"What if you could not touch the ones you love?" asks 2023 Rookie Award-winner Bradley Scott Wagman (B.F.A., industrial design).

In a world where 100 million people need prosthetics, and an estimated 80% of amputees cannot afford prostheses, the means to change is now literally within reach, thanks to Wagman's 3D-printed bionic arm.

"I want to make bionic limbs that help people," he says. "My mission is to reduce material while maintaining strength to help with costs, and to make the arm affordable for the individual in need. Let's use technology and material knowledge to change human lives in a positive way."

Prototyped in ABS filament, the Wagman-designed "prosthetech" arm is light, durable, and inexpensive. "I modeled the arm in Fusion 360, then used generative design, which is an AI tool, to simulate force loads on the arm. I ran a simulation to strip down the material. I was inspired by the Voronoi tessellation, and wanted to use the minimal amount of material needed while maintaining the strength of the arm."

"Bradley's robotic arm concept was entirely his own vision, and I'm excited to see how far he can take it," says professor Patricia Bell, who taught Wagman in Manufacturing and Assembly of Innovative Materials (INDUS 314). "He is extremely self-motivated, easy-to-teach, and his interest in pushing material and technological possibilities is really inspiring."

Wagman praises his classroom experience in turn: "Every week we had checkpoints of ideation and professor Bell gave me detailed personal feedback. It makes a difference that she's a mechanical engineer herself and has done the work."

Some Bradley backstory: Wagman grew up in Chalfont, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. He began working as a tattoo artist while still in high school, then spent four years in the Army as an airborne engineer. "I thought I would be either an artist or an engineer."

In Fall 2020, the then-22-year-old freshman started at SCAD ("I was still in the Army on active duty") and discovered industrial design, a discipline that allows him to pursue conjoined interests. Three years later, the arm he designed—mounted on display in Gulfstream Center for Design—greets visitors to SCAD's humming industrial design building.

Wagman points out the arm's key features, from motor assembly to finger linkages and "the abutment that connects to a ball-bearing quick release and a spring." Wait a minute—a quick-release arm? "I got that idea from drift cars, which have quick releases for steering wheels. Right now, prosthetic arms are basically suction cups. I thought, let me remodel this with bearings and springs."

This fall, Wagman will participate in a ten-week SCADpro project for the Mayo Clinic led by professor Nick Dine. This will be Wagman's third SCADpro course. The first, for Snap-On ("We helped redesign pruning shears for viticulture"), earned him a formal internship with the company, while the second—a Google UI phone security project—deepened his UI/UX skills. "SCADpro classes are my favorite," he says. "I find them to be high intensity compared to normal classes. That makes them fun."

Meanwhile, senior studio courses will allow Wagman the opportuntiy to refine and produce a new version of the prosthetic arm.

Fall back, Tony Stark. Bradley Scott is here.

Connect with Bradley Scott Wagman on LinkedIn, and visit his new Etsy shop, OAMS Studio.

"Live your life in an introspective way, and express your story through your work," says Tal Shenholz (B.F.A., animation, 2021).

Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, New York City-based Tal works as a technical director for satirical hit TV show South Park, creating characters and backgrounds, rigging characters, and setting up and framing shots. He has worked on two longform South Park specials streaming on Paramount+ and all episodes of seasons 25 and 26 of the show that stream on HBO Max.

Tal Shenholz:

Since I was a little kid, I loved drawing. When I was in high school, I found so much curiosity and love for cinema. I remember watching films of Bergman and Kieślowski. The different approaches and possibilities of cinema blew me away. Later, I learned to treat animation as a form of cinema. Animation is an art form combining two things I am passionate about: drawing and cinema. I knew that I had to pursue it as a career.

My position as a technical director is challenging because it combines technical skills with creative, artistic, and cinematic principles. I will get a rough storyboard, which I have to turn into a fully rendered shot on the software for the show. The characters and backgrounds must have the right South Park-y look, and the framing, scaling, and proportions all have to be correct. Part of my growth as an artist and a director is identifying a given shot's purpose and directing it according to that purpose. Our South Park team is surprisingly small, which makes me that much prouder to be a part of a team that has won multiple Emmy awards.

