Students convocate in-person at U of L post-COVID grad

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on October 18, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward The procession of graduates is led from University Hall to their convocation ceremony Saturday at the University of Lethbridge.

The University of Lethbridge 2022 graduands celebrated convocation day on Saturday in front of friends, family, faculty and peers.

Mitchell Van Dyk is already a principal and was at his convocation to celebrate his Master’s in Education.

“Mostly relief, I would say,” said Van Dyk. “It was a great experience but it’s a lot of work as well. So pretty excited to be done and excited to celebrate with friends and family.”

Van Dyk had completed his undergrad degree at the U of L and chose the institution because of proximity to where he lives and heard a lot of really good things about the program and its cohort model.

“Now, that was a bit messed up with COVID and things like that, but it all worked out pretty well,” said Van Dyk.

He enjoyed the comraderie with colleagues and the care from some of the professors.

“Just some of the passion that they have and the care they showed to their students – that definitely made a difference,” he said.

He will miss the people once he left the convocation.

“It’s been amazing,” he said.

“Even though we were online for most of it, like I’ve made friends with people that I’ll connect with for the rest of my career,” he said.

Justin Molas was also in the Masters of Education program and will remember the professors and how good the program was, despite it being tough to do courses online the last two years with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had an opportunity to grow and learn together, which is something you can’t get taken away from you,” he said.

Molas did his undergrad degree at the school and one of the reasons he came back to the school for his Master’s is because it had such a good reputation.

“The feeling is joy, a little bit of nervousness, but being able to celebrate the hard work and effort put in over the last two years is definitely something that is going to be memorable,” he said.

Molas is a current teacher and the next step is to take on an administration position in hopes of becoming a principal or vice principal.

Rebecca Molyneaux took a Master’s of Education in Counseling Psychology.

“So good,” she said. “COVID was really hard on the program, it hit in my first year, and so finally being done is like amazing.”

If there’s anything that she learned during the COVID time, it’s that she relied on the support system.

“So having a cohort and like making sure and checking in with them was really helpful through the whole process and gave you the motivation to keep going when you’re all alone sometimes,” she said.

Her hope is to be a registered psychologist by the end of the year.

U of L president Mike Mahon stood up and addressed the 2022 grad class.

“Congratulations to the graduates of 2022 and a warm welcome back to our alumni from 2020 and 2021 joining us here today,” said Mahon.

“Although we celebrated virtually when your degrees were confirmed, it is wonderful to welcome you back to the University of Lethbridge to take part in this important academic tradition. Regardless of when you completed your degrees, I’m so excited to be with you today to celebrate your achievements in person. We no longer take ceremonies like these for granted do we. We recognize and fully appreciated the significance of being able to gather and celebrate as a community. Your return to campus to mark this significant milestone with friends, family and loved ones reflect the spirit of hope and resilience that helped get us through the last two-and-a-half years.”

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