This past spring, Grambling State University was in the middle of a great semester.
So many students were active, numerous events, and future plans were being made. Until one day students received an email saying they must evacuate campus within the next week. Reason is because of the spreading of coronavirus.
School was cancelled in the middle of March.
With school being shut down and everyone evacuating, graduating students couldn’t have their graduation.
Graduating students were heart broken. They worked hard for four years to get their degree and felt like their moment was ripped away from them. They were able maintain their degree, but couldn’t have the moment they wanted to solidify their hard work over the years.
Now, Grambling State University has decided to hold a ceremony for the spring 2020 graduate in the fall 2020 semester.
Hearing that news, the spring 2020 graduates, who were unable to hold a live commencement due to Covid, were excited.
Now, they will be able to walk across the stage like they wanted to do in the spring.
Jessica Clinton is one of the spring 2020 graduating students.
She was very passionate about walking across the stage and receiving her diploma the right way. “[I am] very grateful being not only are we getting what we’ve worked hard for and deserve, but also being able to officially say our goodbyes to our class,” she said. “Some schools aren’t even doing a ceremony so the fact that Grambling is and made accommodations says a lot.”
Clinton said that is the importance of having a graduation.
“It’s very important especially for a lot of students who are first generation graduates,” she said. “When the news was first brought to us we felt like everything that we had worked hard for had gone down the drain. Now that Grambling is giving us a ceremony, we can show our families that we did it through covid and all.”
Speaking of families, not only the spring graduates were excited about the news but their parents were excited too.
“I think it’s a great idea to have the graduates of spring 2020 to participate in graduation this fall,” Clinton’s mother, Shunda Clinton, said. “They were prepared, because you prepared them. They beat many odds and proved that nothing would stop them from achieving a goal that set forth once they stepped on to the campus of Grambling State University in the fall of 2016. All the hard work, long nights of studying, and preparing themselves for their big day was taken away due to unforeseen circumstances. They deserve to walk across the stage just as many others before them did and just as many others after them will.”
Now, the Spring 2020 graduates are having a graduation ceremony to commemorate their hard work and dedication at Grambling State University.
