Commencement 2024

Building

COMMENCEMENT ACTIVITIES

Commencement activities will begin on Thursday, May 9, 2024 with an awards ceremony in the Apfelbaum Family Courtroom and Auditorium from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Students who will be recognized during the ceremony will be notified in advance. A light dessert reception will follow in Ridge Commons from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. The suggested attire is business casual. In-person attendance is limited, and priority seating will be for guests of award recipients. Others are encouraged to view the ceremony live stream.

Commencement will be held in Dickinson College’s Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS), located at 360 W. Louther Street, on Friday, May 10, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. The ceremony will last approximately two hours. Guests must have a ticket for in-person attendance. Those unable to attend are encouraged to view the ceremony livestream on their own or are invited to the Law School to view the livestream in Room 112. Following the ceremony, there will be a heavy hors d’oeuvres reception for graduates, their families, and guests on the campus of Penn State Dickinson Law, both on the lawn and in Ridge Commons, located at 150 South College Street in Carlisle. This will be a great opportunity to introduce your family and friends to members of the faculty and staff, as well as your classmates.

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

Attorney General Michelle HenryAttorney General Michelle Henry will serve as this year’s Commencement Speaker. Attorney General Henry is a life-long public servant, 26-year veteran prosecutor, and Pennsylvania’s Attorney General. Raised in Westmoreland County, Michelle is a graduate of Greensburg-Salem public schools, Allegheny College, and the Widener University School of Law. Read more here.
 

STUDENT SPEAKERS

The Office of Academic and Student Services is pleased to announce that the following students have been selected by their peers to speak at this year's Commencement activities:

  • 2024 Lee Popp Award winner and Graduating Student Awards Ceremony Speaker: Rachel James
  • 2024 LL.M. Student Commencement Speaker: Yashaswi Khanal
  • 2024 J.D. Student Commencement Speaker: Eli Yemzow

Congratulations to all!

MERCHANDISE SALES

Dickinson Law merchandise will be available for sale during the following times:

  • Friday, May 3 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, May 9 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.
  • Friday, May 10 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

In addition, you can schedule a private shopping appointment by contacting Karlisma Souders at krs8@psu.edu.

ON-CAMPUS COMMENCEMENT DAY PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Two outdoor photo stations will be set up on the Dickinson Law lawn on Commencement day. Graduates can use these stations as a backdrop to take their own photos in regalia with families and friends.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographers from GradImages will photograph students as they individually approach, cross, and exit the stage. GradImages will contact students with an offer for a free 5” x 7” photo and the opportunity to purchase additional photos. If you need more information concerning photography by GradImages, please visit their website.

LIVESTREAM

Guests can view the ceremony via our livestream.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS

If any of your guests require accommodations for the ceremony (e.g.: wheelchair-accessible seating, sign language interpretation, etc.) and you have not already submitted this information via the Commencement Information Form, please contact Kalene Faircloth.

HOTEL INFORMATION

The Law School has arranged a room block at the Comfort Suites for graduates, families, and guests on the nights of Thursday, May 9 and Friday, May 10. Space is limited, so please contact the hotel as soon as possible if you are interested in reserving rooms. The room block expires on Monday, April 12, 2024.

Comfort Suites
10 Hanover St.
Carlisle, PA 17013
717-960-1000
Dickinson Law Graduation Group

POST-GRADUATION REMINDERS

SUPPLEMENTAL BAR PROGRAM & HOTEL ROOMS FOR BAR EXAMS, ADAPTIBAR, AND BUILDING ACCESS


SUPPLEMENTAL BAR PROGRAM

The Penn State Dickinson Law Supplemental Bar Course is designed to support students while they study for the bar examination. The course is administered in the summer and runs simultaneously with commercial bar review courses. The course is designed to supplement (not replace) a commercial bar review course. This course is for Penn State Dickinson grads only and is FREE to all graduates preparing to sit for the July bar exam. This course is not for credit hours and is optional for all graduates. In July of 2022, 100 percent of students who participated in the supplemental course passed the Pennsylvania bar exam.

Graduates who participate in the course will be supported in the areas of time management, scheduling, study skills and habits, stress/anxiety management, essay and performance test writing, and test taking strategies and skills for the MBE. The course typically begins one week following graduation and consists of three writing assignments (two essays and one performance test) over the course of the summer. Participants will be provided the deadlines for each writing assignment and may determine their own essay completion schedule and are accountable for complying with the designated writing conditions for each essay (i.e., open book, untimed, closed book, timed, etc.) assigned for that week. Professor Jackson will grade and provide individual feedback on all essays. Graduates are encouraged to meet with Professor Jackson following the grading of each essay during optional individual weekly conferences (approximately 20 minutes). To register for the supplemental bar course, please click here.

