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USF hosts first in-person graduation since pandemic hit

After over a year of online learning, students were excited to graduate together.

TAMPA, Fla — USF college seniors graduated Saturday in person, the first in-person graduation for the school since 2019. 

The event was held at Tropicana Field where grads sat socially distanced with the two guests each, cheering from the stands. Everyone was required to wear masks and socially distance.

Students were excited to be celebrating this huge day, in person, with their peers and with their families.

"It definitely took a lot of support from my family, my family's all here, my boyfriend, my teammates, my my group mates, a lot of support," graduate Alexia Debreze said.

The students learned in March that they would be able to attend graduation in person if they so chose. 

"This was like the biggest thing that I was looking forward to. I was really upset, like starting this semester, because it wasn't announced yet. So I was like, 'Oh, it's gonna be another semester we are not going to be able to be in person and graduate.'  So when they announced it, I was like, beyond excited," graduate Sarah West said.

After so much time apart, graduates were thrilled to be seeing one another again. They had missed the comradery of the shared struggle that makes graduating from a four-year university so uniquely satisfying and exciting.

"Seeing that there are other people around you, seeing them, you know, sitting in class next to you going through the same thing, studying the same things, sitting in a library, late-night studying for exams, that really does push you. Now that we're online, everything's kind of isolated," reflected graduate Matthew Malak.

But that struggle made the success so much sweeter.

For Debreze, a first-generation American, she was thrilled to celebrate her accomplishment of graduating from USF with a degree in chemical engineering with her family. 

"For me, it means a lot. I came from a family of Haitian immigrants," she said. "So this is like, amazing to be there."

Despite a challenging time, these students are ready to thrive with their next steps. Debreze is starting her job at Procter and Gamble at the end of the month, Malak is starting medical school at the University of Florida, and West is in her final round of interviews for jobs (wish her luck!).

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