Page 21 - Salesianum - Distinguished Gentleman - Summer 2020

SALESIANUM’S 114TH COMMENCEMENT, NBUT FIRST VIRTUAL GRADUATION
othing evokes more emotion, piece right during the pandemic was or conjures up a more a huge priority for us, but for seniors quintessentially Salesianum and their families, nothing is more
picture, than 250 Salesian Gentle- men, clad in white dinner jackets, lined up in precise rows. Salesianum’s graduation is a ceremony unlike any other, one that is frequently lauded, by alumni and parents alike, as the best graduation out there.
So what to do when this unique
rite of passage, with 1,800 people stuffed into a hot gym, is no
longer an option in a time of social distancing? “I’d be lying if I said this didn’t cause quite a few nights of lost sleep,” explains Salesianum Principal Rev. Chris Beretta, OSFS. “Obviously getting the academic
important than graduation. We needed to do something great for the guys, making sure that whatever we did still felt like a Salesianum graduation. We all know there’s nothing like it. It is an important ceremony at every level of education, but we all know it holds a unique place in the Salesian pantheon.
And so that was the lens we used to calibrate everything we did.”
Indeed, Salesianum may be closed, but on May 29, the class of 2020 graduated in a ceremony that was presented live with an audience of 1,300 households and has since been
viewed more than 8,000 times.
For Father Beretta, the goal
to successfully produce a live graduation was forged early in the closure. “There’s something special
SALESIANUM. WHERE MODERN MEN BEGIN. 19