One less at graduation

I know, it's been a while since I've posted, but here it goes. I've come to regard the middle of April as a unique time in the academic year. The craziness of March which involves preparing for the national American Chemical Society conference, reading drafts of proposals and senior research theses, advising students for fall registration, and oh yeah, teaching classes too, slowly moves toward a two week lull. It's nice not to have to prepare for speaking engagements, crumby first drafts of papers from students are giving way to more polished final drafts, my lesson plans for the last few weeks are done, and the scrambling of finals week and grade submissions is still a couple of weeks off. Yes, this is the time to start reflecting on what a great semester it has been, how exciting it will be to see the seniors walk across the stage, and how I plan on tackling a myriad of projects over the summer. Only this year I am also feeling a bit of sadness too. There is one particular student of mine, I'll call him Joe, that I've taught in a number of courses over the past four years. I've also served as his academic advisor. In all likelihood, Joe will not be graduating with a degree in chemistry. He's missed a number of key deadlines in completing his research, I'm not sure if a course he's taking at another school is going well, and a take home exam in my course will probably not be turned in tomorrow, and he'll fail my course. That will be the last shoe to drop, and Joe will not meet the requirements for graduation.  Of all the students I've taught whether it be at Saint Vincent or at Central Michigan, I can think of no other student whom I've invested more prayers and tears for. Without giving the entire back-story, Joe suffers from severe medical depression. It's made his personal and academic life incredibly difficult. Joe's had many ups and downs this past year, but I really thought he was going to be able to limp over the finish line. I've prayed and prayed, and imagined how great it would be to see him cross that stage and receive his diploma. Sadly, I don't think that is going to happen. I haven't seen or heard from Joe in over a week. I've never felt such an emotional attachment to one of my students before. I was his chief cheerleader and advocate in the department, but reality is settling in. I have the custom of writing the names of the graduating seniors in the front of my Bible. I try to go through that growing list at least every other week and pray for each student by name. Sadly, Joe's name won't be on that list. My department chair, who's been an incredible mentor to me, has reminded me of how even though we're going to see one senior not make it, we have 14 others who have done a phenomenal job this year. Indeed they have. As I've reflected and counted the blessings of this past year, God has been good. These students excelled academically, completed really good senior projects, and most will be going on to top notch graduate and professional schools or careers in the chemical industry. However, my thoughts and prayers are with Joe and I ask that those of you reading this will keep him in yours. I'll close by saying that Joe's name does appear in my Bible, perhaps on an even more important page. I had the privilege and honor of leading him to the Lord about a year ago, and so far, his name is the only one on that page. I pray that more will be added as time goes on. I hope that Joe can take the next step and develop his walk with the Lord, because it's going to take His power to help Joe break that stronghold in his life. I pray that he finds a church and a good preacher to mentor him. I had offered to disciple Joe, but he declined, saying that he wanted to focus on finishing his schooling first. I didn't push the issue, but wish I had done more. I wish they prepared you for this stuff in professor school. Thanks for reading.