The range of topics and characters in the show is incredible. Each episode offers something new, which keeps things interesting. I absolutely loved working on the episode "Pajama Day." I created the girl with the pajama, while also setting up and framing the shot. The pajama is super over-the-top and imaginative, while also being functional as far as the rigging and animation. In the episode "City People," I created the entire background, while setting up and framing the shot. When creating the door for the background, I had to make nine different door positions that make sense so that frame-by-frame it looks like the door opens and closes. Another thing to consider is that the characters move toward the camera, meaning that they scale up in size. The framing has to make sense throughout the whole duration of the shot.

The programs and professors at the animation department in SCAD are unbelievable. As someone who works for a company that recently signed a $900 million deal, I can assure you that during my time at SCAD, I learned the newest industry-standard techniques. It is also the interactions with your peers, the group projects, the presentations, the critiques, and the way you think about art and animation. Only now do I truly understand how relevant and valuable these skills are in the animation industry.

Connect with Tal Shenholz.

For this writing professor, summer reading hits different.

Talking over iced chai on a leafy patio, Tish Hamilton mentions Angels on Toast by Dawn Powell, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith, as well as the sonnets of Terrance Hayes and recent magazine profiles of Tom Hanks, Sharon Olds, and Lizzo. For Hamilton, reading for pleasure and edification is indivisible from building challenging classroom syllabi.

"Media literacy is part of a writing degree," says the professor, who joined SCAD Savannah's writing faculty in fall 2022. "That means being able to recognize what to invest your intellectual and creative energy in."

Hamilton brings river-deep, mountain-high professional experience to SCAD. She excelled as an editor at publications including Rolling Stone, Outside, and Sports Illustrated for Women, and led for a decade-plus as executive editor at Runner's World, where she penned an incisive profile of Olympic marathoner Kara Goucher. Hamilton—who has completed 56 marathons herself and co-hosts the podcast Another Mother Runner—is in it for the long haul.

"Running, like writing, requires discipline, endurance, and great stretches of time alone," she says. "Then you come together, whether that means running the New York City Marathon with fifty thousand other people or showing up to class with your peers and your professor to workshop your draft and get feedback."

School of Liberal Arts Dean Kate Newell emphasizes the value of Hamilton joining the department. "In just one year at SCAD, Tish has achieved the status of ‘much beloved faculty member,'" says Newell. "Students love her humor, positivity, and ability to translate her professional expertise in the classroom. For our writing majors pursuing careers in multi-platform journalism, editing, and story research, Tish is genuinely invested in their success, and they feel that connection, support, and authenticity."

This fall, Hamilton will again teach Writing for Emerging Media: Storytelling in the Digital Landscape (WRIT 355) and, for the first time, Writing for Arts and Entertainment (WRIT 205).

"What I love about teaching is helping people uncover their best writing selves," Hamilton explains. "That means understanding where there could be more metaphor or revelation or where the writing can be tightened up and still be true to their voice and vision."

Hamilton's classroom process begins by her witnessing "how my students are reacting to storytelling. We talk about multi-media stories, and how to use audio, graphics, slideshows, and maps to enhance the reading experience. We talk about how to do what surrounds the story in a way that complements, but is not redundant, and makes sense for the medium."

A natural classroom rapport is helped by a certain familiarity: Hamilton raised a digital native of her own. (Her daughter Nina is now a rising sophomore at Barnard.)

"I'm focused on teaching students how to produce quality content," Hamilton says. "Whether you're doing longform journalism or creating Instagram stories and TikToks, you have to be able to do the work. True quality will win out."

Connect with writer, runner, and professor Tish Hamilton.

Kevin Ramsey's low-key precocity belies an impressive professional trajectory.

