{"id":6112,"date":"2021-04-27T13:07:33","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T18:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/?p=6112"},"modified":"2021-04-27T13:07:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T18:07:33","slug":"celebrating-our-class-of-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/2021\/04\/27\/celebrating-our-class-of-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating our Class of 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft wp-image-6123 size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"153\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/commencement_2020_wide-300x153.png\" alt=\"Photo of commencement in Mizzou Arena\" class=\"wp-image-6123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/commencement_2020_wide-300x153.png 300w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/commencement_2020_wide-768x391.png 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/commencement_2020_wide.png 977w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chairs were spaced in Mizzou Arena to allow for social distancing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the weekend, we held in-person celebrations for&nbsp;MU\u2019s&nbsp;spring and fall classes of 2020. These Tigers graduated&nbsp;amidst&nbsp;historic challenges. Using&nbsp;their education and talent along with the&nbsp;networks&nbsp;they&nbsp;built at Mizzou, many went on to thrive despite so many obstacles. It was&nbsp;such an honor&nbsp;to welcome back&nbsp;close to 1,500&nbsp;of our 2020 graduates&nbsp;and&nbsp;give them the&nbsp;recognition&nbsp;they deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright wp-image-6127 size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Blodgett-209x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo of Clarke Blodgett in Truman feet\" class=\"wp-image-6127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Blodgett-209x300.jpeg 209w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Blodgett-714x1024.jpeg 714w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Blodgett-768x1101.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Blodgett-1071x1536.jpeg 1071w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Blodgett.jpeg 1313w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Clarke Blodgett reveals his secret.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of those students was Clarke Blodgett, a native of Macon, Mo. who graduated last May with a bachelor&#8217;s in agribusiness management. It&#8217;s a longstanding tradition that students who embody a certain local tiger reveal their identity by wearing plush paws at commencement. Clarke joined another student, Austin Walker, in signaling that they were the ones in the suit. Clarke is now a district manager for Frito Lay in the St. Louis area, and I was glad to see that he could return to Mizzou and continue one of the many traditions that make commencement special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re so pleased that Clarke, Austin and&nbsp;the rest of our Class of 2020, had this opportunity to celebrate with friends, family and the Tiger community. Next up is the Class of 2021!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Mun<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft wp-image-6113 size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Graduation2020-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of 2020 commencement\" class=\"wp-image-6113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Graduation2020-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Graduation2020-1024x729.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Graduation2020-768x547.jpg 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Graduation2020-1536x1093.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Graduation2020-2048x1457.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Choi congratulates fellow Tiger, Austin Walker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend, we held in-person celebrations for&nbsp;MU\u2019s&nbsp;spring and fall classes of 2020. These Tigers graduated&nbsp;amidst&nbsp;historic challenges. Using&nbsp;their education and talent along with the&nbsp;networks&nbsp;they&nbsp;built at Mizzou, many went on to thrive despite so many obstacles. It was&nbsp;such an honor&nbsp;to welcome back&nbsp;close to 1,500&nbsp;of our 2020 graduates&nbsp;and&nbsp;give them the&nbsp;recognition&nbsp;they deserve. One of those students was Clarke [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}