It’s graduation season at Royal Military College in Kingston,where four years of hard work is paying off for nearly 250 officer cadets.
Unlike past years, however, most of the pomp and ceremony has been shelved due to COVID-19. Instead, the Class of 2020 took part in a virtual convocation ceremony on Thursday.
Elodie Bedard is one of those graduates.
“The times called for this situation so we’re still just as proud and just as happy,” Bedard said.
Bedard watched the convocation ceremony from her home in Quebec City.
“It’s something that you start as a first year,” Bedard said.
“We’re taught very early on that team and teamwork is very important, and so to be able to celebrate this with my classmates, it’s an overwhelming feeling of just being proud and happy that we all made it.”
Another graduate to leave the officer cadet label behind is Jacques Pecora. He was in Aurora with his family taking in the ceremony and can’t say enough about his time at RMC.
“How to interact with people, work with superiors, manage teams, practice my leadership — it’s been remarkable.”
Pecora says members of the Class of 2020 are welcome to return to RMC to participate in future convocation ceremonies should they wish to receive their degrees in person.
Others that took part in the virtual convocation included the Minister of National Defence, Hon. Harjit S. Sajjan; Gen. Jonathan Vance, Chief of Defence Staff; as well as astronaut and graduate Chris Hadfield.
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