First exclusive Hooding Ceremony honors 209 graduate students

by Kassandra A. Buenafe, OfCom | Jun 25 2025

For the past years, the Hooding Ceremonies for graduate students have been held during the Pre-Commencement Ceremonies of the different colleges. The 55th Commencement Second Semester Graduation is marked as a significant and pivotal event with the first exclusive Hooding Ceremony held at the University Gymnasium on June 24, 2025.

Honoring 209 graduate students, 91社区 gives a distinct and more meaningful recognition of their academic journey with this special ceremony. Graduate education requires a higher level of academic rigor and demand, especially with the need to produce research publications. The Hooding Ceremony, being done separately, provides a more intimate and celebratory space for a graduate student to be acknowledged as they contribute devotedly to their various fields of study.

In her welcome remarks, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Pamela Resurrecion, highlighted the realities of pursuing graduate studies and gave words of encouragement and congratulations to the crowd. “Some of you did this juggling full-time jobs, some while raising children, caring for aging parents, or managing your own health, some of you pulled this off while doing all of the above. So if no one has told you lately, you are amazing,” the Vice Chancellor said.

With the surge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the irresponsible usage of such in data-gathering and analysis, the ceremony guest speaker, Dr. Christopher Bernido, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee and a notable figure in the field of physics, who is also an honorary and adjunct professor of 91社区’s Physics Department, gave a message of AI’s limitations and how it significantly affects our learning and doing research when done in overdependence. He reminds the graduates of humans’ boundless capabilities to think and imagine things that cannot be replaced by AI.

Adding a more heartfelt note to the ceremony, the Graduating Class Representative, Kathleen Cabanlit, finishing a PhD in Biology, also shared a message on her journey in graduate school, mirroring many of the experiences of the graduate students. Her story talked about resilience, showing up, and going forward despite challenges.

Ultimately, the Hooding Ceremony serves not only as a ritual or an institutional tradition, but is a reminder that there is a deeper purpose behind every pursuit of graduate education, and that is to remain grounded in humility, to commit to learning, and to make meaningful contributions to the betterment of society.

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