I graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from San Jose State University’s (SJSU) iSchool program in May 2020. I started this program back in January 2018, and this time felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. I went into my courses not knowing what to expect, but I’ve walked away having gained so much - breadth and depth of knowledge about information science, practical information for archival and digital asset management work, and new friends and mentors. Working full-time while taking two classes each semester was challenging, but I feel so fortunate to have put much of what I’ve learned to use in my job.
Celebrating digitally
Due to COVID-19, the in-person graduation ceremony for SJSU was postponed, and our ceremony was held online. Additionally, the iSchool created a website to gather information about the graduating class, award recipients, and the virtual graduation ceremony. Here’s my page on the iSchool website. Both venues - while not a 1:1 replacement for an in-person experience - provided a sense of closure and an opportunity to reflect and celebrate, which I appreciated. My family had the chance to attend the virtual ceremony, even while living hundreds of miles away, and it was great to surprise them with the news that I had received the Director’s Award for Excellence in Intellectual Inquiry.
Student speaker Sharaya Olmeda
Dr. Sandra Hirsh, the Associate Dean for Academics, College of Professional and Global Education provided the welcome address for the virtual convocation. She provided information about the history of SJSU’s iSchool as well as some features of this program being fully online, especially the ability to connect with students across the globe. Next, Dr. Ruth Huard, the Dean, College of Professional and Global Education, gave the Dean’s address. It felt affirming to hear her talk about human-centric approaches to information, and how our work can create community. Sharaya Olmeda, the recipient of the Ken Haycock Award for Exceptional Professional Promise and the student speaker, also discussed the potential for information to empower, build, and create unity among our communities. I had the chance to partner with Sharaya in a group project for our Information Retrieval Systems course in our first semester of the program - it was so wonderful to see her recognized for her hard work, and to hear her (incredibly inspiring!) perspectives on our field. She also pointed to our program being 100% online as making our cohort of roughly 600 graduating MLIS and MARA students being uniquely poised to help our communities adapt to a virtual world.
View of graduation in a time of COVID-19
The last speaker was Julius Jefferson, the graduation speaker, section head of the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, and ALA President from 2020-2021. He underscored some of the ideas Dr. Huard and Sharaya discussed - that we can make a difference and information professionals and that we are prepared to thrive in a digital world. He also recognized our class for the challenges we have experienced in wrapping up our master’s degrees while facing the realities of COVID-19. I appreciated his thoughts on how information professionals are essential workers, because of the critical role of accurate, authoritative information in today’s always-changing world. This paralleled his assertion that librarianship (and information work more broadly) is a practice given the evolving nature of the work, and that ongoing professional development is key to understanding how to help our communities. As our professors have told us all along in this program - lifelong learning is important! He also touched on our global responsibilities, that human rights and information services go hand in hand, and that we need to integrate social justice in our work. Each of the speaker’s remarks and the virtual graduation ceremony as a whole was grounding for me, given our uncertain, troubled times. It felt nice to look to the future optimistically.
I was hesitant to pursue a master’s degree for a lot of reasons, even though many friends and mentors in the field suggested this would be my best bet moving forward in my career. I am so happy I decided to take the leap, in spite of the long nights and weekends spent working on group projects, research projects, and coding assignments. I know I’ve grown so much as a result of this program, and I’m excited to see where my career path goes from here.