Appreciation week celebrates grad students’ accomplishments

Graduate Student Appreciation Week, which was held from April 11-16, celebrated the accomplishments of Lehigh’s graduate students. Numerous events took place throughout the week, including a mashed potato bar, a pizza taste-off, a picnic and a Dean’s Award luncheon.

“The goal of this week is to make sure that graduate students feel that we acknowledge all that they do on campus,” said Kathleen S. Hutnik, the associate dean and director of graduate student life. “We do this by doing one event a day that is designed for either pure fun or something that is going to be relaxing and stress-relieving.”

It is often easy to overlook graduate students, so giving them the visibility and attention they deserve is important. The contributions that they make to campus, such as research, makes them a critical part of the Lehigh community. Around 280 people attended the Dean’s Award Luncheon on April 13.

Teaching Assistant of the year, Graduate Life Leadership, Graduate Merit, students club and other various Awards and recognitions were awarded to individuals who go above and beyond to make life a little more pleasant for their fellow graduate students.

The pizza competition had 12 judges and a large quantity of pizzas. The restaurant Oliverio’s was a top contender for every category of the competition, which ranged from sausage pizza winner to best apple walnut pizza. The restaurant even won the popular vote by the student audience.

One hundred and fifty graduate students sampled a total of almost 700 slices of pizza — the equivalent of 89 large pizzas.

Aside from eating baked pizza crusts or getting paraffin wax dip and hand massages, graduate student had the opportunity to use this week to reflect upon their progress.

“There were a couple of big reasons that I decided to attend Lehigh for graduate school,” said Nick Ungson, a third-year graduate student working towards his doctorate in psychology. “I was attracted to the pace of life here in the Lehigh Valley. There’s enough to do, but things aren’t too overwhelming and busy and distracting.”

Attending the events this week showed Ungson why he is proud of the Lehigh community.

“I feel proud to be a Lehigh-er,” doctoral student Minh Pham said. “However, I feel at a loss when having to leave this school where I have had great experiences during my study here.”

Pham said she was impressed by the events the Graduate Life Office put together because it was an example of how Lehigh helps connect their students while reaching out to the neighboring communities. As a Vietnamese student, she said cultural diversity is important to her. She thinks Lehigh does well at promoting this by getting the students involved with local residents of the Bethlehem area.