JCA’s First Ever Online Graduation

by Allaine Ricci Tan

The last few months of senior year is arguably one of the most memorable days in one’s high school life. It’s when we are sent off from high school into the next chapters of our lives —spiritually through our retreat, academically through our work immersion and even emotionally through the annual Graduation Ball. Most of all, we finally get to celebrate the culmination of more than 12 years of hard work, grit, tears and laughter as we walk up the stage to get our diploma.

Graduation day is one of the biggest milestones in one’s life; it marks one’s coming of age and it’s what most of us dream of throughout our days in school. However, due to unprecedented events, the class of 2020 can no longer experience this.

Despite this, Jubilee Christian Academy persevered to do what they can with the limited resources at hand to conduct a memorable graduation ceremony for the class of 2020 through a virtually hosted and live streaming of the Online Baccalaureate and Graduation Ceremonies video curated by the Student Council Multimedia Team.

From May 18 to May 29, a series of  Zoom call  sessions were conducted to gather footage to mimic a regular graduation ceremony. This included the recording of the Baccalaureate and Graduation ceremonies program parts.

As for the filming of the graduates, Zoom meetings were conducted to film their participation in the video as per program parts like the Alumni oath taking, wherein select students were given a line from the oath while the rest were instructed to repeat. Admittedly, there were some difficulties caused by uncontrollable factors, like poor internet connection, background noises and scheduling. Despite these, the coordination and cooperation of all involved made it possible to achieve set goals for the video filming.

Aside from the designated Zoom calls, students were encouraged to provide pictures from Junior High School to Senior High School to be added into the video edit. These pictures will be able to pay homage to the various friendships built and memories made in the 6 years we spent in high school together.

All-in-all, despite the minor challenges in the process, the filming for the Graduation Video is evidenced of the efforts driven by love, that the school has put into the production to ensure that the class of 2020 is given the proper congratulatory ceremony as we are sent off into college. The efforts of the Student Council Multimedia Team and the School personnel in charge of the project shows the genuine love and care of the school for their students. Although class 2020 would not be able to experience the conventional graduation ceremony, they have this online Baccalaureate and Graduation video to reminisce on, alongside the memories that they have built throughout their stay in their beloved Jubilee.

To all SY 2019-2020 Graduates, Congratulations and God bless you as you open another chapter of your lives.