While the pomp and circumstance of Emory’s main Commencement ceremony on the Quadrangle is a sight to behold, it is the individual school ceremonies, the more intimate gatherings around campus where students actually receive their diplomas, where many of the graduates’ emotions—as well as those of their families and friends—burst out.

The ceremony at each of Emory’s schools is personal, and each offers its own special atmosphere. The quality of this year’s speakers, too, is tough to top. The activities at each school’s diploma ceremony, as well as that of the allied health professions, which falls under the administration of the School of Medicine, are detailed below.

Allied Health Professions (9:45 a.m., WHSCAB Auditorium)
Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami and Secretary of Health and Human Services under Bill Clinton, will address the 32 graduates of the allied health professions. The ceremony will take place immediately after the Universitywide Commencement. After the diplomas are handed out the celebration will move to Dobbs Center’s Winship Ballroom.

Candler School of Theology (9:45 a.m., Glenn Auditorium)
Dean Russell Richey will hand out diplomas to 167 graduates of the theology school. After the ceremony, at about 11:30 a.m., a reception will take place in Cannon Chapel’s Brooks Commons.

Emory College (9:45 a.m., Quadrangle)
Emory College graduates and their families have it easy. After some chair jockeying for a better view of the stage, the ceremony will begin following the Universitywide ceremony on the Quad. Senior class orator Sarah Byrd, a two-time All-American in cross country, will address the graduates.

Goizueta School of Business (10 a.m., P.E. Center)
Guest speaker Dan Amos, CEO of AFLAC, is bringing gifts to hand out to business school graduates: rubber duckies—more than 500 of them. In what is surely an astute decision, Associate Director of Admissions Harriet Ruskin said the ducks, which reference the popular quacking duck from AFLAC’s commercials, will be distributed at the conclusion of the ceremony. A reception will follow in the business school’s Jenkins Courtyard.

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (10:15 a.m., Glenn Church School amphitheater)
Acting Dean Gary Wihl will be presiding over his first graduate school Commencement. Following the awarding of diplomas, a brunch will be held inside the Church School for graduates and their family and friends.

Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (10:30 a.m., Nursing school courtyard)
Olympic silver medalist Lee Ann Parsley will speak to this year’s nursing school graduates. Parsley, who took second in the first-ever Olympic women’s skeleton competition in Salt Lake City, holds a master’s degree in nursing and is completing her Ph.D. at Ohio State University. Parsley also was Ohio’s Firefighter of the Year in 1999. The diploma ceremony will be followed by a reception in the nursing school courtyard.

Rollins School of Public Health (10:30 a.m., Rollins Plaza)
Spelman College President Audrey Manley will address the graduates of the school of public health. The first alumna to lead Spelman, Manley also earned a master’s of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University. She was the first African American woman to be named chief resident at Chicago’s Cook County Children’s Hospital and has served in many key positions in the United States Public Health Service. A reception in the Rollins Building will follow the ceremony.

School of Law (10:30 a.m., Gambrell Hall south lawn)
For the first time, the law school will be combining its hooding ceremony with its diploma presentation. In previous years, the hooding took place the Saturday night before Commencement. Much of last year’s event was rained out, so several law students were hooded at the main ceremony. “It worked out so well that we’d be foolish not to do it again,” said Celeste Katz, director of academic services. This will lengthen the ceremony a bit but not significantly so.

The more than 200 graduates choose the person to hood them, and for those graduates who do not select a specific person, James Hughes, associate professor of law, was elected by the graduates to do the honors.

After their hooding, graduates will walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. The reception will be held on Gambrell’s west terrace.

School of Medicine (11:30 a.m., Glenn Auditorium)
Judith Swain, chair of the department of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, will speak to the medical school graduates, who will gather for their diploma ceremony in Glenn Auditorium immediately following the theology school’s ceremony at approximately 11:30 a.m.

A molecular cardiologist, Swain has served on dozens of boards and committees and has won awards for her work on the biology of the cardiovascular system. Dean Thomas Lawley will administer the Hippocratic Oath.

Immediately following the Universitywide Commencement, the medical school will hold its reception for graduates and their families in WHSCAB plaza.