-invent in the face of a changing world. So while graduation will be different this time around, it will certainly not be any less important. It might even be made more meaningful by our shared circumstances.
As we welcome our graduating students to the alumni community in this GSAPP Family, we will continue to communicate as much as we can on our recovery efforts for a safe return in the fall and to share with you the ongoing life of GSAPP: its resolute and creative energy in New York as well as its strong, extended ties around the world. Stay tuned for alumni networking opportunities, updates on career services and professional development, as well as special virtual events.
Thank you all again for everything you continue to contribute—in work and in thought—to re-imagining possibilities for all the fields of the built environment. A huge congratulations to the GSAPP Class of 2020!
Sincerely,
Amale