The co-founder of Warren James was a high school junior at Charlotte Christian when he created Hungercraft, a Minecraft development company that quickly boasted three million active monthly players. That summer, Ramsey participated in Rising Star, the five-week SCAD program that allows rising high school seniors to earn college credits. In the fall of 2011, he matriculated at SCAD.

"I knew art within video games was the path I wanted to pursue," says Ramsey. "I finished my first year at SCAD, and Hungercraft had really taken off. I was monetizing it quite well for a college kid, so I talked it over with my parents and decided to take the summer to focus on it."

As that summer ended, Ramsey made the momentous decision to pause his academic studies. After he sold Hungercraft in 2014, he went to work at toy giant Jazwares managing business development, first in the U.S. then in Shenzhen, China. Next, global gaming platform Roblox recruited him as their senior manager of business development and licensing. In 2019, Ramsey and business partner Ben Wiedner founded Warren James, a merchandising firm with offices in Los Angeles and Guangzhou that works with popular personalities in the online creator space.

"What Kevin achieved leading up to Warren James was a phenomenal prelude to what he's doing now," says SCADpro Fund managing director Ray Crowell. "By combining design, fulfillment, and marketing in one company, he's exceeding what's considered possible at such a high level. I'm confident that with the backing of the SCADpro Fund, Kevin will play a special role with SCAD students, many of whom are huge fans of the creators Warren James works with. This is a partnership that can include mentorship, hiring, and business development."

The Warren James CEO's success story may require a reappraisal of the value proposition of higher education. What happens when a student actualizes their creative career without completing a degree program? Ramsey emphasizes the lasting value of his SCAD experience, and his affinity for the university's commitment to innovation.

"The amount of people I know from SCAD who are now in really strong positions at other companies I can call on, it's hard to quantify what that's worth," he says. "One piece of higher education that a lot of times goes unnoticed is the network effect, and it's something SCAD excels at. The relationships you cultivate here are ones you'll maintain."

Ramsey believes SCAD is in step or ahead of today's creative industries. "I was studying interactive design and game development, yet the larger part of my career is now in merchandising, fashion, and manufacturing. It's impressive that SCAD now offers newer degree programs like fashion marketing and management. If I could go back, I'd go for a degree within that sphere."

That may one day come to pass. Ramsey sees the connection between Warren James and SCAD as a key to the future.

"Historically, our moat at Warren James has been our custom product development. Recently, our second moat is starting to expand around our quality of creative. Creators work with us because we come up with the best designs in the industry. The challenge is, how do we bring in the best talent to Warren James and put them to work? We need to be working with an ever-flowing pool of talent at the cutting edge of design. That means SCAD."

Connect with Kevin Ramsey on LinkedIn.

"How has your day been?"

When a doe-eyed aid worker named Daria poses this question to Grigory, a beleaguered border control officer, his day has already been drab, difficult, and decisive. But not without hope.

The scene is from Glory To The Nation, the directorial debut by Danil Pervukhin (B.F.A., film and television, 2023). It is indicative of the 13-minute short film itself, where what takes place is both literal and figurative.

"Like myself, Grigory realizes that it is impossible for him to change the course of the war, to change everyone's lives." says Pervukhin, a native of Kharkiv, Ukraine, who graduated from SCAD Atlanta this spring. "However, he has the power of changing one life at a time."

"I believe that I have been blessed with a chance to tell this extremely important story," the director continues. "When I stared writing Glory To The Nation, I was heavily inspired by the events in my home country."

Played by actor Evan Vihlin, protagonist Grigory works in a cinder block building in a town called Ustinovka, where close to 35,000 refugees are trying to flee occupying forces. These details create context for the war outside, as Grigory stamps the travel papers of men, women, and children with one of two words: APPROVED or DENIED. When he meets Daria (Mallory Ivy), he is confronted with a choice that calls into question issues of ethics and patriotism.

