SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus holds drive-thru commencement
Graduates received a yearbook and gifts from the school while staying in their cars. (Photo by Catherine Sasso)
NORWICH – Wednesday, the SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus held a graduation ceremony for the class of 2020, with student participating from their cars.
About 50 student vehicles lined up to take part in the drive-thru commencement ceremony.
Students were first greeted by Norwich Campus Director Lindsey Lefevre, who shot confetti poppers as the graduates passed by.
As students circled the parking lot they were greeted by teachers and staff cheering them on. A bag piper played them through as they passed signs of encouragement. At the end of the circle, students received a yearbook and gift bag from the school.
"We decided to do it safely, as safely as we can. Cars are going to drive around in a circle and we will be celebrating them. We're giving them a year book, a variety of gifts, and we'll cheer them on. We just wanted to acknowledge that they're graduating, that's important," said Coordinator of the Human Service Program Julanne Burton.
To adhere to social distancing students stayed in their cars before the ceremony started. Sharing their excitement with each other through the safety of the driver window.
"I know it seems very small but it's very important to them. They've been in our building and in our classrooms for two years and we definitely wanted to recognize their hard work in some way," said Lefevre.
Lefevre said that the event was spurred by an email from a faculty member suggesting that the school do some type of event to celebrate the 2020 graduates.
"We've got great staff who made some homemade signs and we just to pulled together a few gifts for the students we know would mean a lot to them," she said.
Since having to move to online classes, college graduate Sierra Campbell said that she had to miss out on what she calls one of the last puzzle pieces to the nursing program.
"Being our fourth semester we were supposed to do our precepting. That's the last part of our clinical where we go into the hospital one on one with a nurse and we're able to do more of the hands on nursing stuff. It's kind of the last puzzle piece in our education that we had to miss out on so we did online simulations, which was great that they were able to provide that for us but it's still not quite the same. They were great with walking us through everything and everyone’s been very flexible," said Campbell.
Campbell is graduating with her associates in nursing, and said she was very thankful for the celebration.
"I think it's fantastic that they're doing something like this for us with all the other schools not being able to do anything. The fact that they put this together and we're still able to social distance but we're still able to celebrate all of the hard work that we put in. I thought was really great of them," said Campbell.
About 50 student vehicles lined up to take part in the drive-thru commencement ceremony.
Students were first greeted by Norwich Campus Director Lindsey Lefevre, who shot confetti poppers as the graduates passed by.
As students circled the parking lot they were greeted by teachers and staff cheering them on. A bag piper played them through as they passed signs of encouragement. At the end of the circle, students received a yearbook and gift bag from the school.
"We decided to do it safely, as safely as we can. Cars are going to drive around in a circle and we will be celebrating them. We're giving them a year book, a variety of gifts, and we'll cheer them on. We just wanted to acknowledge that they're graduating, that's important," said Coordinator of the Human Service Program Julanne Burton.
To adhere to social distancing students stayed in their cars before the ceremony started. Sharing their excitement with each other through the safety of the driver window.
"I know it seems very small but it's very important to them. They've been in our building and in our classrooms for two years and we definitely wanted to recognize their hard work in some way," said Lefevre.
Lefevre said that the event was spurred by an email from a faculty member suggesting that the school do some type of event to celebrate the 2020 graduates.
"We've got great staff who made some homemade signs and we just to pulled together a few gifts for the students we know would mean a lot to them," she said.
Since having to move to online classes, college graduate Sierra Campbell said that she had to miss out on what she calls one of the last puzzle pieces to the nursing program.
"Being our fourth semester we were supposed to do our precepting. That's the last part of our clinical where we go into the hospital one on one with a nurse and we're able to do more of the hands on nursing stuff. It's kind of the last puzzle piece in our education that we had to miss out on so we did online simulations, which was great that they were able to provide that for us but it's still not quite the same. They were great with walking us through everything and everyone’s been very flexible," said Campbell.
Campbell is graduating with her associates in nursing, and said she was very thankful for the celebration.
"I think it's fantastic that they're doing something like this for us with all the other schools not being able to do anything. The fact that they put this together and we're still able to social distance but we're still able to celebrate all of the hard work that we put in. I thought was really great of them," said Campbell.
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