Brooklyn College graduates put their best foot forward and walked across the stage during Thursday\u2019s commencement at Barclays Center \u2013 despite some hassle before their tassel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to just strut our stuff like it was a runway and just work,\u201d said Kayla John, Class of 2026. \u201cI don\u2019t know what graduation would\u2019ve been like if we didn\u2019t get to walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that was almost a reality for John and her classmates.<\/p>\n
Last month, Brooklyn College announced that the Class of 2026 was not walking at commencement due to a \u201crequired end time at Barclays.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone was pretty bummed that we weren\u2019t going to [walk],\u201d said Mya Fisher, who graduated with a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n
However, as News 12 previously reported, students rallied and made their voices heard, leading school leaders to reverse their decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen community comes together, something bigger can always happen, which is change,\u201d said Ifeoma Ezike, Class of 2026.<\/p>\n
The walk meant more to Joselin Maza Ramos, a first-generation college graduate who earned her master\u2019s degree in accounting.<\/p>\n
She said her family could not make the trip from Peru to Brooklyn, so the online livestream gave them a glimpse of their graduate.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople could think, \u2018Oh, oh my God, it\u2019s only a walk,\u2019 but no,\u201d said Maza Ramos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not just a walk,\u201d said John. \u201cThis is pain, sweat, blood and tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 4,000 total undergraduate and graduate students walked across the stage in approximately 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
The commencement ceremony ended about an hour before originally scheduled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank Brooklyn College, for just not taking \u2018no\u2019 for an answer,\u201d said John.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end, we will walk,\u201d said Ezike. \u201cAnd we did exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Brooklyn College spokesperson previously told News 12 that graduates walked across the stage during the three previous commencements, but walking was not a part of graduation ceremonies before 2022. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooklyn College graduates put their best foot forward and walked across the stage during Thursday\u2019s commencement at Barclays…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-247000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}