‘We did it’: Thousands who pursued higher education amid a pandemic graduate from USF

More than 6,400 students at the University of South Florida earned their degrees this weekend, with commencement ceremonies happening at the Yuengling Center between Friday and Sunday.

"It’s been a lot of hard work, I personally traveled from Jacksonville every Saturday to complete this and it was a huge goal. We all had a vision to further our education and we’re doing this for our families and for our careers, and it feels great," said Christopher Reid, who is getting his master’s degree in criminal justice.

A majority of the graduates started their programs during the pandemic.

"It’s amazing to be able to do this with our awesome people and in the midst of a pandemic and everything, we did it," said Amanda Ho, who is getting a master’s in education. "Obviously our classrooms were totally different too, as teachers, then coming in and also having to be students with it, I feel like it made a connection and brought a network of educators too, but we made a connection with our kids knowing like, the learning looks different but we’re here for the same reasons still."

USF says about 4,900 students got their undergraduate degrees, nearly 1,300 got master’s degrees, and almost 300 received their doctoral degrees.

The youngest graduate is 18, getting a bachelor's degree in psychology and the oldest graduate is 68, getting a degree in nursing.