HOTEL ROOMS FOR BAR EXAMS

The Office of Academic and Student Services will continue our efforts to support bar exam success by providing Class of 2024 test takers with hotel support. The law school will pay directly for graduates who need a hotel room the night before and the night during the bar exam (not after the last day, to be clear). The law school will reimburse you up to $300 (max $150 per night) for the equivalent. To receive your reimbursement, you must submit the non-employee reimbursement form and receipts to studentsuccess@dickinsonlaw.psu.edu no later than two weeks after the exam. To qualify for the hotel support, graduates will need to:

  1. Attend the Essay Writing workshop held during the Supplemental Bar Program and/or watch the recording of the workshop via Canvas (once you watch the recording you must notify Professor Jackson via email);
  2. Submit at least one essay for grading during the Supplemental Bar Program;
  3. Complete 85 percent of their commercial bar preparation coursework ten days prior to the first day of their bar exam;
  4. Complete and submit the bar questionnaire
    Professor Jackson will verify with the bar prep companies that students have met this requirement; and
  5. In order to receive the hotel reimbursement, students must submit the non-employee reimbursement form and hotel receipts to studentsuccess@dickinsonlaw.psu.edu no later than two weeks after the exam.

Appointments with Professor Jackson can be scheduled here.

ADAPTIBAR PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

AdaptiBar is a bar prep program that diagnoses your subject and timing performance in each area tested on the MBE. The patented, adaptive algorithm automatically presents questions with an emphasis on your weakest subtopics, maximizing your study time. The program purchased by the school is for MBE prep.

To qualify for the AdaptiBar program, graduates will need to:

  1. Attend at least one 3L Class bar planning session scheduled by Professor Jackson in the spring semester of your 3L year OR watch the recording of the session via Canvas (once you watch the recording you must notify Professor Jackson via email);
  2. Schedule and attend at least one bar planning appointment with Professor Jackson in the spring semester of your 3L year or early summer before bar prep begins to discuss your plans for bar exam preparation;
  3. Commit to using the Adaptibar while studying for the bar exam; and
  4. Complete and submit the bar questionnaire (will be sent via email).

Please only express interest if you are planning to sit for the July 2024 bar exam. The Law School will only purchase an Adaptibar Program for graduates once. If you sign up for Adaptibar and fail to use the software, the school will not repurchase the program.

LAW LIBRARY

Students graduating in May are welcome to continue using the Law Library and its collections during the summer and beyond (subject to public access limitations). Alumni have additional privileges that extend beyond graduation. Specifically, those are:

BORROWING PRIVILEGES AT THE LAW LIBRARY AND OTHER PENN STATE LIBRARIES

Recent graduates retain student borrowing privileges at all Penn State Libraries (including the Law Library) for several months after graduation. At some point in mid-to-late summer, the University updates its student records and converts recent graduates to “Resident-PA” status, at which point borrowing privileges are more limited but collections remain accessible. The University Libraries’ Alumni Library offers benefits targeted specifically to members of the Alumni Association such as complimentary access to selected library databases, Resource Centers for agriculture, business, health, news, and travel, as well as information about featured Penn State collections and events.

LEXIS, WESTLAW, AND BLOOMBERG LAW ACCESS

If you intend to use any one of these databases after graduation — Bloomberg Law, Lexis or Westlaw — you must change your email contact information for that database because your Penn State email account will likely expire before your access to this database does.

Bloomberg Law allows access to graduating students for six months after graduation. Access expires on November 30, 2024. You do not need to do anything to extend your access.

Lexis access will expire on December 31, 2024. During this time, there are no restrictions on how you use your Lexis ID, and you do not need to register for this additional access through the end of the year. Graduates working for a public interest organization may sign up for the Lexis ASPIRE Program, which permits job-related access to Lexis Advance for 12 months of free access to federal and state cases, codes, regulations, law reviews, Shepard’s and Matthew Bender treatises. The ASPIRE Program is for graduates who are engaged in verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work. To apply, go to www.lexisnexis.com/grad-access. You must provide a letter from you employer to verify that it is a nonprofit organization.

Westlaw offers access to Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw and Practical Law, for 18 months after graduation. Your “Grad Elite” access gives you 60-hours of usage on these products per month to gain understanding and build confidence in your research skills. While you cannot use it in situations where you are billing a client, you can use these tools to build your knowledge of the law and prepare for the bar exam. In addition, you get access to Knowledge Center Lessons on Westlaw for 18 months after graduation. To continue accessing Westlaw, graduates must register for “Grad Elite” access at https://lawschool.westlaw.com/authentication/gradelite or by logging into https://lawschool.thomsonreuters.com/.

Email and Cloud Access

Please see the following page for details on when your access to Penn State cloud resources changes: What Happens to My Penn State Account When I Leave? This page has a quick reference chart showing what changes occur to what resources and when. There are more details below under the section, “How Soon Do I Lose Access Once I'm No Longer a Student?” These changes occur once you’ve been marked as COMPLETED in LionPATH, which is typically in early June.

  • Office365 Applications, including OneDrive storage — 14 days
  • GSuite — 14 days
  • Online Outlook email — 180 days

If you signed up for Adobe Creative Cloud, please see the following relevant Q/A from the Penn State Adobe FAQ page:

Q. What happens when I graduate?

A. You will be able to take all of your content with you by migrating your content from your school account to a new personal account. Please be advised that you will not be able to reverse this migration once it is initiated. Visit https://graduation.adobe.com to get started.

Q: What happens to my account when I leave the University?

A: First and foremost, make sure to back up all of your Adobe CC data files locally. Once your Penn State Access Account is deactivated, you will no longer be able to log in to the Adobe CC applications with your University email address. If you would like to continue using Adobe CC after your departure, Adobe has several options available for purchase.