Loyola celebrates Class of 2020 with live conferral ceremony
Confetti cannons launched green and grey streamers in Loyola’s Alumni Memorial Chapel after Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J., president, conferred the degrees of more than 1,400 undergraduate and graduate students at a livestreamed ceremony on Saturday, May 16, 2020.
“As you walk forward with your Loyola degree, remember that the future is also very bright. It is full of great promise and great opportunity. We just might need to be more innovative, more resourceful, and more focused on what really matters. But you—as a Loyola University Maryland graduate—have all of those qualities and more. You will succeed,” Fr. Linnane told the members of the Class of 2020. “Perhaps never before has a Jesuit, liberal arts and professional education been as important as it is today. You are not just ready to begin your life after Loyola and start to make a difference in the world. You are more than ready. You are, as we like to say, Loyola Ready.”
Almost 5,000 devices logged in to watch the event as graduates posed with the screen and celebrated in their own ways from home. Loyola University Maryland continues to plan toward an in-person Commencement ceremony for its graduates. Details are still coming together for that event.
Before the ceremony Loyola posted the names and Latin honors to a special website celebrating the Class of 2020. The site also features photos, videos, and links to other tributes to the class.
Lily Prince, ’20, student body president, recorded a message for her classmates that is posted to the site.
“If there’s any sort of silver lining to all of this, it’s that I’ve noticed that my Loyola friends and family are here to last a lifetime. Every class you’ve taken, every event that you’ve participated in, every single action and contribution that you have given to the Loyola community has been paid forward ten-fold,” Prince said. “So, whenever you’re feeling down, lost, or confused, know that you’ve left Loyola with a greater impact than you will ever know. And, as for all those last moments we were hoping to experience, know that they are coming soon.”
Jamie Borden, whose Master of Science in Speech-language Pathology was conferred Saturday, shared a message with her fellow graduate students in the Class of 2020.
“I know this is not how we expected our time at Loyola to come to a close, but we accepted the predicament in true Loyola fashion with endless amounts of grace and compassion for one another. Whether you earned a bachelor’s, master’s, or a doctorate degree, you earned it through adversity,” she said. “After all of our hard work, I cannot wait to see the amazing things we accomplish with our degrees.”