DDA Celebrates 7th year Anniversary

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS - October 22, 2016

As the Double Dragon Academy begins its 8th year in SL, we celebrate many today who have earned a record number of MASTERS, GOLD, SILVER, IRON and STEEL advanced degrees.

Each has been recognized and rewarded earlier in the year, but we share again here at the time of our DDA Anniversary celebration.

While each is an admirable achievement, the intent of events and programs for rewarding individual performance through a variety of challenges goes beyond providing personal recognition, or a place of honor on our walls.

In the past individual achievements did not have widespread aknowledgement, and the DDA is justly proud to have been the first to provide this framework, but it was not our only intent.

A chief goal in providing a robust set of programs for competition, testing, mentoring and service is to provide a successful and supportive platform each individual can use as a springboard for making a positive and meaningful RP contribution in their community and home realm.

To the degree each cadet embodies the DDA Code of Conduct and motto to “take the high road”, the measure of character behind each avie is revealed. This can be more than a step through the RP looking glass, as the reflection on the other side of the mirror is exposed to the same words in RL, as echoed recently by the first lady of the US; “when they go low, we go high.”

As you go forth, allow the words and code of conduct you embraced as a cadet to guide your journey. As long as decency and respect guide your steps, long lasting success, honorably earned, will always be yours.

Please join me in thanking our Directors, Deans and Instructors for their service this past year, and in congratulating our graduates.

For those leaving us, know you will be missed, but remember the DDA was never intended to keep its members behind its walls. Like any learning institution, we could not be prouder today in celebrating the students, teachers and leaders who have used our programs as a path to begin a journey of their own.

- Forester Lowenhart, Headmaster

COMMENCEMENT ANNOUCEMENTS

MASTERS CERTIFICATION

MASTERS of JOUST

Hina(Mhia)Tarly, Tabbicatt Tigerish, Hacker Jannings MASTERS of SWORD

Nephilim Ventris

MASTERS of ARCHERY

Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings

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GOLD CERTIFICATION

GOLD LANCE

Tabbicat Tigerfish, Stormy Summerwind, Hacker Jannings, Jazz Barrowstone, Queen Nakajima

GOLD BLADE

Stormy Summerwind, Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings

GOLD ARROW

Stormy Summerwind, Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings

GOLD ARMS

Stormy Summerwind, Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings​

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​ SILVER CERTIFICATION

SILVER LANCE

TabbicatTigerfish, Queen Nakajima, Stormy Summerwind, Hacker Jannings, Jazz Barrowstone

SILVER ARROW

Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings

SILVER BLADE

Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings

SILVER ARMS

Nephilim Ventris, Hacker Jannings

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IRON CERTIFICATION

IRON LANCE

Queen Nakajima

IRON ARROW

Hacker Jannings

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CADET GRADUATIONS

Laciedenfu Resident, Aksana Michalak

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​DDA SERVICE AWARDS ~ Academic Year VII

Service awards are given by the DDA to those in each season who have given their time to helping others grow and learn. Honorees this past year for their service:

KaliVRahu

Brett Kjeller

Queen Nakajima

Tabbicat Tigerfish

Nephilim Ventris

Hacker Jannings

Stormy Summerwind

SPECIAL APPOINTMENTS ~ Academic Year VIII

We are pleased to announce Fafnir Fang will serve as a new Director for the coming year. Fanir is a long-time patron of the DDA, and supplier of its testing weapons. As a dragon, he served as an early inspiration for the Academy, and his motto

“with fire we test the metal, and with metal we test the student”

has long been cited by the DDA to symbolize the crucible of challenges each cadet faces.

FYI: Last year's commencement celebration followed a severe SL grid crash about an hour before the start of the event. This years celebration was marked by a report [Posted 9:27 AM PDT, 21 October 2016] of in-world difficulties due to a DNS provider outage. The DNS outages are reported earlier in the day by national media following a coast to coast DDoS (Denial of Service) attack on the Dyn managed infrastructure hosting traffic for Netflix, Twitter and many others.

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