"I always encourage our students to make films with stories they're uniquely positioned to tell, and Danil has embodied this ethos through his connection to the conflict in his home country," says Quinlan Orear, associate chair of film and television, SCAD Atlanta. "In his film, Danil uses a sunflower to signify hope, and the film has been his own sunflower of sorts."

Glory To The Nation is a story about hope, agrees Danil, "but not the kind of hope when you sit around waiting for a miracle to happen. It is about the hope that your endeavors, struggles, and bravery will pay off."

By focusing primarily on a single set-up for the film, Glory To The Nation comes alive in the editing. Pervukhin's classmate Jake Bell (B.F.A., film and television, 2023) worked on the film as editor and digital imaging technician.

"Cutting the film involved a lot of back and forth between Danil and I," Bell says. "It can be intimidating when you have hours of footage and infinite possibilities. Many times, we'd be totally on the same page for how a scene should go together, and other times I might try cutting multiple versions of a scene and we'd talk about which one worked best and why. Danil really shined as a director with great professionalism, and I really wanted to make sure each cut intentionally pushed the story forward."

Pervukhin completed the film while maintaining a pristine GPA. This drive to excel reflects the young filmmaker's awareness of circumstance.

"Being an international student away from home during the escalation of the military action made me feel like by leaving I betrayed people I care about," he says. "Why do I get to see the sky, clear of smoke and missiles, every time I look up?"

Read the Shoutout Atlanta interview with filmmaker Danil Pervukhin.

A billionaire pelts a famous actress with oranges. The sounds give the scene its absurd impact. Squish! Splat!

"Killing Romance was a blast to work on," says Hyoenzi "Alex" Wang (B.F.A., sound design, 2022) of the hit Korean film starring Lee Hanee and Lee Sun-kyun. "There were many creative challenges I faced as a Foley artist. I did the wooshes of the clothes. The main character sometimes wears uniforms with thicker material, and I studied tae kwon do for ten years, so I tried to mimic that rustle."

This is Wang's job: create sounds that sync with moving images to bring film and television to life. (Her Instagram page demonstrates exactly how she creates many memorable sounds.)

"Becoming a Foley artist involves an idiosyncratic career path that requires commitment, and I am so proud to watch Alex's journey unfold," says sound design professor Jamie Baker, who taught Wang in Foley Production Techniques (SNDS 322).

While a student at SCAD, Wang was part of the student team that created "Let Loose," winner of the 2020 Coca-Cola Refreshing Films competition. In 2021, she spent time in Seoul, working on many Korean film and TV projects. After graduating from SCAD Savannah, she went to work for Parabolic New York as an assistant Foley editor, before Baker recommended her to colleagues at leading firm C5 Sound, Wang's current employer.

"C5 has always been in the industry for 34 years, and Marko Costanzo and George Lara have been a dynamic presence in the Foley world, working with legends like Martin Scorsese. They've told me some stories," Alex says, chuckling.

Originally from Gwacheon-si, South Korea, Wang first came to the U.S. as an exchange student in 2014. She soon began exploring Stateside opportunities in higher education. "I wanted to major in film, and SCAD has a great film program. I first wanted to be either a cinematographer or a film editor, then I learned about sound design as it relates to film, and it really suited me."


At SCAD, Wang built a professional skill set through a series of connected classroom experiences.


"I first used ProTools in Professor [Robert] Miller's class Sound for Film and Television (SNDS 101). Then in Professor [Robin] Beauchamp's class Music for Media (SNDA 212), I learned [keyboard] shortcuts and professional terms, and felt really strong knowledge-wise. Professor Baker's Foley class also helped me a lot because I learned how to edit in Foley way. It's different from the regular editing. You don't want to hear any sudden stops or room tones. It's a precise and meticulous job."

As Alex sees it, "Being a Foley artist requires different skill sets or components. You have to have strength and agility, good reflexes, and musical ability. You might have to lift a heavy door, throw and bang props. Good syncs require musical ability and creativity. And you need good reflexes. I think all of my abilities and background combined make me a Foley artist."

