This year’s Convocation was one no one expected. The Class of 2020 graduated without an in-person ceremony, but not without celebration. The University handed out lawn signs for local graduating students, staff and faculty members, we designed downloadable signs in multiple languages for our diverse students and gifs for social media, and the entire University community shared congratulations messages.
Video messages went out to our 1,343 new alumni from the President and Vice Chancellor, the Provost and the Dean. Members of the graduating class and their parents and MathSoc President Ina Wang also appeared in a video. And then several professors passed the tie in a video to connect our newest alumni as they join the community of 43,778 alumni in 105 countries.
“You are now a member of an elite group. An alumnus headed into the world to make world-leading contributions,” said Kevin Hare, interim dean. “You’ve developed a depth and breadth of expertise, and now you’re off to start the next leg of your journey where I have no doubt, you’ll make an impact."
Not all of the usual honours were included in this year’s convocation – we’ll wait until we can meet in person for that. We did get to honour our Governor General silver medallist, Jameson Wong and the Alumni Gold medallist, Jun Yan. Congratulations to you both!
We cannot wait to honour our grads in person when it’s safe to do so.