"Temple Made": Over 10,000 degrees handed out at commencement
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Commencement services continued Thursday at Temple University. The university handed out nearly 10,000 degrees this year.
"It's been a long four years. Maybe an extra year but we did it," Robbie Long said. "Like they say 'perseverance conquers.'"
For Temple graduates, "perseverance matters" is more than a slogan. As Long says, it's a way of life.
"It's a Philly thing you know man. We got the grit," Long said. "We start early and finish strong."
The business management student was among the 10,000 undergrad and graduate students to earn their degree this year.
"I'm just really happy and the faculty I've met and how they helped me through to get my degree," Phil Baldassari said.
The graduates come from 47 states and 115 countries. All of them with their own reason for choosing Temple.
For Ayanna Cannon, she says she wanted a friendly sibling rivalry.
"I just wanted to go against my sister because she went to Villanova so I wanted to be a rival," Cannon said.
"Because it's her day I'll let her have that," sister Shania Trammell said. "But I'm so immensely proud of her. I know that the future of education, especially for those with different learning abilities is safe in her hands."
For most of these students, their college career began in the fall of 2019 and now that they're leaving TU, it was brought up multiple times that they're going into a completely different world.
Many of these students were in the second semester of their freshman year when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. Most of them were forced to go home and didn't return to campus for several months but their perseverance paid off.
"It's been a long four years with COVID, just trying to fight the pandemic, it's been so great but it's worth it at the end of the day," Cannon said.
"We're calling on you to create a society, a more just society, so everyone can succeed here in the commonwealth of Pa. and across the country," Gov. Josh Shapiro said.
As they go out into the world, they are reminded of where they learned their grit from.
"You made it here today because you are tenacious, you are decisive, you did not give up," Joanne Epps, Temple's acting president, said. "You are Temple Made."
