Last Lecture at the University of Guelph-Humber, an event to celebrate graduating fourth-years, left students reflecting on their time at school.

“It was kind of like a wrap-up. They touched upon orientation in the speeches so everything kind of came full circle, then it hits you that you’re graduating,” said attendee and graduating early childhood studies student, Veronica Castillo.

Graduating students across all seven programs at Guelph-Humber were invited on April 3 to attend the annual event which marked as a conclusion to their studies at the university.

“It’s an opportunity to commemorate the fact that we’re all graduating,” said Naba Saeed, a fourth-year public relations student. “It’s a nice chance to dress up, meet up with all your friends and see your professors one last time.”

Students began the night with a mix and mingle. “It started with a general check-in,” said Castillo. “The first half-hour or so was a chance to mingle with friends. There were also hors d’oeuvres and refreshments as well as a bunch of photo booths.”

Shortly after, students were invited to room E135 at Humber College. “Once we were in the lecture hall, that’s when the speeches started,” said Castillo.

Each year, one student is chosen to give a speech to the graduating student body. Saeed said Dilshan Jayasinghe was chosen for this year’s Last Lecture.

Jayasinghe was also the recipient of the prestigious Michael Nightingale Community Enrichment Award. This award is granted to one student each year who has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing the student experience, as stated on the university’s website.

“One of my favourite parts of the night would be watching the videos from our program heads,” said Castillo, as she reflected upon the evening.

“We got a formal farewell from different people within the institution. The farewell videos were from different departments so career and placement service, financial aid, student life, et cetera,” said Saeed.

Saeed works on-campus as a social media assistant for the student life department. “I covered the event last year so I was able to give insight to the new social media assistant,” she said.

Also working under the student life department is fourth-year visual communication student Asuka Lapierre. “Because I work with student life, I helped with filming some of the videos for the Last Lecture event.” Lapierre is a media assistant for the university. She also helped design postcards, television ads and a banner for promotion leading up to the event

Each year, Last Lecture is held in E135 in Humber College, which according to Humber’s website, can seat 300 attendees. With a limited amount of space, tickets sold out fast.

“They emailed us letting us know Last Lecture was approaching and it was also in the eNews letter that everyone gets, so once registration opened, my friend and I ordered our tickets right away,” said Castillo.

Castillo said the registration process reminds her of course selection. “You’re competing against everybody else to get a ticket and you want to be with your friends obviously, so if they sell out, you’re placed on a waitlist. If someone were to cancel, that’s when you’d be notified.”

In the future, she hopes the university will scout out a larger location to hold Last Lecture.

“People who are placed on the waitlist aren’t necessarily alienated from the event, they can still show up for the mingle session but they just aren’t allowed to enter the lecture hall. I feel like it’s kind of not fair because it’s like ‘you can come for the before but not for the main event.’ So definitely find a larger location so they can accommodate for the entire graduating year,” she said.

Although there are space concerns, Castillo was pleased with the event. “It was a quick night but worth it. Because it was on a Wednesday night, most of us had classes earlier in the day so it was nice for it to be short and sweet and people still had time to go out for dinner afterwards so I think it went well.”

The celebratory evening marks the final on-campus event for graduating students, all in anticipation for convocation ceremonies set for June 17.