By Mark Lawrence G. Articuna
After two years of pandemic restrictions, the West Visayas State University (WVSU) held its 2022 Commencement Exercises for Undergraduate Level face-to-face at the WVSU Cultural Center on July 21, 2022.
The graduating Class of 2022 was the first batch of graduates under the new K-12 Curriculum and the new college curriculum, with 1,177 graduating students, 793 of whom are academic awardees. 324 of the graduates were from the College of Education (COE).
Dr. Joselito F. Villaruz, SUC President IV, introduced this year’s commencement speaker, Atty. Emilio L. Maranon III, an election lawyer, a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science alumnus, magna cum laude, and the university’s “Most Outstanding Graduate” in 2005.
“When you go out of this university, people will question you. People will doubt you. People will underestimate you, but I am confident that having been trained in West, we are always bigger from these challenges. And when wheat is separated from the chaff, we always emerge victorious because we are from West,” said Atty. Marañon III.
Atty. Marañon also added, “Whatever I achieved is proof that there is no limit, there is no ceiling of what we can reach, of what we can do, wherever we go.”
Tedric Dave E. Senosa, a Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Mathematics Summa Cum Laude, and this year’s Most Outstanding Graduate, led the graduating class in saying the Graduate’s Prayer.
The COE, known as the Center of Excellence in Teacher Education in the region, has produced four (4) summa cum laude, 124 magna cum laude, and 107 cum laude graduates this academic year.
Aside from Senosa, three other summa cum laude awardees hail from BSEd Major in Social Studies: Marcus S. Llanera, three-time Education Student Council chairperson from 2019 to 2022; Euthel Jhon A. Finlac, Student of the Year and Journalism awardee; and Hans Luigi B. Sayno.
“I am proud that despite the changes and challenges brought by the pandemic, we stood our ground, moved forward and emerged victoriously. As the pioneer batch of K to 12 and the first batch of pandemic graduates, our journey was never easy but it is, in all sense, worth taking,” said Jayne Paul I. Sucob, BSEd Major in Science, Magna Cum Laude, and a University Senior Curriculum Council (USCC) Service Awardee.
As the occasion went on inside the Cultural Center, family members of the graduates attended the ceremonies from outside and viewed the proceedings through two big screens in light of the university’s graduation ceremony guidelines which aim to maintain the observance of minimum health protocols such as social distancing.