THUNDER BAY — Close to 2,000 students will walk across the stage at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium as the graduating class of 2024 from Lakehead University.
In a release, university president and vice-chancellor Gillian Siddall expressed her pride in the students and offered congratulations for their achievements.
Saskia Pateman is graduating with a bachelor of arts in sociology and noted that the last four years weren't the easiest.
"Years of hard work finally paying off and being able to celebrate with my fellow graduates. It was difficult. I took a couple of breaks, but I got it done."
Amani Sloley is walking away as a music graduate. He said the day means a lot.
"I'm excited to share with my friends and especially just kind of having it as a culminating event to my degree.
"So it's been like a lot of exploration in myself - what I want to do with music and what I want to see in the future."
Casey Van de Sande is a graduate of the outdoor rec and natural science program at the university.
After five long years of work, Van de Sande is grateful for the experiences he's had.
"My parents are here to watch me finish up, which is great . . . it's been amazing. I've gone on some amazing trips and got some great experiences through the course."
Erin Lennie and Jordon Bevis are roommates and classmates from the outdoor rec and geography program at Lakehead.
The pair have enjoyed their time at the institution.
"It's a nice celebration of our four years that we spent at school. And with Covid and everything, it's nice that we actually got to see it through and be here with everyone today," said Lennie
"I think moving to Thunder Bay was also huge, and we met so many amazing people," added Bevis.
"The community here is fantastic, especially the outdoors community, and it's been an awesome four years for us."
A rally of students and faculty members was held outside the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium in support of Palestine.
The group was calling on the university to "disclose and divest."
Andrew Wilson, a student activist at the university, spoke to TBnewswatch about why the group decided to rally on the same day as convocation.
"We are celebrating their special day too. We're giving them rounds of applause, we're giving them cheers and we're giving the students who are graduating, who might be scared or uncomfortable to show their voice a safe place to do it. So what we are not doing is trying to take away from their day at all."
Wilson explained why the group was there in the first place.
"The main reason we decided to have this today is that so many people reached out to us and asked us, 'how can we help and what can we do' to help convince Lakehead University to divest from all sorts of things like military development, defence development and especially the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
"We just want to be sure that this can be a university that we're proud of, a university that won't be funding genocide, because we don't want our tuition going to that.
Wilson said 150 students and 100 faculty members signed an open letter in support of Palestine.
