The University of Missouri-Kansas City emerged from more than a year of pandemic isolation in spectacular fashion, as the community celebrated the degrees earned by more than 2,300 graduates in a historic two-day commencement celebration at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals.
Kansas City’s university partnered with Kansas City’s beloved baseball team to create an unprecedented pandemic coming-out party in true major-league fashion, complete with the giant CrownVision screen broadcasting each individual graduate larger than life to all guests in the stadium. In addition to the Class of 2021, UMKC invited graduates from the Class of 2020 to return to their alma mater to celebrate their own achievements in person, an opportunity they had missed because of the risks of COVID-19 at its worst.
It was a celebration of not just academic accomplishment, but of perseverance through multiple significant challenges.
“Considering the unique challenges you overcame to get here, it is very fair to say that the classes of 2020 and 2021 are major league in every respect.”
“Considering the unique challenges you overcame to get here, it is very fair to say that the classes of 2020 and 2021 are major league in every respect,” said Chancellor Mauli Agrawal. “From the great recession that arose when most of you were children; to the unprecedented global pandemic from which we are beginning to emerge, you have been challenged like few graduating classes before. You are here today because you refused to be defeated by those challenges.”
Graduates in the Saturday ceremonies celebrated under overcast skies but stayed dry. Sunday's ceremonies brought rain, but it failed to dampen the spirits of the graduates or the guests who cheered them.
UMKC Provost Jennifer Lundgren acted as grand marshal of the ceremony.
"We are so grateful to John Sherman and the Kansas City Royals for giving us this opportunity to celebrate in the majestic Kauffman Stadium," Lundgren said. "We certainly feel at home surrounded by blue and gold."
UMKC alumna Mary Daly, Ph.D., president and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, delivered a commencement address that also focused on the unique situation of the two graduating classes.
“The pandemic has torn away the trappings of our normal lives,” she said. “Some of the revelations have been hard. Disparities, divisions, hate, a sense that there is too little for all of us and that we must each fight for our fair share. But we’ve also seen brightness, generosity, vulnerability.”
Because of their pandemic experience, she said the graduates “bring something critical, beyond your degrees and programs. You bring lived experience.”
“In you lies the power to demand something different,” she concluded. “The tragedy of the pandemic can be your strength, your superpower … I guarantee you this: If you do that, our children’s children will read about you. They’ll wonder how those heroes changed the world.”
“We are so grateful to John Sherman and the Kansas City Royals for giving us this opportunity to celebrate in the majestic Kauffman Stadium. We certainly feel at home surrounded by blue and gold.”
“The tragedy of the pandemic can be your strength, your superpower … I guarantee you this: If you do that, our children’s children will read about you. They’ll wonder how those heroes changed the world.”
