Olds College Convocation is set for June 7th, and officials are gearing up for a much bigger ceremony than in recent years.
Olds College President and CEO Debbie Thompson calls the annual ceremony an “incredible time of year,” allowing the entire community to celebrate the hard work of this year’s graduates.
“ It is absolutely exciting for us to celebrate our students’ academic achievements and their journey – it marks the end of a particular chapter in their life and the beginning of another,” she says. “ I just send out huge congratulations to each and every one of our students and wish them absolute success as they move into that next phase of wherever life will take them.”
For the second year in a row, two ceremonies are on the schedule, both on the seventh. Thompson says this is necessary due to the sheer growth of grad classes every year. According to Thompson, the school is graduating 1,200 students this year – a 22 per cent increase from last year, with around 640 of them attending the ceremonies in person.
“ That will accommodate the growing number of graduates we have, we will be live streaming the event and additional family seating will be offered in our fine arts multimedia center,” she says. “ This year [2025/26] will be our highest number of students that we have welcomed to Olds College, so we will see just over 3,500 students from a headcount perspective.”
This year will see graduates of several new programs, including its new Equine Massage certificate, which will see 31 students walking away with a certificate this year.
“I think what else might be interesting is that we will have a combination of our international, domestic, and dual credit students that we are celebrating,” Thompson adds. “100 of our students will attend convocation as dual credit students, so that means that they’ve completed our veterinary technical assistant program and will graduate from both high school and college in the same year.”
It wouldn’t be a graduation without a valedictorian, and this year’s is Rachel-Ann Pagbunocan from the Hospitality and Tourism Management Diploma program. She was chosen for her grade point average and her “fantastic” communication skills.
