{"id":55684,"date":"2020-06-18T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=55684"},"modified":"2020-06-12T08:54:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:54:44","slug":"%ef%bb%bffhsu-bringing-graduating-tigers-families-friends-in-for-a-hashtag-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=55684","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffFHSU bringing graduating Tigers, families, friends in for a hashtag celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Perhaps you are thinking that spring commencement ceremonies have come and gone. Well if you enjoy the delight of celebrating the accomplishments of your friends and loved ones, you will want to pay special attention to the university\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> and social media tomorrow (June 19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally,\nstudents walk across the commencement stage in May and receive an empty diploma\ncover. Following the ceremonies, faculty and staff hang up their regalia,\nfinish grading papers and exams, post grades, certify degree completions, and\nthen order the significant pieces of paper that officially declare one is a\ngraduate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack\nof a 2020 commencement ceremony this past month was clearly a huge disappointment.\nIt weighed heavy on my heart. So many disappointed graduates and families felt the\nloss of not being able to gather in Gross Memorial Coliseum and take that\nvictorious walk across the stage amidst the love of family and friends and the\npride of our faculty and staff. We were, however, well equipped with many\naccolades and social media posts to declare \u201cwell done\u201d during the month of\nMay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we are\nnot yet done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Fort\nHays State, we wanted to go the extra mile to really commemorate the delivery\nof the diploma. So, for the past several weeks, 90-plus faculty and staff\ngathered to pack a special care package for each of our approximately 1,800\ngraduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each box \u2013\nwhite, with custom FHSU logo shipping tape and a Tiger sticker \u2013 contains a\nstudent\u2019s official cap and gown (and hood for master\u2019s and doctoral grads), a commencement\nprogram and, of course, the coveted diploma. It is a celebration kit in a box \u2013\neach personalized and packed in black and gold tissue paper with love and\nadmiration for our graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To aid in a\nproper exhibition of Tiger pride, each box also comes with a Tiger decal for\nsticking on something prominent and an enameled metal Tiger pin for wearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To aid in a\nproper celebration, each box contains confetti for throwing and a horn for\nblowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot\nwait for the students to open their care packages!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow will\nbe the official second round of congratulations to honor our spring and summer 2020\ngraduates \u2013 a well-deserved encore. Our goal is to capture the energy and joy\nthat families share during a typical commencement and create a reprise of memorable\nsocial media posts and, most importantly, family celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with\nreopening plans expanding throughout the country \u2013 there are even more\nopportunities to make the day a big family celebration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please\njoin us to celebrate our newest alumni. Graduates and their families have been\nencouraged to post videos of their personal celebrations between 9 a.m. and 3\np.m. using the event hashtag \u2013 #TigerGrad. The Alumni Association, faculty, and\nstaff have posted images, video congratulations and encouragement messages. A\nfriend of mine even built a stage in her backyard so her niece could wear her\ncap and gown and walk across a stage. I love it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nencourage families to feel free to deliver their own commencement speeches to\nacknowledge the hard work it took for their graduates to earn their degrees and\nto wish them well in the future. And of course \u2013 don\u2019t forget the balloons,\nflowers, and cake!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations, class of 2020! We cannot say it enough. We are proud of you. We look forward to seeing your future successes and to forging strong ties between you and this university. Enjoy your FHSU Commencement celebration packages. Remember, as you move forward and start something new, we will always be ready to cheer you on and help in any way possible, and we will always be with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you are thinking that spring commencement ceremonies have come and gone. Well if you enjoy the delight of celebrating the accomplishments of your friends… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55685,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55684\/revisions\/55685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}