Seventy-seven graduates crossed the stage at The Hawk community center in Farmington Hills on July 31, earning degrees from the Michigan School of Psychology in a ceremony that also introduced the institution's first grief-and-loss scholarship.

The class included 57 master's students in clinical psychology, 10 who earned an MA with a concentration in applied behavior analysis and 10 who received doctoral degrees, according to MSP's commencement recap.

Rachel Booker, a graduate of the ABA concentration, was the inaugural recipient of the Judith R. Burdick Scholarship of Grief, Loss and Transformation. The scholarship, established in 2026, honors alumna Judith R. Burdick, a psychotherapist specializing in grief and loss who graduated from MSP's MA program in 2002. Barry LaKritz, a former board chair who served on the school's very first Board of Trustees when it was still the Center for Humanistic Studies, presented the award.

Booker spoke about loss and resilience during the ceremony: "the love that they [people we have lost] instilled in us does not disappear but instead stays within us and lives on."

The Marjorie Scott Scholarship for Excellence also went to two graduates: Tasnia Khan received the MA award and Hannah Kingkittisack received the PsyD award. Kingkittisack, who spent eight years at MSP, said the recognition felt like a gift.

President Brian Stogner, who became MSP's fifth president in 2025, delivered the commencement address alongside Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Tanya Martin. He urged graduates to "pursue careers, vocations, and callings to serve the deep needs of the world."

During the master's degree ritual, each graduate picked up a rock representing their journey through what the school calls the "river of experience" and made a personal statement. Each graduate spoke. Doctoral candidates were hooded by their dissertation chairs and pledged how they would use their education.

MSP was founded in 1980 as the Center for Humanistic Studies in downtown Detroit. The school moved to its Farmington Hills campus on Orchard Lake Road in 2003 and adopted its current name in 2018. The Hawk, the city's 245,000-square-foot multipurpose facility at 29995 W. 12 Mile Road, has hosted community gatherings since opening in 2021.

In her scholarship essay, Booker wrote that her experiences taught her "healing is not about eliminating pain; it is about learning to carry it while continuing to move forward with purpose."

Upcoming in Farmington Hills: The Kirk Gibson Foundation's "Everybody vs. Parkinson's 2" gala, benefiting the Farmington Hills-based Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson's Wellness and its expansion efforts, is set for Saturday, April 10, 2027, at Saint John's Resort in Plymouth. For recreation programs and events at The Hawk, visit fhgov.com/thehawkfh.