Connect with Hyoenzi "Alex" Wang on LinkedIn.

(Banner image film still from Killing Romance, ⓒ 2023 WEBI)

"When I'm painting, I try to stay loose," said Maggie Ellis (B.F.A., painting, 2014). "I'm not interested in depicting realistic environments perfectly."

Full of churning energy and a preponderance of purple, her paintings prove her point. The Atlanta-born artist was in the SCAD Museum of Art for a gallery talk with assistant curator Brittany Richmond. The occasion was Ellis's first museum exhibition, The Ride. "We're going to take you on a ride around her show," said Richmond, which sounded a bit meta but felt right.

Indeed, the packed talk became a live-action version of the paintings themselves. Looking at people looking at the work was a manifestation of the artist's objective.

"I was trying to think about a situation where I could paint a crowd where everyone was having an experience collectively," Ellis said. "And within that, the different facial expressions, individually."

Ellis and Richmond stood bracketing the large-scale painting "IMAX." The moviegoers depicted in the painting seem disgruntled, delighted, or drowsy as they sit on a slant in a steeply pitched theater. "I was thinking about the sharp diagonal, cutting the space corner to corner and having the figures recede into the back, all bathed in this light," Ellis explained. "It conveys the feeling of gawking up at this ginormous screen," added Richmond.

“IMAX,” 2021, oil and acrylic on canvas, 34 x 50 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Ellis, who currently lives and works in New York City, has been called "an unflinching observationalist" and is represented by gallerist Charles Moffett. Much of her work feels New York-centric, though not to the exclusion of other worlds. Whether depicting an in-flight crush of airplane passengers ("Turbulence") or a phalanx of bicyclists on a stinky Bushwick street ("Flat Rat"), the paintings all capture crucibles of human drama.

During her talk, the esteemed alum stood in front of her oil-on-linen "The Big Dance" and said: "I was looking a lot at El Greco, his figures in his paintings from the 1500s have very long exaggerated limbs and they're flailing passionately around. I was thinking about putting together a space with limbs and legs and the figures themselves pulled from imagination or people I've seen on the street." (Plus the occasional recognizable celebrity: an old school John Travolta getting down amid the dancing throng.) Curator Richmond gestured towards a young woman in the painting and wondered: "Is she wearing a see-through top or is her body see-through?" Ellis's answer was to nod and smile.

Bits of Bruegelian grotesquerie and Ernie Barnes boogie-downs seem to inform the work. The paintings in The Ride feel both distinct yet part of something greater. As Richmond put it, "You have these master art historical painter influences and you're using what they put out in the world and you're bringing it to 2023 and it feels so fresh."

At that point, the curator and the artist were standing in front of a wall displaying gouache and graphite on paper works with titles like "Scream Study" and "Pizza Party Study." All part of The Ride.

"I see painting as this gigantic lineage, past-present-future," said Ellis. "I'm just here now."

Photo by Charlie Rubin

Maggie Ellis, The Ride, on view at SCAD Museum of Art through Mon. August 28, 2023.

SCAD is delighted to present the second annual SCAD Lacoste Film Festival, this Saturday and Sunday, July 1–2, at the university's global location in majestic Lacoste, France. The festival will bring together award-winning producers and new and legendary films for a two-day celebration beginning with an opening night soiree on the lawn at La Maison Basse.

"With walls dating back from the 12th century, La Maison Basse transforms into an outdoor stage and theater where art can be enjoyed under the stars," said SCAD Lacoste executive director Cédric Maros. "Every second feels special here, and it's that magic that gives the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival its unique setting for artists sharing their work with the students and the community."

This year's event shines a light on fashion in film, connecting many of the university's top ranked degree programs including fashion, film and television, production design, and performing arts. The festival features a screening and conversation with Emily in Paris costume designer Marylin Fitoussi and a tribute to French film icon Jean-Luc Godard and his immortal feature, Breathless. SCAD dramatic writing professor Chris Auer will lead a conversation about Godard's 1960 masterpiece, regarded as one of best examples of the French New Wave.

