Alternative Commencement

Hamilton Heights 2019 Graduation High School Principal

By Paul Weller Tips & Tricks April 2, 2020

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Graduation should be a cherished moment honoring the hard work of seniors. However, COVID-19 has disrupted schools across the nation. We want to provide resources as districts review graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2020 and beyond. Here are a few options your district can utilize when adapting high school graduation.

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2019 Hamilton Heights Grduation Ceremony by CIESC

Live stream commencement without an audience

Avoid large crowds by live-streaming high school commencement to Facebook Live, YouTube, Instagram, or several other platforms. Live streaming will limit attendees to staff and your graduating class size. Facebook and YouTube are popular channels for broadcasting your event. We prefer YouTube since the live video can also be embedded onto your website and won't require visitors to login.

Pre-record 2020 Ceremony

Speeches from the Superintendent, Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and others can all be prerecorded individually at a studio or at home and then edited together to form a concise celebratory video. After all of the speeches, names can scroll across similar to credits at a movie theater.

Superintendent Welcome from Westfield Washington Schools created by CIESC

ISNA Slideshow created by CIESC

Celebratory Slideshow

Holding an adapted graduation ceremony might be unwieldy for some Indiana school districts. Schools could create shorter and simpler celebration videos with messages from teachers and a slideshow of seniors. For simple slideshows look into Animoto.com where you can upload pictures and select pre-built themes. School Public Relations staff could create their own videos with iMovie, OpenShot, or Windows Movie Maker. If you want to leave it to the pros, we can create custom animation slideshows inside of Adobe After Effects to create a polished look.

Student Slides

Consider displaying graduate information during pre-recorded or live ceremonies. Include the student's name, academic information, photos, and more. Full-screen displays can also be sent to your senior class as a special thank you, branded with your district logo.

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Student Graduate Slide example from MarchingOrder.com

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Has your district decided how to tackle high school graduation during these unprecedented times? Regardless of how schools handle alternative commencment ceremonies, we are here to help you. Contact us if you have questions creating engaging content. If you have additional resources for alternative graduations please share with us.

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