BLUEFIELD, VA (WOAY) – The COVID-19 pandemic has affected how spring commencement ceremonies will take place this year. To celebrate graduates, Bluefield College sent 237 celebration boxes to graduates with regalia and other celebratory items.
President Dr. David Olive and the Victor E. Ram mascot surprised some local graduates with their celebration boxes.
“It means so much to that Bluefield College put all that thought into the boxes and into our graduation experience,” said graduated Carrington Jade Hawthorne. “The handwritten notes from our professors brought tears to my eyes, in a good way. I was a speechless when they knocked on my door. The whole thing really made me realize for the first time how much I was going to miss being it because they are always so caring at the end of the day.”
May 9 was the scheduled date for the 2020 Spring Commencement. A celebration video was posted to the college’s social media platforms with special messages from the Bluefield College faculty and staff. Staff and members of the alumni board made phone calls to congratulate the graduates on Saturday morning.
“Saturday (May 9) was supposed to be a very big day for them,” said Nicole Kaklis, director of alumni relations and annual funding at Bluefield College. “This was something small that we could do from Bluefield College in order to celebrate all of our graduates.”
The college is tentatively making plans to host the 2020 Spring Commencement ceremony for traditional students on Saturday, August 22. The Master of Arts in Biomedical Sciences program will have a virtual commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16 at 10 a.m. with a select number of faculty present and broadcasted from Harman Chapel. The ceremony will be streamed from the Bluefield College Vimeo account.
