Hue congratulates all the graduates in the class of 2012.  For various reasons, however, we have taken a particular interest in Aidel Maidel:

 Aidel is pretty remarkable.  First of all, she is only four—“an art prodigy,” according to her Mom, Devora Reiss—and she’s already graduating! As it happens, Reiss herself graduated with a degree in Illustration, with Phi Theta Kappa and Chi Alpha Epsilon honors. Reiss developed Aidel for a project at FIT, where she worked with Bonnie Erickson, who created Miss Piggy.  Here’s a pic of Reiss and Erickson, on the big day:

 Reiss, who is spending the summer studying with noted puppeteer Eric Bass at Vermont’s Sandglass Theater, says Aidel is very, very popular.  “She has 425 Facebook friends.  That’s more than I have!” Reiss plans to start her own theater company with three other members of her graduating class, and says “Aidel’s definitely gonna be a star in my company.”  She’s pretty precocious, that Aidel, especially considering that her bat mitzvah is still nine years away:

All photographs by Danielle Rose Fisher