by Larissa Petryca, on 24 September 2020 12:10:50 CEST
On Saturday 19 September, 49 students and their 86 guests gathered at Národní dům na Vinohradech to receive their well earned degrees and diplomas at the Prague College 2020 Graduation Ceremony.
It was an achievement to plan, host and stage this most important event in what has been a challenging year for everyone. The students who could make it to Prague were very keen for the ceremony to go ahead despite restrictions on numbers, personal distancing measures and mandatory mask wearing.
In total, Prague College had 166 students graduate in 2020. Degree diplomas were awarded to 22 Master's students with 2 students achieving Distinctions and 71 Bachelor's students with 15 students awarded First Class Honours. A further 73 students graduated with diplomas from the HND, Foundation and professional level programmes.
A livestream of the graduation ceremony was organised so that our graduates who could not be with us in person and also additional family and friends elsewhere in the world could join in. A solid online audience watched the graduation in real-time from places as far away as Malaysia and Columbia. The livestream is now a permanent record of this auspicious event and has been viewed over 2300 times since Saturday. You can view the livestream graduation video here. (NB: the ceremony officially starts at 42.10)
For obvious reasons, an academic delegation from Teesside University in the United Kingdom were unable to attend but the College was honoured to have the Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Teesside University, Professor Paul Croney send a personal message to our graduates. Prague College Director, Douglas Hajek proudly conferred and issued Masters, Postgraduate, Bachelor, Foundation and Higher National Diplomas to the graduating students in attendance.
In addition to the Vice Chancellor's speech, Douglas Hajek and Jeff Buehler made poignant speeches to the graduates and their families acknowledging the highlights and challenges that the graduates, their families and humanity has faced this year. This was further explored by Iman Delic who gave the Valedictory Address, conceding the learning curve that this year has bought, the surprising events both good and bad and the need to always listen, smile, discover, create and learn.
Prague College would like to wish all 2020 graduates the best of luck as they begin the next phase of their careers all over the world and thank them for their resilience and creativity demonstrated over the last semester of their studies!
Please take a look through our Graduation gallery and feel free to share and download the images.
