Family and friends share the stage in a special way with University of Lethbridge grad

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on June 8, 2023.

Submitted photo Management student Hassan Nadeem had a custom jacket made featuring a collage of photo memories to celebrate his life's journey to graduation.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A recent graduate from the University of Lethbridge captured the special moments that led to his graduation in a unique way, and ended up attracting a lot of attention from attendees.

Hassan Nadeem, who graduated from the U of L with a Bachelors Degree of Management in accounting, said he wanted his family and friends who have impacted his life to walk the stage with him last Friday and he came up with an idea on how to make that possible.

“I essentially commissioned my friend to customize my graduation suit jacket. This vision originally started with one photo of myself and my parents when we first came to Canada in 2002 (from Pakistan), when I was about 18 months old. I wanted to walk the stage with my parents because of all the hard work and sacrifices they made for me to get to the position I am in now,” said Nadeem.

 He said he then started to reflect on all the memories that led up to his graduation and realized more people were deserving to walk the stage with him.

 “I then decided to include all the memories of my siblings and my closest friends. I also wanted to capture all the moments from the day I landed in Canada until I graduated from the University of Lethbridge,” said Nadeem.

He said he decided to create a collage with pictures ranging from when he first arrived to Canada to moments leading to graduation, to incorporate it into the inside of his jacket.

“To remind myself of where I started and all the sacrifices and stuff like that took place to get me to graduation.” .

 He said he picked the colour green for his suit, as he wanted something that was a spring colour and also that represented his home country of Pakistan.

 A picture can be seen away from the rest and Nadeem said it was a picture of his oldest sister when she got married.

 “That’s my oldest sister who’s there, that was actually her wedding. It wasn’t any special reason for it to be there, but my older sister was the first marriage we had in my family, my first sibling who ever got married,” said Nadeem.

 He said from those represented in the jacket, his five siblings and a few friends were able to attend his graduation ceremony.

 “When they saw this jacket, I can’t even begin to explain. Everyone was just so blown away, it’s so hard to explain, no one expected it, they were shocked that’s the only way I could describe it,” said Nadeem.

 He said his siblings were very happy with the touching detail. And even though he could not display the jacket on stage, as he was wearing his gown, they were there with him close to his heart and in his head while he crossed the stage.

Fabric for the suit was imported from Italy and it was constructed in Edmonton.

 Nadeem, who is the youngest of six children, attended school in Lethbridge from kindergarten to post-secondary and now lives in Calgary where he is pursuing his CPA designation.

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