This is a special post written by one of our student workers, Stefan Apostoluk, who recently graduated…but as the student supervisor I couldn’t help but add a few quick words about our students first.  The last couple weeks have been bittersweet here in the lab as we’ve had to say goodbye to a couple of our long time students (DJ and Brad, and soon Stefan).  It’s so wonderful to see them grow and change during the years they work in the lab and call them part of our team.  But it is always fleeting, as is the nature of working at an university.  Having to say goodbye year after year to these amazing people that have become part of our preservation family is not easy, but it is so rewarding to see them enter the real world and move into careers in their chosen field while also expressing how much they’ve enjoyed their time in the lab.  As Brad Miller, another of our student workers who graduated at the end of April and who we said goodbye to last week, has said to me several times over the last couple months, “this is the best job on campus” with complete and utter sincerity.  Without further ado, I’ll pass things over to Stefan, who so eloquently summed up his time at in the lab and wanted to share the story of customizing his graduation cap.  Excuse me while I grab a box of tissues…    – Jessica Ebert (UCL) 

Graduating from college is weird. An end giving way to new beginnings, it’s exciting, tumultuous, and anxious. You have to say goodbye to so many places, people, and things that have become just so familiar in the span of a few years – time that felt like an eternity, but blew by in an instant. Frankly, I’m not much of a fan of goodbyes, but through graduation, I found the perfect way to close the book on college and give the Lab my farewell.
I’ve been a student worker at the Preservation Lab since the end of my first semester of college in early December of 2013 and I’ve loved every moment of it. My undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering were hard and dissatisfying, and while I identify as a Computer Engineering student through the challenges my classmates and I endured, my department was never a place that I loved. Instead, the Lab has been a home to me, filled with camaraderie and friends that I can’t see enough. They became my on-campus family, tucked away behind Langsam’s main desk and down a flight of stairs.
When graduation neared and it finally came time to customize my graduation cap and reflect upon my time at college, I thought about doing something techy and related to my major, but it just didn’t feel right! While lots of fun, flashy lights and LED screens just didn’t strike me as reflective of my college experience. Before long, the idea that to me would encapsulate my time at college hit me like a sack of bricks. It was obvious to me, and there was nothing else I could do that would feel right. I needed to make my grad cap into a book at the Lab.

With the resources of the Lab at my disposal, I set out to make a square book to replace the flat black cardboard top of my graduation cap. In the weeks leading up to graduation and with tons and tons of invaluable help from Jessica, I spent hours tearing apart the boring default cap, planning details of the book’s construction, and actually assembling the cap. The book sports a black cloth cover to resemble the traditional grad cap, but is quarter-bound with a mottled red spine to give the book some zazz and show off some UC spirit. Instead of attaching my engineering tassel to the cover of the book, I adhered it to the spine and turned it into a bookmark that hangs at the back of my head when worn. Most excitingly, I got to use the hot stamper to give my book an official title that succinctly reflected my feelings on leaving college – “Good Riddance.” All in all, I’ve created a work that I’m proud to have worn when I walked across the stage at graduation. President Pinto even complimented me on it!


I’m not quite done with college yet since I’m still working on my MBA, but I won’t be around at the Preservation Lab much longer. Really, it’s going to be hard for me to say goodbye to the Lab. These people who work to preserve rare books have archived their way into my heart. In a way though, I’ve already said my goodbye. Making my grad cap served as a bookend to my undergraduate career, and I got to spend a lot of time in the Lab by making it. With signatures and heartfelt messages from everyone at the Lab written right on the first pages of my grad cap book and fond memories of my time at the lab written to my heart, I won’t be leaving empty handed.

 
Stefan A. Apostoluk (UCL) –  Senior Student Worker