{"id":45846,"date":"2020-05-04T13:19:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T17:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=45846"},"modified":"2020-06-02T16:27:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T20:27:57","slug":"class-of-2020-grads-celebrate-may-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/class-of-2020-grads-celebrate-may-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2020 grads celebrate May milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\u201cHappy what-should-have-been graduation day,\u201d wrote Eastern Mennonite University senior Heidi Grossnickle<\/strong>, dressed in cap and gown, in an Instagram caption to a photo that captured the bittersweet sentiments of a beautiful spring day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Still, in this time of economic uncertainty and social distancing, graduates celebrated where they were, with family and friends through phone calls or in community through virtual means. For Jasmine Johnson<\/strong>, her master\u2019s degree was the culmination of six years of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cGod did it!\u201d Jenna Emswiler<\/strong>, a senior nursing graduate, gave thanks to faith, family and friends who helped her through the challenges of the past four years, and shared the news of a new job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This was neither the end of the semester we anticipated nor the graduation we expected, but it is the semester we have completed and the graduation we celebrate, <\/em>said Dean David Brubaker<\/strong> on Sunday, May 3, to a virtual gathering of peacebuilding graduate students<\/a> that included David Nyiringabo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Facebook post, the Congolese native draped a stole with the colors of his country across his shoulders and stood in front of a campus sculpture dedicated, like he is, to nonviolence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMission Accomplished!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the rescheduling of EMU\u2019s 102nd Commencement to fall 2020, Sunday marked a personal milestone for 300 undergraduates and nearly 125 graduate students. (EMU was set to confer a total of 429 degrees, the breakdown of which doesn\u2019t account for dual-degree-earners.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ceremony would also have had historic implications: the university’s first graduates of its undergraduate engineering program and its first doctoral degree recipients, in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, were slated to be celebrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least one celebration is still to happen this week: EMU at Lancaster is planning a separate virtual commencement event on the originally scheduled date and time of Friday, May 8, 2020, at 7 p.m. Visit the Lancaster Commencement page<\/a> for updated information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disrupted by a global pandemic and scattered away from campus, our community has persisted with time-honored, much beloved rituals of community recognition and also pushed creatively into new digital spaces to share the love for the Class of 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These efforts included video greetings from some departments to their graduates. Here\u2019s a compilation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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