Our very own Sabrina Bermingham– who graduated in 2020, but did not have a commencement because of the pandemic… 

That is until May, Friday 13, 2022.

She received her diploma via the US mail back in 2020 due to coronavirus restrictions. Her graduation commencements was postponed indefinitely.

On Friday the thirteenth - two years later - instead of the right hand shakes the dean’s hand and your left hand received the diploma, she got to elbow her dean since no hand to hand contact was allowed. Sabrina finally got to walk in her graduation commencements with other students of the Class of 2020 along with the Class of 2021 and 2022.

Since 2020 – 2 years ago - this pandemic has caused High School graduation rates dipped in at least 20 states, suggesting the coronavirus may have ended nearly two decades of nationwide progress toward getting more students diplomas – not less.

It also has nearly four million college students [that’s 13 percent] at four-year institutions to experience delay their graduation, and another 15 percent aren't sure if they will graduate at all.

With these delays, those who graduate are not even sure if they want a graduation ceremony anymore.  Sabrina did contemplate about not going to this graduation ceremony. The appeal was lost. To some, a two year isolation goes either very fast; But to many, it seems light years away.

The commencement is a ritual to help with the end and start a new beginning.  Graduation commencements are almost like a sacrament, the physical signs of the day communicated so clearly what the ceremony was designed to do. And while graduation is not a religious rite, it is filled with all kinds of graces.

Here at UCRP, we again applaud our very own Sabina!

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