UK Students Come Together to Create Video Message for the Class of 2020
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 8, 2020) — Today marks the final day of the spring 2020 semester, and it also would have been the first day of University of Kentucky’s now-postponed Commencement Ceremonies.
To honor this milestone during a time when in-person gatherings are not permitted, a group of students came together to produce a video message for the UK Class of 2020.
The project was written and organized by May 2020 graduates Sally Martin and Michaela Taylor, and produced by Ben Branscum, a student worker with UK Marketing and Brand Strategy.
Students in the video include (by order of appearance):
Sally Martin
Michael Hamilton
Jessica Waters
Cameron Asher
Camryn Lee and Talbott
Sadie and Hanna Long
Ramya Kondaveeti
Chynna Hibbitts
Leah Edmond
Tony Riley
Amani Shalash
Bailey Vandiver
Elijah Caldwell
Michaela Taylor
While the May graduates will be invited to a future in-person ceremony (to be scheduled at a later time), the university and its colleges are celebrating the graduates this week in nontraditional ways. This includes two daily broadcasts through Saturday, May 9, on student radio station WRFL 88.1 FM featuring the reading of all undergraduate, master’s, professional and doctoral students’ names who applied for a May or August degree. During the final broadcast at 3 p.m. Saturday, UK President Eli Capilouto and UK Student Government Association President Michael Hamilton will give special addresses to the graduates. Listeners can access the broadcasts via radio at 88.1 FM or via streaming from the WRFL website: http://wrfl.fm. For more information and to see a full schedule, visit go.uky.edu/grad2020.
UK is also highlighting graduate stories on its social media channels this week. Graduates are encouraged to follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and share their own special moments by using the hashtag, #UKGrad.
For more information about virtual celebrations, including individual college plans, visit https://uknow.uky.edu/uk-happenings/uk-celebrates-may-2020-grads.
About the May 2020 Graduating Class
The UK Board of Trustees approved the conferral of 5,177 degrees at its meeting on May 5, including 3,700 undergraduate, 1,002 graduate and 475 professional degree candidates for May 2020. These numbers reflect degree candidates, not individual graduates (some graduates earn more than one degree, thereby being counted as a degree candidate multiple times). Degrees will be certified by the UK registrar, ensuring individuals have satisfactorily completed all requirements. The most up-to-date information is available through UK and Institutional Research, Analytics and Decision Support.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.