As we all know due to the Covid-19 pandemic normal life has changed, but for many HSS seniors they missed out on something they had been working up to their whole life, Graduation. So on June 6th 2020, Georgia Vibhag Kishor Pramukh Abhinay Sharma Ji recommended to hold an e-graduation for all the seniors of 2020 in the Southeast Sambhag. He and Srishti Talati assembled a team of kishors from all the Vibhags in Southeast. This included Mrunal Munshi (North Carolina), Mrunal Dongre (North Carolina), Yukta Kulkarni (Florida), and Gargi Konteti (Georgia). With this group of kishors/kishories, they reached out to all the parents regarding the event. In order to keep it a surprise, all the seniors were told that it was a trial graduation for the National level graduation.
They also planned khels and came up with a game plan as to how the graduation was supposed to run only a few hours before the actual event. When it was time for the graduation they had all the seniors introduce themselves. Their parents shared their speeches and everyone could feel their emotions. Next, the guests shared a few words. About 50 people attended the event from all over the Southeast. There were swayamsevaks/sevikas from the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee that attended in order to celebrate the class of 2020. Once, everyone got to know all the seniors. The kishors leading the graduation moved on to khel where everyone played- superlatives, guess the person. After khel, seniors gave a brief speech on all they had missed due to Covid-19. Once everyone had a good laugh, there was a graduation speech from Sonal Jape Ji, and the graduation ended with everyone throwing their caps in the air as if everyone in the Southeast Sambhag had graduated with them, and the seniors were asked to move their tassels from left to right. Then for the grand finale, Abhinay Ji “handed” each senior a diploma virtually and finally, the class of 2020 had graduated.
The event was attended by around 50 people, of which, 8 were graduating Seniors. This was indeed a unique experience for all and everyone enjoyed this e-graduation event.