Despite snow and cold this week, the end of the school year is fast approaching. It is a time of expectation, for things completed and a future waiting on the near horizon. Everything is measured by graduation and family gatherings. Future plans often hang out in the mailbox disguised as acceptance or rejection letters while other students join the working world post haste. It is a mostly heady time, filled with optimism and confidence. The highlight is the conferring of degrees to eager graduates, a penultimate conclusion before doffing their caps in the air.

Yet another group of students cho...