With the pomp and circumstance of Class Day and graduation weeks behind us, Bwog was surprised and delighted when we were contacted last night by Maxim Pinkovskiy, the Columbia College valedictorian.

Wrote Pinkovskiy: "As the valedictorian of Columbia College does not give a speech on Class Day, I did not get to make a speech. However, some students asked me to write one on my own, so I am sending you what I composed a few weeks after graduation." Read on, nostalgic recent alums hoping to relive Class Day.

As we leave Columbia today, we are likely to ask ourselves: what has been the meaning of the past four years? Does our diploma indicate that we "have satisfied the onerous and nearly insuperable requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts," or does it mean something more, even if just to ourselves? What do these medieval maces and baroque berets mean in the age of I-Pods and internships? As Plato might have said, what is the form of a university education, and might it have changed irrevocably from the days of yore? Like a good Columbian, when faced with these questions, I turn to the classics. More than two thousand years ago, in a China in the flux of social and economic transformation, Confucius, like us today, was asking himself: what are the fundamentals of a proper education in this world? His response was, as usual, an aphorism:

"To study and in due season to practice what one has learned, is this not a pleasure?"

"To have friends coming from afar, is this not a delight?"

"To remain unembittered even though one is unrecognized, is that not to be noble?"

Confucius, Analects 1:1

The latest in our continuing Senior Wisdom series: CC valedictorian Maxim Pinkovskiy

Name, School:

Maxim Pinkovskiy, CC

Claim to fame:

I was the 2004 M&M Peanut Minute Student of the Year in Xavier Sala-i-Martin's Intermediate Macro class!

Post-grad plans:

Ph.D. in economics at MIT, then — I hope — professor at Columbia University.

Preferred swim test stroke?

Walk three lengths on the bottom of the swimming pool on my hands.

What are three things you learned at Columbia?

1. How to reconcile Thucydides' interpretation of history as guided by characteristics of people as a whole — desire, hope, pride — with his deep interest in individual leaders.
2. How to prove the Central Limit Theorem.
3. "Everything has an economic intuition." — Xavier Sala-i-Martin

The School of General Studies has just announced its 2008 valedictorian: Joel Beal.

Beal, like CC's valedictorian, is an economics-mathematics major. He is bound for Stanford in the fall, where he will be pursuing a Ph.D. in economics.

Congratulations!

Two years ago, Blue and White writer Amanda Erickson presciently profiled '08 valedictorian Maxim Pinkovskiy. But don't show this article to your parents--they'll probably trade you back to the stork for a child like Maxim.

"He's always right. Not almost always. Always," says his former Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin.

Every student in his macro class last year knows his name, and most perk up slightly at its mention. Maxim Pinkovskiy, C'08, was "that kid."

"He always sat in the front," one student quickly replied when I asked him what he knew about Maxim. "Always answering everything."

Some imitate his nasal voice, his plunking, Russian, almost-sounds-put-on accent, and the way he bobs his head as he speaks. Some immediately bring up his white loafers or his pants, which reach midway up his chest.