About a thousand people attended UC Berkeley’s winter commencement at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley on Saturday.
The commencement included students from several doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate programs including economics, electrical engineering, computer sciences, and political science.
The commencement started with a performance of the national anthem by UC Berkeley class of 2022 graduate Sophia Ashworth.
As most of the crowd applauded afterward, a few students jeered as Chancellor Carol T. Christ took the stage. Other speakers included alum Yun-Hsien Diana Lim, class of 2022 graduate Chelsea Gomez Moreno and keynote speaker Poulomi Saha.
Lim is the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award recipient. The award honors an alum who is a native, citizen and resident of another country and who has a distinguished record of service to that country in the arts, science, engineering or any other field.
Although masks were not required a few students in the crowd still wore masks and in many of the speeches the pandemic was mentioned as a pivotal moment in the students’ lives.
During the ceremony there was much excitement and many tears. Just outside the commencement area, family members waited to find and greet their newly graduated children. The event ended with families finding each other in the stairwells, hallways and exits, hugging and taking photos.
