Final Walk: UTRGV holds ceremony for 2020 graduates

While the threat of rain is always a difficult proposition on commencement day, for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Class of 2020 the weather was just one of many challenges that have marked their journey to receive their diploma.

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Rio Grande Valley in March of 2020 marked a rapid change in daily life as in-person events disappeared, including the 2020 commencement. With the absence of vaccines and comprehensive data on how to prevent viral spread in large groups of people, the Class of 2020 was left on hold.

“It was a little disappointing, but it was out of their control,” graduate student Nancy Guajardo-Rodriguez said of the cancellation.

With her young son and daughter sporting shirts with “my mommy got her master’s for me” printed on them that they’d saved from last year, Guajardo-Rodriguez finally got to walk the stage as a Class of 2020 graduate Thursday morning, albeit a year late.

Around 400 graduates from the Class of 2020 walked the stage Thursday in Brownsville with over 1,800 graduates expected total across the three days of in-person commencements at the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses.

While the rain forced Thursday’s ceremony into the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salon, the mood was still high as graduates finally celebrated their achievements with their families.

Inside the modified venue, families and friends moved forward a few small groups at a time to stand on socially distanced spaces at the front of the line as their graduate walked the stage, then quickly filed out to meet up outside the salon doors for photos in the courtyard below.

One of two commencements scheduled for the day, the 8 a.m. ceremony featured students from the School of Nursing, School of Social Work, Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, College of Sciences, College of Health Professions and the Mathematics and Science Academy from the Brownsville campus.

“For a moment I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it. I thought it was going to be a little sad to bring back memories, but it’s been good. It’s good to see my principal and my counselors and bring back a little bit of what was lost last year,” Romeo Garcia Jr., 2020 valedictorian from the Mathematics and Science Academy said.

Garcia Jr., currently an undergraduate at Stanford University, said that his feelings about the day are complicated despite the satisfaction of his parents finally getting to see him walk.

“I wouldn’t say extremely happy, but I guess not sad…bittersweet. Bittersweet because I wish I would have seen all of my other classmates here. I called and asked to see if they knew who else was going to come, but they didn’t know. I was just hoping to see some other people, but I guess it was just me,” he said.

While UTRGV invited the Class of 2020 back for their commencement, not all graduates were able to make it to the ceremony, some for obvious reasons.

For the School of Nursing, only about six to seven graduates made it back to walk Thursday of 23 estimates Luz Maria Silva, a clinical associate professor in the school.

“The reason only six or seven came is probably because they are all working as nurses already in the different facilities and hospitals. So a few made it, but the 23 they are all working already as nurses,” she said. “I’m very glad they gave them the opportunity to come and walk.”

Today the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, College of Education and P-16 Integration, College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Sciences and the Mathematics and Science Academy Class of 2020 will have the opportunity to walk for the UTRGV Edinburg campus.

Saturday will close out the commencement festivities with the UTRGV Edinburg School of Nursing, School of Social Work, College of Health Professions, College of Fine Arts and College of Liberal Arts concluding their commencement ceremony.

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