Coming Home

In March 2020, onsite classes were indefinitely suspended due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. This ultimately led to an almost two-year break from the Ateneo campus for all of its students and most of its staff. The graduation ceremonies for all of its seniors were given the same treatment, with the entirety of its program being conducted online. This included the Baccalaureate Mass, Commencement Rites, and Commencement Exercises for all of its graduates. In short, online graduation ceremonies have been the standard protocol  this whole pandemic.

In April 2022, the Vice President of the Loyola Schools (VPLS), Dr. Maria Luz C. Vilches, announced that the graduation ceremonies for Batch 2022 will be held onsite. This announcement, of course, is based on the assumption that the COVID-19 alert levels do not worsen and government protocols remain the same. The graduation ceremonies for Batch 2022 are  set to be held on August 27 and 29, 2022. The Baccalaureate Mass, alongside the Commencement Rites, will be held on Saturday, August 27, with the theme "Hinubog ng mapanghamong panahon, magmahal at magtaya nang may tapang at pag-asa." The Commencement Exercises for each of the Loyola Schools will also be held on these days, with SOH, SOSE, and GBSEALD Exercises on the 27th, and SOSS and SOM Exercises on the 29th.

This announcement aroused excitement among the student body, with previous graduating batches 2020 and 2021 also holding out for the possibility of an onsite ceremony.  A forum was held with them last May 14, 2022, and it was announced that an onsite recognition ceremony will also be held for these batches on August 28, 2022.

Last June 9, 2022, a memo from the Office of the VPLS announced that the Commencement Speaker for the Class of 2022 would be no other than the Honorable Maria Leonor G. Robredo, the 14th Vice President of the Philippines. Her speech will be delivered during the Loyola Schools-wide Commencement Rites on Saturday, August 27, 2022, at 9:00 AM.

Two long years have passed since the seniors of the Ateneo de Manila University Loyola Schools could walk the hallways with their graduation togas and caps in tow. But this year, these three batches of graduating seniors will finally come home and experience setting foot on the campus as graduates one last time.