Class of 2017: UTM celebrates its newest grads

There were smiles, cheers and plenty of selfies as U of T Mississauga welcomed the newest members of its alumni community at the annual spring convocation ceremonies at Convocation Hall at U of T’s St. George campus.

“Today the University of Toronto is formally recognizing your hard work, your accomplishments, your perseverance, and this milestone,” said Professor Ulrich Krull, interim vice-president, U of T, and principal, UTM, as he welcomed the graduands and their guests. “Each of you, as a member of the graduating class, is joining an extraordinary family of University of Toronto alumni.”

Convocation Plaza was decked out in celebratory blue and gold in recognition of thecampus’ golden jubilee. The number of graduates seemed to have a special significance—1,967 undergraduate students crossed the podium at Convocation Hall—accidentally coinciding with 1967, the year the campus was founded. It is the largest graduating class in the campus’ history, representing 147 programs and 17 academic departments. A further 95 graduands from UTM's five professional graduate studies program graduated in the spring ceremonies. The new grads join a worldwide community of 54,000 proud UTM alumni.

New grads were able to share their excitement over social media as Snapchat highlighted the celebrations in its first-ever Canadian “My Campus Snapchat Story” by aggregating posts from Convocation into a timeline of the celebration.

Honorary degrees were granted to biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant. Other convocation speakers were Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie and two campus alumni, filmmaker Richie Mehta and Canadian media executive Kirstine Stewart.

For more Convocation 2017 stories, check out profiles of UTM graduands Dana Britton, Nolan Anderson, Mehak Kawatra, Rachele Marcand and Leonard Lyn.