Congratulations Dr. Matthew Nichols!

Well, it is official. Matt is a doctor. He had his hooding ceremony on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at Christian Brothers University. Graduation was Friday, May 30, 2008 at FedEx Forum. I am so proud of him and all that he has done over the past four years. He has worked extrememly hard and put in many hours. He was ranked No. 4 in his class. He graduated with High Honors. He was inducted to Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) which is dentistry's national scholastic honor society. Membership is limited to 12% of a graduating class. He won the Academy of Operative Dentistry Award, which is given to a graduating student who is selected by the faculty for excellence in operative dentistry. Operative dentistry is the part of dentistry involving filling cavities (or caries as Matt would tell me they are really called). He also won the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Award, which is given in recognition of the graduating senior of each dental school that has demonstrated exemplary aptitude and achievement in the field of oral surgery. He was also inducted into the Dean's Odontological Society during his third year of dental school. Here are some pictures of the hooding ceremony. Unfortunately, I don't know how to operate my camera properly when taking pictures from a distance because all the ones I took at graduation turned out blurry. Luckily, a professional photographer was taking pictures, and they will be available to us in a couple of weeks.

This is Matt being "hooded". Each professional school has a different color. Lilac is the color for dental school. On the inside of the hood are the colors of the school where you earned your degree. So, Matt's is white and orange. The navy sash and key around his neck are to signify that he is a member of OKU. The navy sash was only worn at the hooding ceremony. He wore an orange sash at graduation to signify he graduated with high honors.

Here we are after the hooding ceremony.

Bobby, Lauren, and Jenny came to Memphis to support Matt, but due to a potty break, Bobby missed Uncle Matt on stage.

This picture was in the Memphis newspaper. Matt is in the bottom left corner. There were several dental students blowing bubbles during the ceremony. I couldn't see them from where I was sitting. The caption was wondering if the students were bored or if this was a sign of celebration. I thought it was pretty funny.

Bobby couldn't believe that Uncle Matt had another graduation on Friday. He slept through this one, but afterwards he wanted to graduate too. So, Matt let him wear the sash and key, and Bobby went down the line and shook our hands just like the students did when they walked across the stage. Too cute!

Way to go Matt! I'm so proud of you!