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March 2025 (Part 02)

Congrats on Graduating from NUPOC Andy!

The Northwestern University Prosthetics and Orthotics Center (NUPOC) held their graduation ceremony for Andy's class in late March, culminating the 20-months of the program and commencing their clinical career.  Andy headed out early in the week to spend time with his friends from the program, while the rest of the family flew in the night before.  Glad Lexi could join us with only six weeks to go in her semester.  Grandma Pat also managed to make it into the city.  The event was held in the Hughes Auditorium on the Medical School Campus.  Nice room.

We managed to get seats in only the second row for guests, which were really close to Andy.

Several speakers, which were all surprisingly good.

The official photographer managed to capture Andy in the crowd a couple times, along with several of his friends.

Andy's friend John was the class president, so also got to speak.

The main speaker was a fourth generation NUPOC grad, who's family built a prosthetic business in San Francisco with the slogan "limp in, leap out."  She also awarded a scholarship endowed by her family.

Finally time for the class to walk.  Tried to get a picture of some of his friends.  Here is Olivia, then Jared, his roommate.

Here are several friends from their group (at least the ones we've met and recognized), including John, Anna Paula (AP), Maddie (amazing to see video of her working on the machines with her prosthetic right arm), Lily, Olivia, Jared, Kelsey, ?, and ?.  Steve met John, Lily, and Olivia in Breckenridge, while we both met several others on the couple trips we made to see Andy during his time in Chicago.

Andy's turn finally.

The class took some group pictures immediately after the ceremony and before being released to their families.

There was a nice reception in the atrium.  Glad they had some balloons set up which provided a nice backdrop for some pictures.

Here is Andy with some friends.  First up was John.

Here he is with Olivia.

With John and Jared, Maddie, and her boyfriend.

While at school, they were grouped into team of 12-people.  This allowed them to rotate between labs easily (two groups did orthotics for the first session, while the other two groups did prosthetics, then they swapped).  Andy commented that his group was the only one that really did a lot of stuff together outside school, even adopting a couple other students who wanted to join the social activities.  Think they managed to get everyone together for one last team picture.

Here are some of his friends with their families or just other groups with his friends.