8000 graduates join UST send-off rites
MORE than 8000 graduating students of the University of Santo Tomas ( UST) joined the yearly Baccalaureate celebration and send-off rites last May 24, 2018 at the UST Grandstand and Open Field.
UST Rector Very Rev. Fr. Herminio V. Dagohoy, O. P., led the Eucharistic celebration concelebrated with the Dominican Fathers at 6: 00 p. m. He delivered a message to the Class of 2018 who entrusted their academic development to Asia’s oldest, Pontifical, and Royal University. Offerings and collections during the Holy Mass will be donated to the Dominican missions, specifically to the St. Bartholomew Academy in Calayan and the Lyceum of Camiguin in the Babuyanes Group of Islands.
The students were given a Thomasian Mission Cross, as a reminder to stay true to Thomasian ideals. A recitation of the Thomasian Pledge of Loyalty will follow the blessing and imposition of the Dominican crosses.
Part of the program is the annual “Ceremony of the Light” that represents UST’s mission of spreading the illuminating light of education and evangelization to others. The flame that originates from the torch of the Father Rector is passed on to the torches of the deans and regents of the faculties and colleges and received by their respective students.
The graduating students symbolically exited the University in the traditional recessional parade where they exit through the Arch of the Centuries, signifying the completion of their student life in UST. They were met with cheers by their loved ones, friends, and students from the lower batches outside the Arch. The Class of 2018 were led out of the historic gateway by Very Rev. Fr. Herminio V. Dagohoy, O. P, the UST Rector, and Rev. Fr. Jesús M. Miranda Jr., O. P., the UST Secretary General, who as per tradition, also welcomed the same students into the Arch during the traditional Thomasian Welcome Walk in their first year some four or five years ago.
The much- awaited annual grand pyromusical lit up the University’s skyline before the recessional parade.