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Bringing It Home – The Saint Rose Blog

Faculty Offer 2020 Graduates Some Pomp in These Circumstances

The College of Saint Rose hopes to hold an in-person commencement in September for the Class of 2020, which had its May 9 ceremony postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, the College has celebrated grads with a gallery of profiles, a virtual toast by Saint Rose alums, and handwritten postcards sent to the graduates’ homes. And Saint Rose faculty also didn’t let the 2020 graduates end their spring semester without at least a little fanfare.

Several programs held virtual ceremonies, including some with guests of the graduates.

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Screenshot of csd graduation ceremony

More than 100 participants joined the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in its virtual graduation ceremony. The ceremony included a slideshow that featured all of the grads and offered special messages and memories from each one.

Alyssa Bazzinotti's slide from the virtual CSD graduation

“As a department, we love to interact with our students face to face. It’s part of who we are and what we do in our profession, our preference is to see every one of you face to face,” said Dr. Jim Feeney, chair of the department. “But we can’t do that right now. And that’s OK. You can still celebrate and do what we’re doing right now and enjoy every second of this very historic moment. For these wonderful graduates have earned this amazing degree and are moving on in this fantastic profession. So we recognize that it’s different, but we are here to celebrate.”

ASPIRE

graduates of ASPIRE program

The ASPIRE program, a five-year dual-degree program that leads to certification in both special education and general education, held a graduation ceremony for its Class of 2020.

“It’s hard to believe that we started out with only two graduates in 2016,” said Dr. Frances Ihle, an associate professor of education. This year, the faculty at the Thelma P. Lally School of Education celebrated 10 graduates.

Communications

zoom screenshot of communications graduates imposed on photo of Hearst Center for Communications and Interactive Media

Graduation caps were plentiful in the Department of Communications’s virtual commencement ceremony, which was posted on Facebook.

The group typically takes a picture outside of the William Randolph Hearst Center for Communications and Interactive Media, and not to be deterred, they managed to include everyone in the tradition with several Zoom screenshots and some Photoshop.

The Center for Art & Design

screenshot of center for art & design senior show 2020 page

Although it wasn’t a commencement ceremony, The Center for Art & Design celebrated the work of 2020 graduates by moving its annual Senior Show online. Usually held in the Esther Massry Gallery, the center created a website to showcase the grads’ work.

They even moved the Senior Show reception onto Instagram Live.

Did we miss your program’s commencement celebration? Please email us at marketing@strose.edu, so we can include it into this post.

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