Although I retired from my Harvard Kennedy School career almost twelve years ago, I still get the same thrill watching the happy faces of all of Harvard's  proud graduates, clad in their graduation caps and gowns as they walk proudly to and from their graduation in Harvard Yard.

Around 5:00 p.m. on graduation day as I walked through Harvard Square, I heard someone calling “Judy Kugel!!!”  It was a Kennedy School graduate from the class of 1990, and he was in town for his own daughter’s graduation from, you guessed it, the Kennedy School.  A proud father, if I ever saw one.  And what a thrill for me to be recognized by a student who graduated 35 years ago!