Bucks IU Class of 2020 Graduation Goes Virtual

Due to the man­dat­ed school clo­sures and the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic response efforts, the Bucks IU moved its June 2020 grad­u­a­tion cer­e­monies to a vir­tu­al plat­form. The pre­re­cord­ed video includ­ed com­mence­ment speech­es by Dr. Mark Hoffman, Bucks IU Executive Director and Mr. John D’Angelo, President of the Bucks IU Board of Directors. Representing the class of 2020, John (Vinh) Tran of Quakertown School District deliv­ered a heart­felt and inspi­ra­tional mes­sage to his fel­low grad­u­ates. In his speech, Vinh proud­ly shared his achieve­ments dur­ing his edu­ca­tion­al jour­ney at the Bucks IU includ­ing serv­ing the local com­mu­ni­ty by stock­ing the local pantry (Pennridge FISH Organization, Inc., Perkasie, PA) and deliv­er­ing meals to com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers through the Meals on Wheels pro­gram. Vinh’s expe­ri­ences with job train­ing, vol­un­teer work and build­ing rela­tion­ships with­in the com­mu­ni­ty pre­pared him to move in a sup­port­ive liv­ing home in Quakertown, PA. In his clos­ing remarks, Vinh thanked his Bucks IU team mem­bers for all their sup­port and for coach­ing him to be a depend­able, hard work­er. Vinh enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly addressed his fel­low grad­u­ates with, “You did it!”

The 2020 Graduates were announced and rec­og­nized by Dr. Jennifer Hertwig, Bucks IU Program Director of School Aged Services. For the clos­ing remarks of the cer­e­mo­ny, Dr. Janean Ciancia, Acting Principal, Bucks IU at Samuel Everitt remind­ed the Class of 2020 that they are capa­ble of mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of those around them and in the com­mu­ni­ty. The vir­tu­al grad­u­a­tion con­clud­ed with gen­uine mes­sages from Bucks IU team mem­bers con­grat­u­lat­ing the grad­u­ates on their achieve­ments and wish­ing them all the best in their future endeav­ors. Their heart­felt wish­es to these won­der­ful stu­dents were bol­stered with fun signs and even a few tears!