Congratulations, Class of 2023!
The graduation ceremony of this year’s IDR LL.M. cohort beautifully concluded the end of an exciting and intense academic journey. Seeing the graduates receive their diplomas and wear their academic caps was truly bittersweet: on the one hand, it is thrilling to see the students go and make an impact on jurisdictions all around the globe, but their familiar faces and joyful personalities will be sorely missed here at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The graduation speech was delivered by Dr. Ramona Schardt LL.M (UVA) who reminisced back to her own beginnings as a young lawyer and journeyed her outstanding professional career in a memorable and thought-provoking manner. Equally impressive were the alumni address by Aina Hannisa, delightfully reminding us that failure is part of everyone’s life and should be practised, not feared, as well as the valedictorian speech by Farah Fawzy.
Honouring their outstanding academic achievement, Sercan Cavusoglu, Valeriia Lada and Farah Fawzy were awarded with gifts to aid their work in arbitration. For their outstanding performances in areas outside of the academic field, the student representatives then awarded their fellow peers with the “Student Oscars”. The slideshow put together by the student representatives highlighting their out of school activities was proof of the bonds and friendships made by the pupils.
After that, the graduates, families, friends, lecturers and staff were able to get together one final time and enjoy each other’s company over food and drinks.
To paraphrase one of the 21. century’s great legal minds: “Congratulations, class of 2023. You did it!”
