For graduates who started their Drexel University experience on Zoom at home and/or came to campus following social distancing precautions, the journey from COVID masks to Commencement caps marks a particularly monumental time of their lives.
Even the weather at Drexel’s June 14 University-wide Commencement ceremony started off with darkened clouds, rain and immense gusts of wind that blew up hoods and menaced microphones of the speakers — but the ceremony ended with some blue skies and bright, colorful fireworks. After everything else they experienced in the past few years, less-than-ideal weather wasn’t going to bring the Dragons down (though having umbrellas, rain ponchos and some cover provided by those mortar boards helped).
“No matter where you go, no matter what you do, there will be challenges like wind and rain on you as you present your speech,” said Drexel’s 2024 University-wide Commencement speaker Sheryl Lee Ralph, which brought applause and laughs from Dragons in the stands of Citizens Bank Park. “But you got to meet them knowing that challenges are just steppingstones. I know it's hard to imagine anything worse than what you have already been through, but in the vernacular, ‘life be lifing.’”
After a college experience unlike any other, those graduating Dragons celebrated everything they’ve accomplished at the University, marking an end of their time as students and the start of their lives with a new college degree better equipped to serve the public good. In addition to the University-wide ceremony held Friday, Drexel colleges and schools held individual ceremonies June 13–15.
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