LPU Davao Junior College’s Virtual Graduation Goes Viral, Draws Praise from Netizens
Clips from the virtual graduation have been making rounds in social media sites particularly on Facebook and TikTok.
The Junior College (SHS) of LPU Davao successfully concluded their first-ever graduation ceremony, albeit virtually, last August 14, 2021. The said ceremony is said to be historic for several reasons.
First, the graduation served as the graduation ceremony of the Junior College Trailblazer Class or pioneering batch of LPU Davao. First time that the institution conducted a much-awaited event in every student’s life via online platform to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and in line with the health protocols set by the city government and the national government.
Second, the virtual graduation ceremony also caught the attention of netizens due to its “innovation, creativity, and class”.
In a Facebook post by Mac Ericson Cinco, he stated, “Hands down sa Multimedia Team ng LPU Davao to come-up sa ganitong katyagang editing ng kanilang virtual graduation (Hands down to the Multimedia Team of LPU Davao for coming up such a detailed editing for their virtual graduation)”. As of writing, the said post has over 27,000 reactions and 15,000 shares on Facebook.
One of the Junior College Trailblazer Class graduates, Camille Jane F. Acierto, posted on Sunday, August 15 via TikTok, a video clip of her receiving the diploma and award which has since gone viral. The video clip is currently gaining traction with over 500,000 views, 62,000 likes, and 2,000 shares.
LPU Davao Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Felipe G. Balingit, Jr., said that as much as the school wants to conduct the traditional way of graduation ceremony and see students walk down the aisle and stage with honor and pride, however, due to the ongoing fight against COVID-19, it’s not possible.
“We, the LPU Davao team did our best to simulate the traditional graduation, the LPU way. For our students and their parents/guardians. They deserve no less but the best,” Dr. Balingit emphasized.
Samuel John Guerra, the over-all creative head and editor of the talked-about virtual graduation and the Graphic Artist of LPU Davao, has been receiving messages of praise both from the academe and netizens. According to Guerra, message requests have been popping up since Saturday with people looking for the graphic artist responsible for such an amazing output.
“Honestly, the goal is to just finish the video output on time and to give the students the best and memorable graduation ceremony even if it’s virtual. We did not expect this to go viral at all,” he said. He further added that he wouldn’t have done this without the help of the people from the academe particularly the Junior College (SHS) faculty headed by Dr. Marlyn D. Biton, the Junior College (SHS) Coordinator and the Over-all Director of the Virtual First Commencement Exercises, Mr. Are Jay Castro, and staff.
The LPU Davao Junior College Virtual Graduation nearly has 20,000 views and 500 shares on LPU Davao’s official Facebook account. You can also stream the virtual graduation of Junior College via LPU Davao’s official YouTube account.