By Garrett Greene ‘21

The Brother Rice community has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus.

since March 2020. This deadly disease has taken many things away from the seniors who have worked tirelessly to get to this point in their lives. One of the many things that the seniors will not receive this year is an ordinary graduation ceremony.

The standard graduation ceremony takes place at St. Xavier University, just a few blocks away from Brother Rice. All the teachers, students, and other staff at Brother Rice dress up in their graduation gowns and watch the students receive their diplomas. The valedictorian gives his speech, and then they celebrate and take pictures outside.

“I really enjoyed my graduation ceremony, I thought it was a really great experience,” said 2019 graduate Nolan Greene.

Last year, the graduation ceremony was changed due to the unexpected spreading of Covid. The graduating student and his family would walk through the school with his family and see all his teachers from over the years. The student would then proceed to the main courtyard where he would receive his diploma from Mr. Alberts outside.

“Although it wasn’t the ordinary graduation ceremony, many of the students and teachers I talked to thought it was still a very pleasant experience,” said junior Dylan Warda.

This year has been really tough for the senior class. They were unable to spend the full year with all their classmates, until just recently when they moved back to full time learning. They deserve to graduate with their friends and family in attendance because of all the hard work they put in during their four years.

As of now, we are still unsure what our graduation ceremony will look like. Is it possible that we will have a traditional ceremony because of the decreasing positivity rates? Although this is the ideal scenario, it is unlikely that this will occur. Many options are possible, such as having the ceremony on the football field. This would allow all the students to see each other one last time before graduating.

“My classmates were a big part of my journey here at Brother Rice, and I would really enjoy seeing them in attendance when I received my diploma,” said Frank Cunnea.

Hopefully, we will receive a ceremony that will allow us to see all our classmates together one last time before we graduate.