The Graduation of the Class of 2015 took place on Friday the 3rd of July at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in The Hague. Below is the speech that Christine Everaars, board member of Evolucio, performed during the ceremony.

Good afternoon all! 

A bit less than five years ago, LUC courses started at Lange Voorhout, with only a small amount of students and professors. The first two years were fun, but LUC was still in baby shoes. In september 2012, you guys joined and made LUC to one whole, with students in all stages of the programme. 

Since that time, a lot has changed for you. Let’s start with the most obvious change, which the class representative also mentioned: moving from Lange Voorhout to the Anna van Buerenplein. From one beautiful characteristic building, to the also beautiful but definitely less characteristic one. You guys changed this. With your committee, college and other activities you gave colour to this building. Even though AvB did not always become more beautiful after your parties, it definitely became more characteristic… 

But there was more; you moved from being introduction week ducklings, to introduction week mommies and daddies, and eventually to those who didn’t really care about introduction week (except for the BBQ, of course). You changed from being first, to second to third years (some of you even fourth years). From being newbies to experts.

Just a few minutes ago, another thing has changed: You just moved from LUC to our alumni society, Evolucio. Because even though you leave LUC, that does not mean that LUC leaves you: that is one thing that does not change. Together, we want to stay connected online and offline, and we hope to see you on many of our events. 

To show that life after LUC is also full of choices, options and changes, we have compiled a short video of alumni life. Enjoy and welcome to the alumni community!

As of Wednesday, the Evolucio community is a few alumni richer. The graduates of the class of 2014 and a half, experienced a very personal send-off by LUC. After reminiscing on the adventures, high and low points and other memories of these graduates, they were welcomed by Luc van der Stegen as the new batch of Evolucio alumni. We want to congratulate Anita Awolaja, Judith Bayer, Elizabeth Bogaert, Casey Bryan, Kaiyuan Chen, Vanessa Escoto, Su Jeong Ji (Suji), Freya Koci , Miika Korja, Maria Madland, Matthew McEveety, Madeleine McMurray (Maddi), Joes de Natris, Taymur Mustafa, and Sarah Wildeboer with receiving their bachelor’s degree. We wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavours! Below is the speech that Luc performed during the ceremony.

Honourable guests, LUC staff and students, and lastly, my graduates, friends and febbies,

Last summer, Georgina gave this speech, and she started off saying that a lot of things had changed since the previous, first speech of our Alumni association which was given for the first graduation of Leiden University College– for one, she mentioned, her hair was a whole lot shorter. Well, my hair has stayed the same, I actually go to the exact same place, to the exact same lady in Chinatown to get my exact same hair cut for the past 4 years. I might have slipped up once.

A few other things have also stayed the exact same since; EVOLUCIO has organized an Alumni dinner every year, EVOLUCIO has skated on ice every year and EVOLUCIO has welcomed each batch of LUC’ers into its community. And this community, you’ll be part of it everywhere, you can go anywhere, and the community will still be with you, provided you’ll be in London or the Netherlands. Or our newest regional expansion; Taiwan.

 But let’s go back to when you guys were barely here: I observed your little group awkwardly from afar, slightly like a baby giraffe, some would characterize me. I can remember that you were sitting together in the common room of our shared student housing, conversing quite animatedly (they were yelling), and I was a little bit skeptical of what was happening with this rowdy bunch. I didn’t expect to get to know them, you, as soon as I did, I expected it even less than one would expect the Spanish inquisition.

It would only be several weeks later that I was walking around on the third floor of the Klok (our student housing), the night before the Earth exam and in the middle of the hallway, I encountered this table with two girls studying at it. And right away, they pulled up a chair and invited me to their little last minute studying session. And then I knew that I had become a part of this little, warm and very very welcoming community of febbies (the name that the February intake students adopted themselves). In the same way, I would now like to pull up a few extra chairs for you guys and invite you to our new shared table; EVOLUCIO and on behalf of the whole EVOLUCIO board, invite you to all future EVOLUCIO events to come.

If you ever have any questions or would like to connect to your fellow graduates, or have a cool idea for an event, don’t hesitate to drop a line, and we’ll see you on our events, facebookpage and webpage.

The Graduation of the Class of 2014 took place this past Saturday at the Koninklijke Schouwburg . Below is the speech that Georgina Kuipers, board member of Evolucio, performed during the ceremony.

Dear fellow alumni, ladies and gentlemen,

As some of you may remember, there was a similar sort of ceremony about a year ago. Lots of things have changed since then — for one, my hair is a whole lot shorter. But in all seriousness, a lot of things have also stayed the same. As Hilde said last year, we might’ve left LUC, but LUC hasn’t left us. One way through which that happened was through our alumni community Evolucio. We hosted events and kept in touch with the alumni both in real life and online.

You see, the Class of 2013 were always the guinea pigs, testing the waters. And although we grew very close in our first year at LUC, it was pretty nice to have the Class of 2014 join us. It really felt like a natural progression for LUC to expand. And that’s why we’re so happy that, after having been alumni guinea pigs for a year, we will be joined once again by the Class of 2014. From all of us, a huge congratulations to all the graduates.

The growth of our alumni community is also reflected in the composition of the new board of Evolucio. The new board consists of Christine, Danny, Eline, Hilde, Jake, Luc, Odette, Pieter and myself! With this board, we will enter a new phase in the development of LUC’s alumni community, and I’m very confident that the board is ready to organize more events and further develop our virtual and physical presence.

And finally, to show you that life after LUC is diverse and you can end up in many different places, we compiled some footage. 

Enjoy and welcome to our community!

PS: You’ll soon be able to read more about the new Board here!

Even though it seemed a normal Wednesday afternoon in February, the first floor of the Anna van Buerenplein was filled with balloons, people dressed up LUC style and a few students running around nervously in gaps and gowns. Maybe this day was not like any other after all. It was the fifth of February 2014 to be precise, which marked both a finish line as well as a new beginning for six LUC students. During their own graduation ceremony, Raila, Daphne, Laura, Werner, Mandy and Veronica graduated from LUC and became the graduating Class of 2013 ½.

The ceremony commenced with a warm welcome to the six students and their guests by the Dean of LUC, Prof. Dr. Jos Schaeken, after which the graduates’ tutors addressed them personally, reflecting on their dedication and hard work they have put into their studies throughout the past years at LUC. It was then time for the conferring of the degrees, and moving the tassle. Christine Everaars, the Chair of Fortuna was also invited to say some words, during which she thanked the Class of 2013 ½ for helping build up this college, and Hilde Woker, the Chair of Evolucio who officially welcomed the graduates into the LUC Alumni family. The ceremony ended with the traditional throwing of the gaps, but celebrations continued during the reception afterwards (which also turned into a small alumni reunion).

As said before, this day represented both an end and a new beginning. With a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences these six graduates have finished their LUC education and – hopefully – an inspiring and incredible period of their lives. Post-LUC life has now begun and new adventures await them. We wish our newest members of the LUC Alumni community all the best for the future and hope to see them very soon at alumni events.