The Class of 2013 celebrated the completion of classes of the academic year 2012/13 at the official graduation ceremony held at the House of Finance on 19 July 2013. Amongst the guests were the families and friends of the graduating students, the ILF Board and faculty members, staff and alumni.
Prof. Dr Dres. h.c. Theodor Baums warmly welcomed more than 180 guests and highlighted the internationality of the class, the hard work put in by the class during the year and congratulated the 43 graduates on their achievements. He further thanked their families and friends who came all the way to Frankfurt from their home countries to share this special moment with our graduating students.
The commencement speech was then delivered by Prof. Dr. Cornelius Prittwitz, Dean of the Law Faculty, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. He stated that the Goethe University is proud of the excellent campus and study facilities which are available to its students and hope that the students of the ILF have enjoyed studying in an extremely conducive academic environment. He further elaborated that in the financial world, rules and regulations are necessary for ensuring that it functions smoothly and thus with the specialized knowledge which they have acquired at the ILF, our students will be best equipped with the tools to build their future careers. He congratulated our graduates on their good work and wished them all the best for the future. He also invited our graduates to remain in close contact with the ILF and the Law Faculty, of which they are now alumni.
Ms. Michelle Dalton from Ireland, the class president, spoke about the year that brought people from different nations, cultures and languages together, the diversity of her classmates and how the year has given her and her classmates new perspectives. It has enriched all of them not simply in terms of academic knowledge, but also social skills. On behalf of her class, she thanked the sponsors, faculty and staff for making their year at the ILF a year of fantastic memories.
The class vice-president, Mr. Georgios Poulis from Greece, honored Mr. Stephen Hodgson (for the winter semester) and Dr. Rüdiger Litten (for the summer semester) with the Lecturer of the Year 2013 Award. They have been nominated by our students at the end of each semester.
Finally, each student of the Class of 2013 was presented with a certificate and personally congratulated by Prof. Prittwitz. At the end of the official ceremony, all guests were invited to the dinner and dance held at the Casino building on Campus Westend.
