Master of Management in Energy students Dylan Guillen (left) and Matthew Gurvich (right) pose for a photo in the Templeton Trading Center after receiving their hard hats at the inaugural Master of Management in Energy Hard Hat Ceremony.
You’ve probably heard of a white coat ceremony, but what about a white hat ceremony?
Inspired by the matriculation ritual that initiates first-year students into medical school, the Freeman School hosted its own version in the William M. Templeton Trading Center in August, welcoming students into the Master of Management in Energy program. Instead of white lab coats, however, the 35 students in this year’s MME cohort received white hard hats, a requirement for their class trips to oil refineries, off-shore production platforms, solar farms and power plants across the region.
“Our primary objective was to mark the students’ beginning of the program in a memorable way and build a sense of cohort, but there’s also a parallel with medical school white coat ceremonies,” said Pierre Conner, executive director of the Tulane Energy Institute and faculty director of the MME program. “Like healthcare, we’re preparing students to enter a profession that will have a profound impact on people’s lives, affecting their health, happiness and financial well-being long into the future. When they put on their hard hats, we want them to be reminded of the responsibility that goes along with that.”
In his remarks to the class, Conner invoked Tulane’s motto Non sibi sed suis — not for oneself but for one’s own — to encourage students to seek energy solutions that are not just profitable but also reliable, resilient, affordable and sustainable.
“In addition to providing for yourself and creating a good career, you have a bigger objective as well,” he said. “And this ceremony is symbolic of that fact.”
This year’s class brings a wide variety of backgrounds and interests to the program, but all the students share a commitment to Freeman’s “all-of-the-above” energy philosophy.
“The energy-agnostic approach was a big draw for me,” said incoming student Will Dassel (SLA ’26, MME ’27). “You can make the program what you want it to be. Some of my friends are going to be traders or work in oil and gas, and I’m going to do something else. I think that’s kind of interesting that it’s so varied.”
