The University of Delaware added a new twist to its tradition-rich Doctoral Hooding Ceremony on Thursday, May 25, celebrating the more than 350 students who have earned their doctorates in the past year by raising a celebratory toast. Almost 250 were in the house — the Bob Carpenter Center, that is — for the 2023 event, and an estimated 8,000 family, friends, mentors and colleagues were there for it, too, bearing witness to the network of support and connection this kind of endeavor requires.