Class of 2020: Facing the Future
Last Sunday, like most Sundays, I took my dog for a walk on the Swarthmore College campus. We had the green lawns and luxuriant peonies mostly to ourselves. It was only as we ambled past the Scott Amphitheater that I realized it was commencement day.
Any other year, the campus would have teemed with graduating seniors having roses pinned to their gowns, families taking pictures, and faculty in formal regalia offering congratulations. This year, it was just Lucy and me on the grassy terraces.
You can watch Swarthmore’s commencement online. It’s quite moving. President Valerie Smith speaks from the breezy amphitheater; the Swarthmore College Chorus and the Garnet Singers perform the alma mater (each voice recorded in their own home, then edited together); Provost Sarah Willie-LeBreton recites the names of the graduates over their photographs. There’s even a surprise appearance by Anthony Fauci, of the White House coronavirus task force, wishing the graduates well.
On Sunday, over 400 Swarthmore students from all over the country and the world came together virtually, watching on their laptop screens, or maybe on their phones, the landscape that should have surrounded them.
This experience is balanced by that of the local college seniors who, with their families, have been watching commencements from their own far-flung schools on screens at home.
High school commencements are up next. Strath Haven High School students will graduate on Friday, June 5. A choreographed plan of staggered appointments will permit each graduate to receive their diploma, accompanied by two guests, and have their photograph taken to document the moment. A virtual graduation ceremony will be released on the SHHS YouTube channel that evening at 5 p.m. In lieu of the traditional march across the stage, a car parade of graduates will begin at 7 p.m. The route is published here, if you want to go out to cheer.
Local private high schools are also organizing ceremonies.
The cancellation of so many aspects of what should be a joyful season has been hard for students, families, teachers, and school staff. But something amazing has happened, too. This pandemic spring has seen a surge of creativity and inventiveness. Amid real suffering, many people have found new ways to stay in touch with loved ones, to keep businesses afloat, and to celebrate milestones.
At the Swarthmorean, we are offering graduating seniors a new forum for celebration, over and above the traditional graduation issue that will be published, as usual, in mid-June. We invited them to submit informal photos of themselves, perhaps proclaiming their college choice or some other future plan. You will find those photos in the slideshow at the top of our homepage.
It’s a strange time to be stepping out into the world, and a strange world to be stepping out into. So much of what’s waiting feels frightening and unknown.
But the future always holds both risk and possibility. Today’s future will require creativity, courage, discernment, and generosity to shape it into the kind of place we want to live.
Class of 2020: that’s your challenge and your opportunity.
Rachel Pastan
Editor
