Naima Said
Staff Writer
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has confirmed it will hold its commencement ceremony for the Class of 2021 and Class of 2020 in person.
The ceremony will be broken up into two separate days, May 7 and May 8. It will be grouped by student major and spread throughout different times on each day.
Every student will be allowed two tickets for guests to attend, and for public safety, any remaining guests will be able to live-stream the ceremony.
The seniors of UNCG have worked tirelessly to achieve this recognition. We’ve all experienced a little over a year of COVID-related restrictions that have kept us from many college experiences.
“We may have lost our right to campus festivities that help shape our community, but it isn’t the school’s fault, if anything they handled the pandemic better than most in the state,” said Kaiya Jones, a senior majoring in Media Studies.
Seniors have lost their ability to interact with their fellow classmates on a personal level, and to build deeper connections with professors, who write recommendation letters that kickstart a senior’s career path or internship opportunities.
On the other hand, some seniors appreciated the break from everyday stresses of college life and kept a positive outlook during dark times.
After an interview with Jumana Salem, a biochemistry major on the pre-veterinary track, about how it feels to be a senior at UNCG right now she said, “Being a senior in the middle of a pandemic, while in quarantine for part of it, kind of helped cope with senioritis. Nonetheless, my experiences here at UNCG were ones that I will take with me as I journey into the unknown, into life.”
When asked about Salem’s favorite memories on UNCG’s campus these past four years, she opened up, “I’m going to miss going out to sit on the lawn on a sunny day with my blanket.”
She continued, “But what I think I’ll miss the most is being a student. Just being a college student, and having some actual responsibility that shaped me into a better person. Staying up in the library studying until 3 am, eyes shutting but having the company of my classmates, some becoming great friends, to make me laugh those sleepless nights away.”
“And lastly, I’m going to miss coffee dates with my friends at Tate St Coffee. That’s you, Naima.”
It was a beautiful moment shared between Jumana and me as we both realized the inevitable time had come. It’s about what you do with that time that makes it count once you walk across the stage.
As a senior at UNCG, this is my farewell to my home for the past four years. Walking in as a freshman to a new environment wasn’t terrifying but exhilarating; that’s the mindset of success and survival. Take those risks and participate in something you never thought you would before — it may change your life.
While we each arrived here as individuals, we are leaving together as members of the Spartan family, which extends out through generations upon ge
THE CAROLINIAN 
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