VCOM View Vol 10 No 1

Celebrating with the First Virtual Graduation Experience I n April of 2020, VCOM’s administration and employees who were in charge of various aspects of graduation met via a video conference to discuss the cancellation of the live

Provost, Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, DO welcomed the audience. A greeting from the American Osteopathic Association was given by Timothy Kowalski, DO, FACN, VCOM Vice Provost for Professional and Public Relations. The three campus Deans gave their best wishes to the graduates: Jan M. Willcox, DO, VCOM-Virginia; Matthew D. Cannon, DO, VCOM-Carolinas, and Elizabeth Palmarozzi, DO, VCOM- Auburn. The 2020 Class president of each campus spoke to their fellow graduates. The keynote speaker was VCOM’s founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, John G. Rocovich, Jr. JD, LLM, who talked about their future in medicine. For the 18 total videos created for the virtual graduation of all three campuses, over 9,700 viewers played a total of 31,869 videos and downloaded videos 807 times. This data was counted over the time period of May 1-September 23, 2020. ■

Commencement events. COVID-19 restrictions necessitated creating meaningful virtual events held on each campus’s original graduation dates and times. Regalia and requests were sent out to the 502 members of the Class of 2020, so they could send residency information and photos back to the College. Speakers were recorded remotely, video slide shows that featured speakers and conferring of the degrees, were created in the time period of about two weeks. The guest speaker for the Military Promotion Ceremony, was Major Frederic A. Rawlins III, DO, USAF, MC, a graduate from the VCOM- Virginia Class of 2010.

For each of the Commencement Ceremonies, VCOM’s President and

You can view the Class of 2020 graduation ceremonies at www.vcom.edu/students/graduation

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