Grads create pomp amid pandemic circumstance
Gabrielle Bancroft walked down the gravel driveway at her parents’ home in rural Pennsylvania in her maroon and gold cap and gown, ready to celebrate her Arizona State University graduation the only way she could.
Her brother waited a few paces away and handed her a diploma while her mother filmed the mini-ceremony. It wasn’t her diploma, actually, but her mom’s, since hers hasn’t arrived yet.
She moved her tassel to the other side and threw off her cap in celebration as “Pomp and Circumstance” played and her mother, Jacqueline, cheered.
Aside from her family, her boyfriend, a cousin and the family dog, the only audience members were two deer prancing in the background.
“I still would have enjoyed getting to hear people speak and walking across that real stage and everything, but I think for what we had to do, it was kind of the best outcome,” said Gabrielle, who received a degree in psychology.
Like many Arizona college students, Gabrielle returned to her parents’ house for spring break and never came back to
campus as COVID-19 led universities to move classes online.
These college graduates and their families have found unique ways to celebrate commencement without the traditional in-person ceremonies.
Family members stepped up, trying their hardest to make the milestone memorable for their loved ones.
Jacqueline Bancroft, Gabrielle’s mother, said she wanted to give her daughter a “chance to shine” after the canceled plans. If COVID-19 hadn’t happened, the family would have flown to Arizona to watch Gabrielle graduate and celebrated with a brunch at a nice resort. She did her best to still recognize Gabrielle’s achievement from home.
“Maybe it was just as good as if we were going to be there,” Jacqueline Bancroft said. “I doubt it, but it was the best we could and at least we could share it, we were able to share it with all our family.”
COVID-19 closures forced students off campus and into online classrooms. The disease has now disrupted their graduation plans. And while there are clearly people suffering the effects of the disease and its fallout more directly, graduates say adjusting to all the changes has been difficult, but they’re trying to make the best of it.
Graduates get creative
Vince Clapper and his parents brought their own table to a Texas Roadhouse parking lot to celebrate his Grand Canyon University graduation.
Clapper, an honors student who graduated with a degree in marketing, returned home to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at spring break and finished his college career there. He’s moving to Texas for a job soon, hence the Texas celebration.
After he finished his online classes, he and his family wanted to go out to eat to celebrate. But with dine-in services closed, the plan required some creativity. They had an extra dining room table they loaded into the back of their van and threw in some chairs, tablecloths and silverware.
They set up the table and chairs in the parking lot, complete with a plant and a small GCU flag as a centerpiece. Clapper wore his cap and gown. He ate a “nice ol’ ribeye steak.”
“A bunch of people would drive by and honk because I was in my cap and gown,” Clapper said. “The staff there was really nice and they came out and did like a cheer kind of thing and wrote me a card, which was really cool.”
More than 1,400 miles away, in Litchfield Park, Miranda Gaona’s husband created a background graduation ceremony, complete with balloons, an audience of people on FaceTime and their golden doodle puppies in bows with ASU colors.
Her husband told her she should wear fancy clothes. Gaona, who earned a master of science degree in digital audience, figured a surprise of some kind was in the works; she had seen the Amazon boxes arriving. He brought her the graduation regalia and her master’s hood.
She walked into the backyard, where “2020” balloons were placed, as he played “Pomp and Circumstance” and then gave a speech celebrating her achievement while the dogs ran around the yard. He then handed her a diploma he had made.
“Missing graduation is not that bad in the grand scheme of life, but it is a really important moment for all of us who have been working on our degrees, so the fact that he went through all that effort and energy to really make it special and to go out of his way to do something that I’ll always remember ... I’ll never forget it and it was really special and really personalized,” Gaona said.
Some ceremonies were more subtle, but still memorable.
Instead of formal graduation photos, Tyler Day took his photos in front of Northern Arizona University’s large Louie the Lumberjack statue. His cap and gown hadn’t arrived, and he didn’t have his diploma yet, so he dressed in jeans and a yellow-and-blue flannel over an NAU track and field T-shirt. He wrote “insert diploma here” on the back of a notebook and took a selfie.
After he submitted his final assignment online, the journalism graduate opted to blast Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” instead of “Pomp and Circumstance.”
Since he was in Flagstaff, away from his family in Gilbert, he celebrated with a dinner alone: a medium Oregano’s thin-crust pizza and a Pizookie. Once he was back in Gilbert, he celebrated with an Italian dinner with his family and girlfriend.
He was initially distraught at all the big changes to his final semester and plans for after graduation. His family from out of state would have normally flown in to watch him walk at NAU’s commencement. But over time, his mindset shifted: At least he and his loved ones are healthy.
“I’m very fortunate for that because I know there’s some people that are suffering and (in) hospitals alone just because of this virus. So, initially I took it hard, and it’s something you look forward to for a long time, and you don’t have your chance to do the quote-unquote typical graduation, but I still have my degree,” Day said.
Virtual ceremonies not a good replacement
Some students found virtual commencement ceremonies lackluster.
Hanna Dawson was disappointed by ASU’s virtual ceremonies, but heartened by her parents’ celebration for her. They picked up ASU balloons from Party City and got a cake and takeout.
She thought the ceremony for ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences would include a readout of graduates’ names and the slides they sent in to the school, which included their names, degrees and a saying of their choice. Dawson’s slide says, “I majored in Communication, but somehow I have no idea what to say here.” Instead, students had to individually look up their slides, which were read out in one-second clips.
Dawson, a first-generation college graduate, said her family had planned their celebration around the school’s virtual ceremony, not knowing what the format would be until the day of. Her family from around the country had planned to come to Arizona to watch her graduate and reconnect. She was embarrassed to send them a link instead.
Dawson had planned to take a gap year, then go to graduate school. She planned to work as a server and travel, two options that are off the table for now as travel restrictions continue and the restaurant industry suffers. She may return in December to walk in ASU’s ceremonies at that time, an option offered to all May graduates.
She understood why ceremonies couldn’t be held in person. And for a while, she didn’t think she cared that much about missing the traditional commencement because she still had graduated.
“I know what I accomplished, I’m really proud of myself, but I don’t feel like I’m a college graduate,” Dawson said. “It’s really weird to say that, because I feel like I didn’t graduate. I think I think the ceremony was more important to me than I had initially thought.”