CLINTON, Iowa. (KWQC) - Seniors all over the country are seeing very different types of graduation ceremonies, missing out on a day they've been looking forward to for years. Jodi Shanafelt from Clinton, Iowa has been waiting for this day for decades and is now graduating virtually.
Seniors all over the country are seeing very different types of graduation ceremonies, missing out on a day they've been looking forward to for years. Jodi Shanafelt from Clinton, Iowa has been waiting for this day for decades and is now graduating virtually.
Shanafelt graduated from Clinton High School in the 1980s and never got a chance to finish college. She's working towards her bachelor's degree in Human Resources. A virtual commencement ceremony isn't the same though, she says. "It doesn't hold that same importance to me to sit in the gymnasium for an hour sweating so you can walk across that stage to get your diploma. That’s the moment I'm missing and many others are missing. I just put a little more into it because I waited longer to get it," she shares.
She would have walked across the same stage 32 years later, and the stage her kids walked on too. "It’s crazy to think I’d be doing it again with my children in the audience and my fiance Darrell," Shanafelt says her fiance helped push her to finish college because he knew it was something she wanted to do.
Receiving straight A's, Shanafelt was on the president's list and received honors chords. Her daughter gave her a card that said, "It's not about the diploma but the special person who worked so hard to earn it."
While Shanafelt understands the reason the ceremony was canceled, she wishes there could have been some way to celebrate: "why couldn't we have had something in an outdoor field and have a limited number? It would've been wonderful. I wish I could change it, but I can't."
Shanafelt says the college offered the chance to walk with the class of 2021 next year, but the moment won't be the same. "I feel so bad, so bad for the seniors for high school and for college graduation in general. Then there’s those of us that are nontraditional. I’m nearly 50 years old. I’m so proud and it took me so long to do, but I've accomplished it."
After waiting for 32 years, Shanafelt feels her big moment is gone. "Honestly, I think it’s one of the most disappointing parts of what I've been looking forward to. All these years thinking I’ll be able to graduate from college and show my parents, my other relatives just how important it was to me. And now I had waited so long to do so. None of the parents is here anymore," explains Shanafelt. She says she would have loved to have her older relatives see her achieve this milestone. "My aunt Sue, she would've been crying. She would've been very proud," says Shanafelt. She says her aunt Sue went to college right after high school and worked at a hospital, "She was the grandmother to my children and a mother figure to me," she shares. Sue passed away about two years ago and never got to see Jodi walk across the stage. However, Shanafelt says her family members will be watching from above.
Shanafelt encourages anyone thinking about college to finish, "just do it, take the leap. It’s completely worth it."
Clinton Community College hosted a virtual ceremony on its Facebook page on Monday night. They included traditional speeches, music, and read the names of every graduate.
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May 19, 2020 at 06:08AM
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Local non-traditional senior saddened she can't walk across the graduation stage, 32 years later - KWQC-TV6
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