Standing Out Among the Crowd: Decorated Graduation Caps at Ole Miss

From left, Madison Conaway and Mayme Wilson show off their personalized graduation caps during the Class of 2014 graduation last May.
Photo courtesy UM Communications.

Parents file in behind their graduating children, looking out into the sea of black caps. Last year, Mayme Wilson’s mother didn’t have to guess which cap her daughter was wearing.

Mayme Wilson, who graduated with a bachelor’s of arts in studio art from University of Mississippi, was inspired to decorate her graduation cap after seeing seniors do the same while she was a junior.

“I also knew I would be difficult to spot in the sea of black caps in the Grove, and I wanted to give my mom something to look for in the crowd,” said Wilson. “It was also a great excuse to craft with two of my best friends one last time before graduation!”

After researching on Pinterest and Tumblr, she was ready to decorate not only her cap but her friends’ graduation caps. She decorated Nicholas Boullard’s and Madison Conaway’s caps “off the cuff.”

“We had a final get-together with a group that formed in our first years at the Residential College,” said Wilson. “While we were talking I decorated Madison’s (to say) ‘Leave ’em with a smile’ and Nick had been toying with two different ideas, so we picked one and ran with it before he had to leave.”

Boullard’s graduation cap that day had the Breaking Bad logo in his initials, a fun twist on his undergraduate biology degree. Later on that week Wilson’s sorority sisters at Kappa Alpha Theta, Jennifer Green and Alexandra Williamson knew what they wanted on their graduation caps: The Avengers.

From left, Mayme Wilson, Alexandra Williamson, Jennifer Green, Katie Terry and Cecilia Drenan

“Jennifer knew she was Captain America, a feisty little idealistic leaders who can absolutely pack a punch, and Alexandra has all of Tony Stark’s drive, cleverness and inventiveness so we painted those logos on their caps the weekend before graduation,” said Wilson.

Mayme didn’t know which Avenger she wanted on her cap, so she left it blank for a little while as she brainstormed. The answer dawned on her as she sat in her room at the Kappa Alpha Theta house surrounded by four years’ worth of memories packed away. Her sorority sisters Jennifer and Alexandra kept her sane through graduation stress, job applications and several projects.

“Jennifer has been my best friend since my freshman year and we were often mistaken for twins. We still are, in fact,” said Wilson. “Alexandra is Jennifer’s little, and was part of my first New Member Education class as an officer. And the three of us spent the majority of our senior year singing songs from Frozen all across town.”

Jennifer Green’s graduation cap pops out in the Accounting class of 2014.

They were both students of the School of Accounting and since Wilson was at the School of Liberal Arts, she knew they wouldn’t be able to sit with her in the same section at the morning address in the Grove.

“…I wanted to have them with me when I crossed the stage,” she said. “Like everything I do, mine was done last-minute in my room at the sorority house surrounded by everything from my life in Oxford that I had packed away. I slept a grand total of 25 minutes between finishing my board and getting up to meet my mom before the Grove ceremony.”

Her cap featured all three ladies holding onto one another with a shield bearing the Lyceum symbol on it in between. Above each of them is an Avengers symbol with the words “Class of 2014 Assemble.” Her mother not only spotted her but a the UM Communications photographers did too. It was an unforgettable day for Mayme Wilson.

Have y’all decorated your graduation caps? Feel free to share your individuality with us by emailing us your photos at hottytoddyphotos@gmail.com. Congratulations on the graduation!

Callie Daniels is a staff reporter/writer at HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.