On Sunday, July 2, acclaimed British actor Lesley Manville will be presented with the prestigious SCAD Etoile, followed by a screening of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. Manville is known for her Academy Award-nominated role in Phantom Thread and her extensive collaboration with director Mike Leigh. Manville's performance in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. SCAD performing arts professor Ashanti Brown will join Manville in conversation to discuss an expansive career across film, television, and stage.

The SCAD Lacoste Film Festival is presented by SCADFILM, the university's leading programmer of events for students and working professionals in animation, film and television, interactive design and game development, motion media design, immersive reality, and digital media arts.

"From fashion documentaries to the hottest TV series and acclaimed films, the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival weaves together two perfect days filled with screenings and events in the enchanting Luberon Valley,” said SCADFILM senior executive director and producer Leigh Seaman. "All attendees including students will enjoy access to award-winning creatives from across the globe thanks to the unique partnerships SCAD enjoys with the film and television industry.”

Highlights of the festival including a screening of the animated film Le Futur, a tribute to the storied life and career of fashion designer and longtime Lacoste resident Pierre Cardin. Executive produced by SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace and directed by Matthew Miller, Le Futur sets Cardin's fascinating tale in motion, giving life to his sensational rise to global acclaim.

Special guests include Alison Owen, one of the U.K.'s leading film and television producers, who will discuss her remarkable career. Owen initially found international success with Shekhar Kapur's multi-Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning 1998 historical drama Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett. In 2014, she founded the film and television company Monumental Pictures Ltd. with fellow U.K. powerhouse producer Debra Hayward.

See the full schedule for SCAD Lacoste Film Festival 2023!

It was an architecture award ceremony to remember. On June 2, family, friends, and faculty gathered during a reception in the courtyard of SCAD MOA, celebrating the inaugural class of the distinguished Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL) program at SCAD.

"SCAD is excited to celebrate the first graduating class of our prestigious Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure program," announced SCAD Chair of Architecture Aaron Wilner, AIA. "These trailblazing students are leaving our program as fully licensed architects and taking their place alongside elite industry professionals, poised for incredible careers. It is an extraordinary milestone, as these exceptional graduates have etched their names into SCAD's history. They embody the rigor, excellence and vision of the next generation of architectural change-makers."

Graduates Jeffrey Rose (M.Arch., 2023), Ellen Filiatreau (M.Arch.,2023), and Nicolas Barrera Castaneda (M.Arch., 2023) were honored in recognition of their successful completion of the IPAL program and distinguished achievement in the university's renowned architecture program.

IPAL is a prestigious academic track merging all three components of architectural licensure (education, experience, and examination) into the university's existing Bachelor of Fine Arts and professional Master of Architecture programs. Through the IPAL program, students achieve an architectural license in as few as seven years. Students who complete the program graduate with a professional architectural degree while completing the Architectural Experience Program, which includes all six of their professional architecture licensing exams. These steps are accomplished in parallel with the architecture degree program. Upon graduation, students will have gained real-world experience at professional firms and learned from the industry's very best.

"It has been a wonderful experience partnering with SCAD and watching their innovative IPAL program flourish," said Harry M. Falconer, Jr., Vice President of Education and Experiences at the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. "These graduates and the ones that will follow in their footsteps will leave a lasting impact on the architectural community."

All three graduate SCAD as licensed architects prepared for an impactful career in this thriving industry. Each alumnus will pursue opportunities that allow them to stretch their creativity in design, functionality, and community-centered architecture.

Barrera Castaneda, from Bogotá, Columbia, previously worked as an architectural designer at Sasaki in Boston, where he was part of the design team for the new campus of the University of Lima (Peru). SCAD valedictorian as an undergraduate in 2018, Barrera completed his master's thesis entitled "Tangible Narrative" focused on the role of materiality in architecture and its ability to enhance the architectural narrative. He now joins the design team at Brandon Haw Architecture in the position of senior architect.

