More than 230 Maryville College graduates walked across the stage in the Clayton Center for the Arts Saturday morning, May 4. For some, the commencement ceremony was more than an end to their college careers; it also marked their first conventional graduation.
Most Maryville College students who finished high school in 2020 did so without the closure that can come from ending a major chapter in life. They left school without the chance to say goodbye to their friends, their proms were canceled and some spent their postponed graduations thinking, not of their happy memories, but of the health threat that COVID-19 posed to their families.
In many cases, their early college experiences also were unusual, characterized by new teaching technologies and extensive safety protocols. But four years after the pandemic hit the U.S., the college gave its graduates a traditional sendoff.
Maryville College President Bryan Coker acknowledged the strangeness of the graduates’ situation in remarks at commencement. He noted that 2020 “was quite the time to begin college. It was a time of unprecedented uncertainty in our nation and our world.”
“We welcomed you with Tartan-themed masks and with social distancing policies. Yet, you persevered. Amidst cancellations and quarantines, you faced obstacles time after time,” he said.
No closure
Jenni Cate Rhodes made sure to stand apart from the other graduates at her 2020 high school commencement. Her worries included the possibility of catching COVID-19, her grandparents’ health and whether she’d be able to salvage a post-high-school trip to some national parks.
“I needed to take (COVID) as seriously as possible,” she told The Daily Times.
Rhodes knew when she finished high school where she’d spend the next few years — Maryville College, a few hours from her home in Alabama. But her graduation ceremony, pushed off for weeks amid fears of viral spread and widespread shutdowns, was less of a celebration than a reminder of an uncertain future.
“There was no closure,” she said.
When she started her studies at Maryville in the fall, some of that pressure remained. She told The Daily Times that early on she and other recipients of the college’s McGill Scholarship were housed together in a combined living and learning experience. But there was minimal social interaction.
At first, she commented, “I felt so isolated. It was really tough.”
In her first weeks as a college student, she said, hearing footsteps in the hall outside her room on campus and rushing to the peephole to see who was there could be as much socialization as she’d get in a day.
As time passed, that changed, and Rhodes built durable friendships at the school.
Graduation is bittersweet, she said. “While this is a time of happiness, it’s also a time of grief,” she commented. And she said that being able to go to things like the college’s baccalaureate ceremony and commencement this year were meaningful as she navigates her next major move.
‘A slow burn’
Kelton Bloxham, who graduated from Maryville Saturday, was also a high school senior in 2020. At first, he said, he didn’t take the March announcements about an end to classes too seriously, thinking of the time away from school as a break before graduation. By May, though, the seriousness of the situation had set in. There would be no return to school and no time to say goodbye to friends.
He told the newspaper that he and some friends tried to improvise some of those experiences. But missing out on the usual traditions left an impression.
Like others, Bloxham’s high school graduation ceremony was delayed and different than usual. He’s a triplet, and he and his brothers were allowed to have one person — their father — at an outdoor ceremony. As soon as their names were called and their diplomas handed out, they had to leave, with no time to cheer for their classmates.
Things were equally odd when he arrived at Maryville College. He said that he felt isolated for parts of his first semesters, with digital classes and without roommates.
Changes, when they came, “were kind of a slow burn,” he said.
A few days before his college graduation, Bloxham told The Daily Times that the ceremony would be “all the more important,” given the lack of that experience earlier.
Graduating students, he said, were “very nervously excited.” Nervous, for some of the usual reasons — the prospect of rain on Saturday — and for some more specific to 2020 seniors.
“It definitely was not the high school graduation, the college experience, we expected,” said Bloxham, MC student government and student body president. “I’m proud of the class and that we’ve been able to get to this point.”
During Saturday’s ceremony, Bloxham said to the other graduates, “Your two cents matter, and your voice deserves to be heard.” Planning for an outdoor graduation Saturday, Bloxham and his friends Friday night taped envelopes containing two pennies to each of the chairs set out on a college lawn for graduates.
An attitude of solidarity was shared by others in the Class of 2024.
Savannah Mahery was getting ready for work in Sweetwater four years ago when she heard that COVID was forcing school cancellations.
“At first when graduation got pushed back I was extremely disappointed,” said Mahery, who received her MC degree Saturday. Once it happened, after a delay, she said, “I was just grateful we got to graduate.”
And of her last few months at Maryville, she said, “I think you appreciate it more” when you’ve gone without the usual goodbyes. “All of us have been through so much.”
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