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San Antonio College held a fall commencement ceremony for the first time last month. Credit: Courtesy \/ Alamo Colleges District<\/p>\nAlamo Colleges District wants to offer two graduation ceremonies per year \u2014 one in the fall and one in the summer \u2014 in hopes of making the milestone event more accessible to students and increasing participation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
San Antonio College and Northwest Vista College held its first-ever fall commencement ceremonies in December, joining St. Philip\u2019s College, which until recently was the only one of the five colleges holding two commencements a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[We were] looking at ensuring that we honor students who graduated in the fall, for them to be able to celebrate with their families,\u201d said Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Mike Flores. \u201cAnd in particular one of the things that we looked at was the fall graduates and the participation rate the following spring six months later.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Philip\u2019s College has held a fall semester graduation since at least 2022, and it joined Northwest Vista in graduating its first ever recipients of bachelor\u2019s degrees last fall.<\/p>\n
Together the five colleges \u2014 San Antonio, Northwest Vista, Northeast Lakeview, St. Philip\u2019s, and Palo Alto \u2014 serve nearly 90,000 students in the San Antonio region. And while enrollment continues to increase, so have the number of graduating students making for longer graduation ceremonies in the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Francisco Solis, president of San Antonio College, said that participation of fall graduates needed improvement. Last spring, the college had about 300 fall graduates who participated in the May ceremony. But this number fell far short of the total number of students who qualified to participate in the spring graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n
San Antonio College held a fall commencement ceremony for the first time last month. Credit: Courtesy \/ Alamo Colleges District<\/p>\n
This fall, nearly 630 students signed up to participate in the December graduation ceremony and picked up their cap and gowns. On graduation day about 550 students ended up participating. But even after some losses, the increase from previous years is a hopeful indicator to his team, Solis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially since so many of our students are first generation, and for many of their families, they are the first to go to college. So we really wanted to create a celebration for them,\u201d Solis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n