As fall graduation season sets in across area colleges, students remain grateful that in-person ceremonies remain possible under the specter of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“I was definitely worried about it,” Vladimir Sokol, a fresh graduate of the University of Toledo’s College of Engineering said about the possibility of having virtual graduation instead of the live ceremony Saturday. “You do all this work and then you don’t get the recognition? That’s kind of awful. So I’m glad that we managed to get an in-person one.”

In-person ceremonies for students who have had years of their lives and education affected by the pandemic occurred Friday at Owens Community College, Friday and Saturday at Bowling Green State University, and Friday and Saturday at the University of Toledo.

Across three ceremonies at Savage Arena, 1,968 Rockets received degrees, including 1,360 bachelor’s degrees, 41 associate degrees, and 567 graduate degrees.

Undergraduates at UT’s two ceremonies Saturday were treated to a keynote address from Tony Bova. Mr. Bova is a 2013 UT graduate in chemistry who went on to co-found mobius pbc, a startup company specializing in developing renewable chemicals and materials from organic waste.

Mr. Bova addressed the gathered graduates about his educational journey that started when poor high-school grades prompted him to go straight into the work force, after which hardships associated with the Great Recession in 2009 pushed him back to school to start college at age 25.

“Whether you realize it or not, you have learned how to learn, how to respond to adversity, and how to shape your own future,” Mr. Bova told to the afternoon event, relaying how a series of “setbacks” in his life turned out to be opportunities to improve himself and seek bigger and better opportunities.

One graduate, Amerra Bryson, shared a story similar to Mr. Bova’s. At age 33, the Toledo police officer graduated Saturday with a degree in criminal justice.

“It’s exciting,” Ms. Bryson, a Toledo native, said of her graduation, which was a long time coming.

Ms. Bryson initially enrolled at UT in 2011, but withdrew to enter Toledo’s police academy before recently coming back to complete her degree studies. Her reasons for coming back were many, but were always rooted in the community she serves in her day job.

“I wanted to help out, give back to the community and become more well-rounded,” she said.

Mr. Sokol, a native of Parma, Ohio, took a more traditional route through the university’s 4½-year civil engineering program, but the honor of fall commencement is no less sweet.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” he said. “It’s like you are working all the time and constantly thinking about school and classes and then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re done. Here’s a cap and gown and a little piece of paper.’ It’s a good time though. You have your family coming out and they get to see the culmination of your work over four years.”

After graduation, Mr. Sokol is taking a full time job at Rudolph-Libbe as a project engineer, a feat he sees as an accomplished goal which resonates in an academically rigorous and competitive school, among his many smart and driven classmates.

That sense of accomplishment was echoed by faculty and administration, both from speakers at the Savage Arena lectern and those in the crowd.

Kennedy Doro, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, came to the University of Toledo in 2019 from positions in higher education in Nigeria, Canada, and Germany and attended his first Toledo commencement Saturday.

“It’s interesting to be able to be here to celebrate our students who were graduating,” Mr. Doro said, reflecting how he specifically wanted to come to support a few of his students, something he feels is one of his essential duties as an educator.

Mr. Doro was one to point out that students in the class of 2021 had to deal with the extra barrier and accomplishment of overcoming the coronavirus pandemic, which filtered up to his own job as a teacher.

“For every person it was a big challenge,” he said. “We were not prepared for it, but we had to rise up to the task. We started the semester with the plan of doing things in person and we had to adapt the syllabus and the teaching style, but in the end I think we all rose up with the support of the university and colleagues to do the best we can.

“Most of the encouragement I got was from my students,” Mr. Doro continued. “It was just the fact that we could really talk and share our challenges even in class sessions. They are here in spite of the challenges they faced over the last two years.”

First Published December 18, 2021, 11:31 p.m.