For more than half of the students at Arizona Western College, walking across the stage at college graduation would have been a first for them and their families.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, graduation this year is unlike any other but it will be special and a wonderful way to celebrate the accomplishment of students, Arizona Western College President Dr. Daniel Corr said before the college's virtual graduation Friday night.
"Each student, each graduate, will have an opportunity to have his or her name called. There will be a slide that will be shown on the screen, that the student provided, and an opportunity for each person to hear their name and their parents and loved ones to hear their name and be celebrated," Dr. Corr said.
The virtual graduation will consist of speeches from AWC, Northern Arizona University, the Univerisity of Arizona, and Arizona State University student representatives.
Short messages, fasted paced, and fun is how Dr. Corr describes it.
"It’ll just be celebrated more privately more intimate gatherings due to the obvious reasons of COVID-19," Dr. Corr said.
However, Dr. Corr has noticed some levels of disappointment in students. Noting that two-thirds of the students at AWC are first-generation college students, Corr says the community feel of past graduations might be missing this year.
"It's such a community graduation that we traditionally have," Dr. Corr said. "Then we all wrapped our heads around the severity of the pandemic that we’re dealing with, and then acceptance occurred."
During a normal graduation year, there would be more than 400 graduates that cross the stage at Arizona Western College.
"Tonight we will celebrate somewhere around 280, so there's a bit of a drop-off," Corr said. That is because several students have chosen not to participate in virtual graduation.
However, Dr. Corr says today is graduation day, and using his signature phrase, “it is a great day to be a Matador.”
Friday's virtual graduation begins at 7 p.m. It can be seen on AWC's Facebook page, online here, and on cable on AWC TV Channel 74.
