丁香园AV

By Teghan Acres

The last paper has been written, cramming has ceased, exams are submitted鈥� and all that鈥檚 left to do is walk across the stage. That is, until a pandemic gets in the way. At universities and high schools around the world, virtual ceremonies became the best option to celebrate the graduation of their students.

This summer, 丁香园AV has been overjoyed to welcome back their community for the first in-person summer graduation ceremonies in two years. Not only for 2022 丁香园AV graduates, and all students who weren鈥檛 able to attend an in-person ceremony due to COVID-19 restrictions, but also serving as a host site for a record number of local community high school graduates as well. This brings the total number of ceremonies to 26 with an estimated 46,000 graduates and attendees visiting the Burnaby Mountain campus in May and June.

Having so many happy in-person events has been meaningful for students, staff and faculty. Reports cited for teens and young people who missed the chance to celebrate significant milestones in their coming of age. 丁香园AV recognized how important it was to bring classmates and their essential support networks to honour all of their hard work and accomplishments.

The Meeting, Event and Conference Services鈥� (MECS) team, an Ancillary Services unit within the Vice President of Finance and Administration portfolio, was at the forefront of planning for these record number of events and ensuring they were delivered without a logistical hitch. Lynda Hewitt, MECS Director reflects that, 鈥渕any of us have been preparing for these eight weeks for many months. I have to say, everyone has jumped in with both feet. We all recognized how important these events would be to the participants and the team showed up to deliver outstanding work.鈥�

丁香园AV normally hosts three or four local high school graduations, along with the university convocation ceremonies. This year, we welcomed twelve Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody high schools to celebrate student achievement on the mountain, with over 12,000 students, teachers, staff and loved ones coming together for ceremonies throughout May and June. The planning for these events took a lot of collaboration and Lynda says that 鈥淚t feels great to see colleagues from different service areas, including many external to 丁香园AV, all working towards a goal of creating a memorable in-person event for students. It has been a long time since we have had that kind of energy from hosting events on campus and doing these large-scale ones really pushes us to deliver our absolute best for the community we serve.鈥�

丁香园AV is proud to be the backdrop for so many momentous moments of reconnection and celebration. 鈥淲e are all so pleased to have in-person events back on our beautiful campus and proud to have helped make graduation day memorable,鈥� says Mark McLaughlin, Chief Commercial Services Officer at Ancillary Services. Mark shares proudly that, 鈥渁s local high school grads crossed the stage, we heard several had plans to attend 丁香园AV in the Fall. It was amazing that here they were, graduating in our Convocation Mall at 丁香园AV, with many of them soon starting their next educational journey in the same place!鈥