What Is A Pinning Ceremony?

Tonight my niece Lauren -- and the 24 other International Baccalaureate students at Omaha's Central High School -- took part in the annual "IB Pinning Ceremony" at the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. 

Here are tidbits about International Baccalaureate:

-- The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (it's spelled that way on the official website) is offered at only three (3) high schools in Nebraska: Omaha Central, Millard North, and Lincoln High.

--  The DP is an academically challenging and balanced programme of education.

-- It addresses the intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being of students, and is respected by universities across the globe.

-- Each of the IB’s programmes, including the DP, is committed to the development of students according to the attributes shown in the IB learner profile.

More information can be found at http://www.ibo.org/

In a nutshell, it is a special curriculum program for students. It is relatively new.

At some schools, the "pinning ceremony" involves junior diploma candidates in IB getting a pin from seniors. 

Tonight's ceremony didn't involve that practice. The event only included seniors.

Each student came up to receive his or her pin. The principal of the school read information on the research paper each student is working on. 

Photo courtesy of Danielle Rowe

The papers (no longer than 4,000 words) focus on varied topics like "To What Extent are Patients Harmed By Favoring Either Biomedical or Psychotherapy Treatments for Depression?" and "The Expansion of Drones Through Businesses" (which Bridget enjoyed reading).

My niece is doing her paper on "An Analysis of the Impact of History on Charles Dicken's Novels."

Each student received a purple gerbera daisy to give to their project supervisor.

Afterward, there were cakes and refreshments. 

This was the first time I had been in UNO's Weitz Community Engagement Center. It is a terrific facility (which UNO administrators have suggested might be the only facility of its kind on a college campus in the U.S.), and was a nice locale for this evening's festivities.

Congratulations, Lauren.

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