After pandemic losses, Eckerd College grad gets long-awaited celebration

ST. PETERSBURG — This time, they could hug.

During a graduation ceremony at Eckerd College on Sunday, the class of 2024 held hands, embraced and stood as close as they possibly could, despite the early morning humidity — just because they could.

They sang the national anthem, loudly, without masks. Afterwards, they would go to restaurants and homes, sharing food and drinks over memories about the last four years, none of which were exactly easy.

Zoe Smith, 22, flew in from New York City the night before — there was no way she’d miss this one.

Things looked a lot different for Smith’s graduation from Braden River High School back in 2020, where the aspiring actor and her classmates stood distanced in a hot Bradenton baseball field, masked and unsure.

“We couldn’t get close to anyone,” Smith recalled. “It wasn’t the dream graduation that you really expected.”

Sunday’s celebration, she said, felt “like the first real one.”

While pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in musical theater, Smith spent the last two years of her degree in New York City, where she attended Circle in the Square Theater School, part of a combined liberal arts and conservatory degree offered in tandem through Eckerd College. There, she excelled in the dramatic arts, improved her singing and spent hours perfecting her pitch. The stage — and the big city — quickly became her chosen home.

But returning to Florida for Sunday’s ceremony felt particularly poignant for Smith, who lost both her father and grandmother to COVID and pneumonia early in the pandemic.

Smith’s father, then 49, fell ill during her freshman year in college and died within a few months, in January 2021. The swiftness with which the illness took him shocked Smith, who recalled Buddy Smith as an indestructible force in her life, a gregarious character with whom she shared a special bond and to whom she spoke every day.

“To me, he was the strongest person in the world,” she said. “There was no fear that that could ever happen to someone like him.”

Smith’s dad was also the sole breadwinner for her family, and his death left her mother and four high school- and college-age children bereft — unsure of how to make ends meet, let alone pay for college tuition.

“It was really scary, because we didn’t have a backup plan,” Smith said. “We were very lost for a while, because we had no idea what was going to happen.”

Like so many others during that time, Smith learned to pivot.

She worked at Chick-fil-A and babysat. She dressed up as a Disney princess for kids’ birthday parties. She picked weeds and landscaped on Eckerd’s campus.

And she had some help: Eckerd’s faculty donated their own money to fund scholarships for students in situations similar to Smith’s. Through that effort, plus some cobbling together of scholarships and grants, Smith was able to complete her degree.

To cope with the mental anguish after her father died, Smith immersed herself in theater and acting. Eckerd College and her theater community “became like a lifeline,” she said.

“It was definitely one of the hardest times of my life,” she said. “But things around me were falling into place in a way that I didn’t have to worry about.”

Throughout Sunday’s commencement, speakers repeatedly pointed to the hardships endured by this year’s graduating class, a group of students who started college socially distanced, together often only through screens.

Eckerd College President James J. Annarelli referred to the last four years as “very trying times,” and lauded the students for their perseverance.

“In the face of the challenges of the pandemic, you adapted, and indeed you thrived,” Annarelli said. “You were steadfast in the pursuit of your education despite the challenges.”

There were also acknowledgements that, while the challenges faced during the pandemic had waned, graduates were faced with a world no less tumultuous. Some students wore clothes or caps with words of protest about the Israel-Hamas war, LGBTQ+ rights or abortion.

But the overall message Sunday morning was one of tenacity and hope.

“Life is full of these micro and macro disruptions,” said Eckerd College alum Ashley Rhodes-Courter, a child welfare advocate and author, when giving the commencement address.

“We must be prepared to embrace the discomfort of disruption and see it as a catalyst for change and innovation,” Rhodes-Courter said. “You will adapt — there is so much in this world that is beyond our control.”

Wearing a dark blue dress and pink lipstick, Smith walked across the stage to receive her diploma and gave the crowd a quick wave and shy smile.

After the ceremony, she stood flanked by her mother, Holly Smith, and three siblings: Zara, 20; Zac, 24; and Zander, 18.

“It’s so nice to be here and see friends I haven’t seen in person for the last two years,” Smith said. “I’m feeling incredible.”

Smith’s mother echoed the sentiment, and referenced the hurdles her daughter faced.

“It’s not something that I thought was capable of happening,” she said of her daughter’s achievement amid such hardship and financial uncertainty.

Monday morning, Smith will be back on a plane to New York, for rehearsals and an audition. She can’t wait to get back to the stage.

“I love creating joy through theater because theater brought me joy during the worst times of my life,” she said.

But for now, Smith is happy to be in Florida with her family and friends. In person again, finally.