One Year Later: College Celebrates Commencement 2020

When the coronavirus forced members of the Thomas Aquinas College Class of 2020 to return home early last year, just weeks shy of their canceled Commencement, they were given a choice: How — and when — would they like to celebrate their graduation?

There was little dispute. Having finished their studies remotely, the seniors were adamant that they did not want a ceremony mediated through screens. They would wait as long as necessary to celebrate in person. Unable to end their Senior Year together, they would not graduate apart.

And so, some 14 months after their premature departure from the California campus, members of the Class of 2020 returned last Saturday for a Commencement that was only made all the sweeter for its delay. The Most Rev. Michael C. Barber, S.J., Bishop of Oakland, presided over a Baccalaureate Mass and a graduation ceremony marked by the joy of once more being together — and gratitude to God for His mercies. Several members, newly wed, processed onto the quadrangle alongside their classmates-turned-spouses. A few collected diplomas with newborns in arms.

“How unique is it that our graduation is not so much a farewell as it is a reunion?” asked Senior Class Speaker Graham Crawley (’20). “Graduation is a celebration not of what we’ve accomplished but of who we’ve become … a real community, one ordered to a shared end, enriched by each of our participation in it.”

A belated but well-deserved congratulations to the Thomas Aquinas College Class of 2020! May God bless you on your way.