CALDWELL — Like most spring graduation ceremonies this year, the College of Idaho will also have a virtual commencement. However, since the school is small enough, they wanted to make it more personal for each student.
They gave every graduate the opportunity to create a 20-second personalized video that will run after their name is called.
"It makes up for that feeling of loss a little bit," said senior student chair of the College of Idaho Virtual Commencement, Hannah DalSoglio. "I feel like I've lost the end of my senior year at first, but this really helped me get that feeling and get that excitement back."
The graduation committee figured in a standard ceremony it takes each student about 20 seconds to get on stage, get their diploma, a picture and then sit back down. So, they still wanted each student to have their 20 seconds.
"All that stuff that we really aren't going to get, we wanted to try and make that happen somehow," said DalSoglio. "That was our main focus was taking all the fun parts and making it into something we can experience online."
The ceremony will be streamed live on Facebook and Youtube. It will also feature student speeches and senior awards. The college has 205 graduates this year, and they received around 110 video submissions.
"Not only is it them stamping their personality on it, but it's pretty entertaining too," said the College of Idaho Director of Communications and Marketing, Joe Hughes. "There are so many creative ways of utilizing your 20 seconds that I think it's going to be really fun to watch."
The College of Idaho is still planning an in-person graduation later in the year, but they didn't want to wait until then. Instead, they will have two.
"It's been fun because there are things that we get to do at this commencement that no one will ever get to do at their regular commencement. I definitely think that has been a fun silver lining," said DalSoglio.
The virtual graduation will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday. For more information on where you can watch the ceremony, click on this link.
