UT Dallas Magazine

What I’ll Miss About UTD

Another commencement week is in the books and we’re still beaming with pride. Congratulations once again to all the graduates!

While we were out covering graduation, we asked many grads the same question: “What will they miss most about UTD?”

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Dr. Mariam Kavakçı

“I will miss the professors, my mentor, Dr. Christine Dollaghan, everyone at the Callier Center and BBS. I really love the faculty.”

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Maria Nguyen

“The teachers were great — they all seemed to care, which is so nice.”

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Oscar Naranjo

“I’m going to miss the professors. They did a good job at making that connection with their students.”

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Dr. Alisha Kim

“I’m going to miss seeing UT Dallas grow. Every semester it’s been really impressive.”

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John Tran

“I’m going to miss seeing my friends on a regular basis.”

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Vaidehi Jariwala

“I will miss everything. The life experience has been wonderful.”

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Sarvotam Pal Singh

“I will miss the different people I got to meet while I was here. There are so many perspectives and so many cultures represented. I’ll also miss the beautiful campus. It’s one of the best.”

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Vanessa Webb

“I loved the environment at UT Dallas. I’m really going to miss the people here.”

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Dr. Ryan Freling

“The big city, the whole metropolitan area. UTD is a school on the edge of DFW. That’s such a cool place to be. UTD is a great place to be because there’s a lot happening.”

(Freling is pictured kissing his wife, Dr. Traci Freling, who helped hood him during the doctoral hooding ceremony. Dr. Ryan Freling wrapped up his PhD in the summer and is now an assistant professor of marketing analysis at Louisiana Tech.)

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Amber Brown BA’15

“I will miss the friendships, learning about the world and being surrounded by diversity — and of course basketball.”

(Brown is a former UTD women’s basketball team member.)

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Erin Flack

“I will honestly just miss being on campus the most. The incredibly diverse student body provided an unexpected education about various cultures that I will never forget. I was also privileged enough to have some absolutely incredible professors who took the time to ensure that I had the best educational experience humanly possible. I will miss being in those classes and while this journey was not easy, it was worth it! Whoosh!”

(Erin is pictured with her husband, Matthew Flack, and sons, Carter, 2, (left) and Jack, 3, had twice as much to celebrate during graduation week. Matthew earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Naveen Jindal School of Management on Friday. And on Saturday, Erin received her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies.)

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Aditi Mutatkar

“I think the one thing I will miss most about UTD are my amazing professors. All of them encouraged me to be a better version of myself. They were instrumental in preparing me for the next phase of my life.”

Make sure you check out our #utdgrad coverage on Glimpse of Graduation, Tagboard and Facebook.