The clapping, shouts of joy and playing of “Pomp and Circumstance,” echoed through Linfield University’s McMinnville campus for more than six hours on Sunday as the university celebrated its graduating class of 2021. The McMinnville campus’s Carmencement event, a drive-thru celebration recognizing the university’s newest alumni from the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Business, gave families a front-row seat to special moments during the typical Commencement Weekend. More than 360 cars wove their way through ten stations where graduates posed for pictures, returned the acorns they received at Convocation, received their diploma, heard their name announced while walking across the stage and bumped elbows with their faculty members in a gauntlet of cheers and well wishes.
This year, the mortar boards were not the only things decorated at the event. Graduates had up to two vehicles of guests come through the event, and the friends and families of the Class of 2021 did not disappoint! Balloons, bubble machines, streamers, posters, stuffed animals and confetti decorated cars and trucks filled to capacity with loved ones. And the creativity did not stop there. The guests showed their inventiveness with the term “vehicles,” starting with a stretch Cadillac Escalade as the first vehicle through and continuing on with multiple Sprinter vans, convertibles, minivans with doors open, trucks filled with chairs in their beds and even a hay truck with 10 people riding on the back.
“It was my wife’s idea,” said Gerald Snyder of Bend, whose daughter, Shakayla, earned her degree in marketing and wine studies. “We have a large family. My wife has 11 brothers and sisters. This was how we could get as many here as possible.”
The Shields family even drove their vehicle from Fort Collins, Colorado, to watch their daughter, Fiona, walk across the Commencement stage.
What the event lacked in formality, it made up with in fun and celebration, with many families gathering together on campus to take pictures at various photo booths setup on the Intramural Field and celebrate their graduates together.
“It was very well done,” said Cindy Johnson ’83, whose daughter Hallie earned a degree in elementary education. “Clearly they wanted to find a way to make it as special as possible within the COVID restrictions, and they succeeded. What they created took a lot of hard work, and this mom and alumna is grateful!”
Carmencement photos:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”56″ gal_title=”2021-commencement”]
A weeklong celebration of graduates
Carmencement was just one in a series events that celebrated this year’s graduates. Over the past week, Linfield University hosted a variety of virtual and in-person events to honor students. The hybrid slate of events was created to recognize the seniors while still abiding by all COVID-19 safety protocols. A virtual Commencement airs at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 9 on the Linfield University YouTube channel to round out the celebration of Linfield’s McMinnville and online graduates. Students in the School of Nursing, based at the university’s Portland campus, will be honored at in-person and virtual events scheduled for May 20-22.
The events started on Wednesday, April 28 with the Black Excellence Event. The student-only event honored five graduating seniors with speeches, sharing of personal experiences while at Linfield and the presentation of stoles.
“Linfield has made me more communicative and introspective. I have traveled around the world, met new people, challenged my beliefs and rolled around in the grass,” said Isis Hatcher of Renton, Washington, who served as president of the Black Student Union and graduated on Sunday with a degree in international relations. “The small community gave me a greater opportunity for growth and leadership.”
Black Excellence Event photos:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”57″ gal_title=”2021-commencement”]
At the Latinx Senior Ceremony on Thursday, April 29, more than 30 students gathered to celebrate their achievements and their community. Antonio Peña Anaya, a senior from Newberg who earned his degrees in Spanish and secondary education, spoke to the crowd about the role his family played in supporting his education.
“This is as much their diploma as it is ours; we are their American Dream come true,” he said. “Everything that they left behind, everything they did for us…todo eso valió la pena. There are not enough words to show my appreciation to them, and there is no way I would be able to repay them. I hope I made them proud just as I am proud of them.”
And those were not the only connections that were celebrated at the event.
Fellow graduate Zeila Medina, an elementary education major from McMinnville, unexpectedly ran into a former educator of hers at the event, Siria Larmay, who also was graduating this weekend with degrees in mathematics and secondary education.
Latinx Senior Ceremony photos:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”58″ gal_title=”2021-commencement”]
When the university announced its plans for the drive-thru ceremony, the seniors and student government retooled the traditional Grad Finale, turning it from an evening of formal toasts and speeches into a shortened student-only Commencement. Students gathered in Memorial Stadium on Friday night to return their acorns, walk across the stage to the cheers of their friends and turn their tassels together.
Michayla Sponsel, a graduating senior studying exercise science from Portland, spoke at the event.
“We can say it’s about getting an education, gaining experience and that several thousand dollar piece of paper at the end, but I believe there’s more than that,” Sponsel said. “College is more than that. Linfield is more than that. It has given us life experiences, helped us grow as individuals and has become a part of our journey in finding ourselves.”
More than 150 students attended the event which included a slideshow featuring photographs from all four years of the seniors’ Linfield experience, food trucks and a fireworks show that lit up the sky with purple, red and white fireworks.
McMinnville Senior Celebration – Grad Finale photos:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”60″ gal_title=”2021-commencement”]
The activities continued on Saturday morning with the Athletic Stole Ceremony in Memorial Stadium. More than 50 student-athletes were honored and presented their red and white student-athlete stole to wear at Carmencement the following day.
In his remarks to the graduates, Athletic Director Garry Killgore celebrated not only the student’s achievement in the classroom, but the perseverance of the students in dealing with changing protocols and schedules due to COVID-19 safety protocols. During the pandemic, there were no athletic competitions for nearly a year on the Linfield campus.
This message of endurance was echoed by Madison Reimer, Student Athlete Advisory Committee co-president and psychology graduate from Sherwood.
“We led through a pandemic and no one else can say that,” Reimer said. “The perseverance we showed through this entire year is something that will benefit us long after Linfield, and I think that is something to commemorate at this time. Through this past year, we weren’t guaranteed anything. And we not only got a season, but we thrived through our seasons.”
Athletic Stole Ceremony photos:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”61″ gal_title=”2021-commencement”]
Virtual events
In addition to the smaller in-person events held last week, two of Linfield’s Commencement Weekend activities moved to virtual events debuting on YouTube.
Typically held in the Richard and Lucille Ice Auditorium on the McMinnville campus, the Senior Awards recognized graduating seniors with department-specific honors. Watch the full playlist below or visit the university’s YouTube channel to watch the video for a specific award.
The Baccalaureate traditionally honors graduates in a more spiritual ceremony. This year’s virtual event featured readings by numerous students, two songs performed by the choir and a Baccalaureate address given by Chaplain David Massey ’78. The Baccalaureate can be viewed below.
While the 2021 Commencement Week was anything but ordinary, so too was the undergraduate experience for the graduates. But what was apparent through the virtual and in-person events was joy – in honoring the graduates, in recognizing their achievements and in being able to find unique ways to celebrate it all with friends, families and classmates.
One parent appreciated not just the efforts to celebrate the graduates, but also to have her daughter’s educational experience finish with an on-campus experience.
“While the event was really nice, what was most important was having been in-person all year,” said Connie Kloha of Roseburg, who daughter Isabella earned a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. “It was why she came here. She fell in love with the campus.”
More information about this year’s continuing Commencement activities can be found at linfield.edu/Commencement.
