Where To Find the Graduation
You’re in your last semester, and it’s quickly coming to an end! You will be graduating from HCC and moving onto a bigger school. You’re restless, ruffling through your papers, cracking your books to find the necessary material to ace your final exams. But you’re as lost as a puppy when it comes to trying to figure out how the graduation process goes.
What is it like to graduate from a community college,? Is it like a high school graduation? How long will it take? What is the process?
What are the necessary documents and appointments to make? Who do you talk to?
Where is the graduation ceremony going to take place? When is it?
A source for this information is at HCC in the Registrar’s Office located in Lafayette Hall.
Graduation usually takes place in the springtime, and for 2016 it’s on Thursday, May 26.
Kentha Heng, staff associate at the registrar’s office at HCC, says that she had her graduation take place at the Bridgeport Harbor Yard Arena in the year 2010 and students were required to show up at 6 p.m. The graduation ceremony promptly started at 7 p.m.
“It isn’t automatic,” says Heng about the graduation process. Basically, it isn’t like a high school or elementary school graduation where students automatically graduate if they are successfully passing their classes to be considered eligible.
You have to APPLY to graduate and literally fill out a graduation form as well as an evaluation form and submit it to the registrar’s office before the graduation deadline.
Students can pick up a graduation form at the registrar’s office and go online to MY.COMMNET to fill out a graduation evaluation.
The awesome thing is, as graduating students of HCC, there are no fees or payments necessary for graduation. You won’t be paying for cap and gowns or tickets. All of those payments are covered as you first enroll as a student at HCC. The Dean of students Office notifies you as to when and where to pick up your tickets, cap and gown for the Commencement Ceremony.
Three students celebrating their graduation. (Photo by David Weintraub/Photo Researchers/Universal Images Group Rights. Courtesy of Brittanica Imagequest.)
Geoffrey Sheehan, a professor of Theater Arts here at HCC, usually announces the graduate’s names at the ceremony.
You’re probably asking yourself when should you start the process?
Heng says that you want to make sure you are down to only two outstanding classes before jumping into the graduation process and you want to make sure you’re on your last semester.
For example, if you’ve already finished most of your courses required for your degree program or certificate program and you are only left with two classes such as English or Math, you are safe to apply for graduation.
Even though the responsibility to graduate is on you and taking the steps necessary to get there may sound a bit far fetched, don’t worry. It’s not overwhelming. Tony Perez, another registrar associate at HCC says, “It’s a pretty smooth process. It was nice knowing I was able to complete something.”
In the end, graduating is one of the most proudest moments in one’s life.