Graduation can yield a variety of emotions for all those involved! It is a time to be thrilled to receive a well-deserved diploma, excited and nervous for future endeavors and nostalgic about the experiences one is leaving behind. With our current situation and the need for social distancing, the spectacle of crossing the stage and the festivities that follow are being rethought. It is human nature to adapt to difficult situations and now is a time — more than ever — to get imaginative with how we celebrate achievements in education.
In New Orleans, a city revered for celebrating anything and everything to the maximum extent, students and staff of local schools are getting extra creative with their commemorations. Here are some of the creative ways NOLA grads have and will be celebrating.
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-Lusher High School is honoring their graduates by decorating their Freret Street lawn with signs featuring the senior photos of each of the graduates. A virtual commencement ceremony will happen on May 23, and shortly after, a parade-like procession will take place in front of nearly 250 houses from Lusher’s Willow campus to its Freret campus. Students will be provided with a cap and gown, window markers, decorations and poster boards to customize their cars. Once the procession is complete, the students are to walk across a stage at Lusher and will be handed their diplomas individually by administration and staff. |
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Other students throughout the United States are adapting to this challenging time, too. Learn more about their inventive celebratory measures below!
-Vanderbilt University has decided to postpone their class of 2020 graduation until spring of 2021 in order to have an in-person celebration for all! There are currently articles highlighting some of their exceptional student’s accomplishments on the Vanderbilt website. A hashtag “#VU2020” has been adopted by Vanderbilt as well. The university is encouraging the class of 2020 to tag their social media posts with this hashtag to share how each individual is celebrating their achievements. Other universities and colleges have chosen similar hashtags to unite their virtual celebrations together.
-Some students have re-created their campuses on open server video game platforms. Students at University of Pennsylvania have created “Penncraft,” a virtual replica of Penn’s campus on the popular game Minecraft. Graduates can process through their online campus since they are not currently able to in real life. Other graduates have met on the new Animal Crossing game to host their own customizable graduation ceremony.
- Another hashtag has taken storm all over the internet. #Dearclassof2020 has been used on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook for anyone and everyone to share wisdom with the world’s newest graduates. Hope can be quite hard to find at an uneasy time like this, but seeing folks all over the world come together to spread wisdom is truly inspiring!
Though we are living in a difficult time, it is heartwarming to see the how graduates and their families continue to celebrate academic achievements. We hope all graduates are proud of their accomplishments and feel on top of the world — though the world may feel so different now. It is yours to seize, grads! Your creativity inspires us for the future. From all of us here at M.S. Rau, congratulations class of 2020!