Filiatreau, from Bardstown, Kentucky, came to SCAD compelled by appeal of the IPAL program, and enjoyed the flexibility of taking electives outside the architecture program. For her thesis entitled "Rural Exchange Hub: Modernizing Rural America Economies By Reimagining Existing Air Transportation" she focused on convenience and accessibility via General Aviation Airports. After graduation she will begin her career as a licensed architect at the community-centered firm Neighboring Concepts in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rose, interned for Court Atkins Group in Bluffton, South Carolina while an undergraduate in the SCAD architecture program, and has continued to work there since. From Pooler, Georgia via Toledo, Ohio, Jeff adhered to an exacting regimen to balance work, school, and twenty-plus hours a week of exam prep. He was able to pass each of the Architect Examination Registration (ARE) exams during his first two years of graduate studies at SCAD.

Left to right: Nicholas Barrera Castaneda, Ellen Filiatreau, Jeffery Rose, and SCAD Coordinator of IPAL and Field Internships Cristina Gutierrez.

Learn more about SCAD architecture and the IPAL program.

Congratulations, SCAD class of 2023! A sumptuously successful commencement weekend thrilled the more than 3,500 graduates and their families across two tremendous days. The ceremonies on Friday, June 2 and Saturday, June 3 in Savannah, and on Friday, June 2 in Atlanta were a fitting celebration of the new graduates' collective accomplishment. Plus: confetti cannons.

SCAD Savannah Vice President Darrell Naylor-Johnson, wearing a gorgeous bowtie by Jessica Pope (B.F.A., fibers, 2005) expressed his joy in his opening remarks at the Savannah Convention Center: "During your time at SCAD, the entire world changed, but you all distinguished yourselves as focused professionals, determined to achieve your dreams of reaching this momentous occasion."

An address by President Paula Wallace emphasized the university's relationships with global companies leading to job opportunities for students and careers for alumni at Adobe, Deloitte, Delta Air Lines, Microsoft, Spotify, and many more. "SCAD Bees solve big problems with big brains and big hearts. How do you manage such extraordinary feats of invention? Is it because you believed in yourselves? Yes, absolutely. And also because others believe in you. Many of those believers are with you right now. Look around: Your classmates, friends, brothers, sisters, partners, professors, and of course, your parents."

Savannah Valedictorian Khushi Bhatt (B.F.A., immersive reality, 2023) acknowledged the tumult of recent years with a smile: "Like every graduating student in the class of 2023, my journey at SCAD has been a testament to the power of perseverance and the pursuit of excellence." Bhatt's perceptive remarks made mention of a Gujarati saying and life mantra that, as she said, "roughly translates to ‘It's alright if you miss your aim, but it's not alright to aim low to begin with.'" There was no question: Bhatt and her classmates' aim was high and true.

"Oh my goodness, this is a very good moment!" said actress, social media star and honorary degree recipient Tabitha Brown. Honorary degrees were also presented to Emmy-nominated producer Will Packer,  renowned international artist Liliana Porter, philanthropist and entrepreneur Stacey Leebern, Hyundai Hope on Wheels executive director John Guastaferro, BAFTA award-winning director and story artist Joel Crawford, and former Disney Imagineering president Robert Weis.

For loved ones who could not attend, a YouTube livestream was an opportunity to tune in. A rousing rendition by the SCAD HoneyBees of alma mater anthem "Unique, United" was, as the lyrics proclaim, a "masterpiece in motion."

At the close of an electric commencement weekend, there was tassel-flipping, ice cream, hugs and happy tears. And a lot to look forward to: 99% of SCAD Spring 2022 graduates reported being employed, pursuing further education, or both within 10 months of graduation. 

As honorary degree recipient Liliana Porter advised the graduating class: "I recommend you to be happy, understanding happiness is the highest form of rebellion."