By Jimmy Robertson
Virginia Tech will hold in-person commencement ceremonies at Lane Stadium starting today, Wednesday, May 11, and running through Sunday. The university will celebrate both graduating seniors and graduate students and their families.
The commencement ceremonies begin with the Graduate School Commencement Ceremony at 3:30 p.m. today. The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine will honor its public health graduates a little later at 7 p.m.
The remainder of the week will include in-person ceremonies for those receiving degrees. All commencement ceremonies will be held at Lane Stadium unless otherwise noted.
On Friday, the University Commencement ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m. in Lane Stadium. Gov. Glenn Youngkin accepted the university’s invitation to deliver the commencement address, continuing the school’s tradition of inviting new Virginia governors to speak to graduates.
Three students will serve as the speakers at the graduate school ceremony: Neelma Bhatti, a Fulbright scholar earning a master’s degree in computer science and applications; Coogan Thompson, who is earning a Ph.D. in chemistry; and Lia Kelinsky-Jones, who is earning a Ph.D. in life sciences and agricultural education.
Virginia Tech will honor 40 associate degree candidates from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a total of 5,549 bachelor’s degree candidates from all colleges throughout the week.
This year, 3,144 graduating Hokies completed their baccalaureate degree programs with honors, having achieved cumulative GPAs of at least 3.4 on a 4.0 scale.
Business information technology tops the list of most popular majors among this year’s graduating seniors, followed by computer science; mechanical engineering; human nutrition, foods, and exercise; and finance.
Here’s a look at the number of bachelor’s degrees being awarded from each college:
College of Engineering: 1,655
Pamplin College of Business: 1,053
College of Science: 854
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences: 846
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: 548
College of Architecture and Urban Studies: 351
College of Natural Resources and Environment: 191
Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine: 51*
*Note: The Bachelor of Science in Public Health is offered by the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is recognizing 250 graduates from its program. Of those, 158 will be entering service in the military as commissioned officers: 76 in the U.S. Army, 39 in the U.S. Navy, 35 in the U.S Air Force, and eight in the U.S. Marine Corps. In addition, 56 are Citizen-Leader Track graduates.
In all, 830 students will be participating in the graduate school ceremonies, including 710 in Blacksburg and 120 in the Washington, D.C., area. Some 200 Ph.D. recipients are expected for hooding at the Blacksburg commencement with an additional 17 at the Washington, D.C., commencement.
Here’s a look at the number of graduate degrees being awarded:
Ph.D’s: 286
Ed.D’s: 29
Master’s degrees: 880
Education specialists: 4
Advanced Graduate Certificates: 222
The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine plans to hand out a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree to 120 recipients on Friday. The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine honored 41 graduates at its ceremony May 7.
In addition, Virginia Tech will be hosting eight cultural achievement ceremonies throughout the week. Those include Aliyah (a celebration of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students); American Indian and Indigenous (for native students); APIDA (for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American students); Donning of the Kente (for those of African American heritage); First Together (for first-generation undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. candidates); Gesta Latina (for student of Hispanic or Latino descent); Disabilities Community; Lavender (for LGBTQ+ graduates), veterans (for student graduates who are veterans of military service), and Recovery Community (for student graduates who have overcome addictions).
