By Candice Zhang

On October 30, George Brown College (GBC) will conduct a virtual graduation for students who are part of the Summer 2019, Fall 2019, Winter 2020, and Summer 2020 cohorts. Since this year’s convocation differs from other previous events, the college is planning to stream the virtual ceremony on social media and provide digital convocation stickers for the students. 

“We have live-streamed our events in the past on the GBC website,” says Edna Hagos, the associate registrar from the office of the registrar at GBC. “Our in-person ceremonies were previously hosted in the Sony Centre.” 

Over 12,000 students will participate in the graduation ceremony, which is a college-wide and faculty-wide event. The event will be conducted on Friday with a live stream available on YouTube. 

“The event on Friday will include the traditional components,” says Hagos. “Messages from the principal and chancellor will be given to our graduates.” 

Meanwhile, the college has also created individual websites for different departments. Additional messages from the honorary recipients, valedictorians, and other graduates will be written. 

“I have my graduation soon and I am unsure of how it will turn out,” said Shreya Shah, a recent graduate of GBC. “But I never expected it to be online.” 

With the cases of COVID-19 on the rise, it is difficult to predict when in-person convocations for the four classes will occur. Due to the overwhelming number of graduates, however, Hagos says that more sessions will be held over a couple of days when the pandemic subsides. 

“We realize that we do have a large number of graduates,” Hagos says. “We do anticipate more ceremonies.” 

The online ceremony will be available on graduation day and the individual websites can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/convocation on October 29.