Master’s Graduates Celebrate Hard Work, ‘Possibility,’ at Hooding Ceremonies 

Emily McDougal was filled with gratitude as she stood in line at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, waiting to make the walk across Tremont Street to the Wang Theatre to be hooded as a new recipient of an Emerson Master of Arts in Theatre Education.

“I’ve found such a great community here,” McDougal said. “It’s just some of the best people I’ve ever met, and so I feel really proud of myself, but also proud of us and what we’ve created here and how much I’ve learned from them.”

The aspiring Boston Public Schools teacher said the “incredible” education she received at Emerson prepared her for both her licensure exams and a long career in education.

“It really gives a well-rounded look at not only what it’s like to teach in a classroom, but also what the culture of education is like, what policy surrounding education is like, what contemporary issues that education is facing are like.”

McDougal was one of nearly 500 graduate students who would be hooded in one of two ceremonies held Friday, May 8. 

In speeches to graduates of the Schools of Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies (SOA) and Film, Television and Media Arts (SOF), and the School of Communication (SOC), Dean of Graduate Studies Jan Roberts-Breslin reflected on the meaning of time, both for the graduates who were ending their days at Emerson, and for Roberts-Breslin herself, who is retiring after teaching at the College for 36 years.

Quoting the French philosopher Paul Valery, who, a century ago said, “The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be,” Roberts-Breslin acknowledged that the graduates would be facing a future full of challenges and uncertainty. But it doesn’t matter if the graduates don’t know what’s next.

“What is important is that you feel ready to face it – this exciting, challenging, scary time that’s coming next. And I’m pretty sure you are, because your time at Emerson has given you a better sense of who you are as a human, as a creator, as a communicator,” Roberts-Breslin said. “You have expanded your world beyond your own concerns to include a world needing your thoughtful solutions and caring.”

School of Arts and School of Film, Television and Media Arts Ceremony

Ortiz took inspiration from the words of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh: “No mud, no lotus.”

Aniaha Ortiz, MFA ’26, in her address to the SOA and SOF Hooding Ceremony, compared the process of building a community at Emerson to being a “villager,” one that contributes to and supports the larger whole in her own unique way.

“All the mud surrounding us shall not derail us from becoming the beautiful lotus. From becoming the roses growing in the concrete. No matter the storms we have weathered, together or on our own, we are a community that supports one another, both on and off campus.”

“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to see [classmates] often, but the residencies we had in LA and then in Boston really helped us bond and spend that time together,” Davis-Ramsey said. “We had group chats whenever we were all stressed and had questions or wanted feedback … and everybody gave their honest opinions … so it helped me become a better writer, and it helped me become a better reader as well.”

Three years ago, Ryan Ferguson, MFA ’26, was in the process of starting his own company in Colorado when a friend living in Boston told him he should join him in Massachusetts. Ferguson was just starting to get into writing, so when he saw Emerson’s MFA in Creative Writing program, he thought it looked like what he needed.

His “bread and butter” is writing fantasy, but in Emerson workshops, he got the perspectives of faculty and classmates who were reading and writing literary fiction. They opened his eyes to new ways of storytelling.

“The whole thing was an incredible learning experience throughout my entire time here, and I learned so much more than I thought possible to learn,” said Ferguson, who’s looking for agents for the fantasy novel he’s writing. 

Muhammad Zayan Agha, MFA ’26 was considering Emerson as an undergrad, so when he was exploring graduate programs in Film and Media Art, the research was already done. At the time, he was interested in making climate-focused films, and liked that Emerson was doing work in the “sustainability space.”

Zayan said he found the peer feedback and classes -particularly SOF affiliated faculty Barbara Doyle’s Producing Strategies class – valuable, as well as the sense of community and the “brand name” of Emerson.

“Right now, I’m in New York, so wherever you go, you take the Emerson community with you,” Zayan said. “Even if you don’t meet someone [who went to Emerson], you meet someone who knows someone who went to Emerson, and they’re doing something great.”

School of Communication Ceremony

Marcus Santos, MA ’26, led graduates into the Wang and to their seats as he does for every Emerson Commencement and Convocation ceremony, as the head of the Grooversity drum corps.

On Friday, however, he traded his signature pork pie hat and purple polo for a cap and gown: This time he was one of the graduates, dancing up to the front of the house as a soon-to-be hooded Master of Media Design.

Student speaker Katie Desmarais ’18, receiving her Master’s in Digital Communication Leadership on Friday, called herself a “proud double Lion,” and recalled the times people told her she was “aiming too high,” both when she transferred to Emerson as an undergrad, and when she decided she wanted to pursue nonprofit leadership.

“When facing that cynicism yet again, I recognized a moment many of us have faced: the choice between letting doubt limit us or letting resilience lead. The Digital Communication Leadership program taught us how to do that,” Desmarais said.

Across all the SOC programs, students learned to build trust through storytelling, lead ethically, and adapt to changing industries, she said. “And in doing so, Emerson taught us something just as important: Possibility.”

Pei-Jung Tsai MA ’26 enrolled in Emerson’s Strategic Marketing Communication program to open up possibilities for herself, dreaming to ultimately open her own coffee shop. Before she does that though, she’s hoping to land a job in data analysis or digital marketing. In both cases, she said, she’ll need to know marketing, and Emerson has prepared her.

“Creativity is important and teamwork also is important in marketing because everyone can see different angles that you don’t see,” Tsai said.

The only regret Joshua Novasel, a newly minted MS in Communication Disorders, has about enrolling in the Speech@Emerson online program is that he didn’t do it sooner.

“It was honestly great, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far,” said Novasel, who completed rotations at a private practice rehab center, a school, and an outpatient clinic at a hospital in his home state of Indiana.

Novasel said not only was the instruction great, but, he said, pointing to two friends standing next to him, “I found my little group and they made school fun.”

Mickey Quinn MA ’26 has been in the working world for the past 30 years, and currently serves as Manager of Communications for Ithaca College, where, as part of her many roles, she works with a student group on campus. Each week, she said, she’s been taking what she’s been learning in her Digital Communication Leadership program to her students.

“I’m like, ‘Hey, O.K. Let’s do it,’ And [my] final project was a whole team-building plan that I’m going to be implementing next year.”

Quinn enrolled in the first cohort of the Digital Communication Leadership program because it offers that team-building, as well as a mix of project management, leadership, and crisis communication.

“Those were all things that I’ve been doing for the last 30 years since I graduated from college, and the world has changed a lot since then,” Quinn said. “Now, going back and actually learning theory and reflecting on the work that I’ve done has been a great opportunity.”