What a lot of people may not realize

about MIT's commencement is that the students

get their actual diploma as they walk across the stage.

And in order to accomplish that, it's

a very long, labor-intensive process.

It involves a lot of people and a lot of people

taking a lot of pride in the process

and really caring about the end result.

I have an opportunity to talk to many of my peers

in the print industry on college campuses across the country.

And when I talk about the fact that MIT students receive

their actual diploma at graduation, most of them

are astounded.

It's not the way it's generally done.

At MIT, we go through a tremendous process

that ensures graduates get their diploma when they walk off

the stage.

The first step in the process is to order

the stock, and actually, the diploma cases.

The stock has some standards.

It says Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It has some language.

It's missing the vital information

of the name of the graduate, the type of degree, and the date.

And we print them here at MIT in copy tech.

We took over the diploma process in 2010.

At that time, it was a very long, drawn-out process

where the names of the graduating seniors

were done by calligraphers that registrar's office employed.

So throughout the entire process there's

multiple checks on the diploma.

There's 5,000 diplomas, and we go through them

and make sure that they all have the signatures printed on them,

the seal is there, because that's

something that is sometimes missing

and nobody wants a diploma with a missing--

[LAUGHTER]

--seal.

So people actually put a lot of effort into making the diplomas

and having them sorted so it was distributed correctly

to each student.

And when I was filing the application online,

I was actually asked to type down the phonetic pronunciation

of my name so they can pronounce my name correctly

during commencement.

And with that, I think the school actually

cares a lot about us, and they did actually

pronounce my name correctly.

And I really appreciate that.

I think part of what makes MIT such a special place is

the commitment, and the caring of all the people

that work here.

The caring about the students, the caring about the process,

the caring about the details.

Filing diplomas alphabetically isn't, all that interesting

but people are always willing to do it,

always willing to help out, make sure that everything is done

perfect for commencement day.

We deal with the freshmen when he comes in and has

no idea what to do, and then we get

to see them in the joy of having actually finished

the MIT education.

That all is encompassed in that sheet of paper

that they receive, walk off the stage,

and can actually open up and show to their family, friends,

and to themselves that they have graduated from MIT.

[MUSIC PLAYING]