What I Learned At My Granddaughter's Graduation

Last month, Bernice and I attended our granddaughter's Alexandria Wax's college graduation from Syracuse University. This was the largest graduation I've ever attended - 4,100 of the world's future leaders sitting on an indoor football field. Massive sight, yet very well organized.

The first thing I learned is that ushers are important. To get a good seat, most parents and relatives were ready to "rush" to their seats as soon as the doors opened at 8:00 AM with the start of the ceremony scheduled for 9:30 AM. I sat, kind of bored passing time, watching how professional and thoughtful the ushers were in handling the excited and "rushing" parents in search of the right seats.

First, they were in a constant "smile" and "may I help you" frame of mind. Yet, they maintained order and safety by using their physical bodies to block aisles to slow or stop the rush so they could check tickets and provide assistance to older or challenged guests. My first thought was that the university had one heck of a training program for the ushers. I'd love to meet and speak with these trainers!

I was sitting close enough to the ushers to hear them as they handled every sort of excuse from parents like "I need to sit in this section so I can get better photos of the graduation" or "I left my ticket at home" or "I need to look around for my family". They handled each of these, and others, with grace and a smile. Above all, this team of ushers had the knowledge of what they were supposed to do and the pride to make it all happen. This is a good lesson and reminder for all teams of catering professionals.

Secondly, I absolutely loved the fact that the concessions were selling $4.50 bagels!