Spring, Summer and Fall 2020 grads representing each of UCF’s 13 colleges have registered for the ceremony, which will take place Nov. 5 at 9 a.m. at Addition Financial Arena and be livestreamed on .

Darin Edwards ’97 ’10MS ’11PhD — who led the charge to create Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine — will serve as the keynote speaker for the 2020 Graduation Celebration.

In 2020, the Florida Board of Governors required all of Florida’s state universities to hold virtual commencement ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. UCF conferred more than 18,000 degrees during its 2020 virtual commencement ceremonies.

During the ceremony, graduates will cross the stage during the traditional Pomp and Circumstance processional as their names are called. Each graduate is allowed up to four guests in attendance. .

The deadline to participate in the Nov. 5 ceremony has passed. Participation in the ceremony is specifically for those graduates who missed in-person commencements experiences in 2020.

About Keynote Speaker Darin Edwards ’97 ’10MS ’11PhD

Edwards is the director of immunology in the infectious disease group at Moderna, where he led the research and development on their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, he directs the immunology team in support of vaccine development programs and foundational research efforts, and leads work with external academic and industry collaborators including Moderna’s collaborative research efforts with the National Institute of Health, WHO, and Harvard’s pathogenesis working group.

Prior to joining Moderna in June 2019, Edwards served eight years for Sanofi Pasteur in Orlando, where he worked to develop vaccines against infectious diseases, including RSV, influenza, dengue, and yellow fever.

Edwards is a much-published researcher and academic speaker. Through his educational background at UCF, combined with his years of experience working on the development of next-generation vaccine technology, he has had the unique opportunity to make a direct and positive impact on global health.

He earned a bachelor’s in biology, a master’s in molecular biology and microbiology and a doctorate in biomolecular sciences from UCF, where he was also a .

The health and well-being of all UCF graduates and their guests are the top priority of the university. Face coverings are expected while indoors for all attendees — whether vaccinated or not, in accordance with the latest CDC guidelines.

“I wanted to find a way that allowed students to embrace math rather than see it as something scary.”

“Growing up, I was never great at math. In fact, I actively despised it. I did not like teaching math either,” Malahoo says. “I wanted to find a way that allowed students to embrace math rather than see it as something scary.”

Motivated to find new strategies and ways to present material that would help students embrace and enjoy their studies, Malahoo decided to apply for graduate school. A former scholar of the — an education, industry and community partnership aimed at improving mathematics, science and technology education in Central Florida — she earned a master’s in K-8 mathematics and science education this summer.

“Graduate school allowed me to learn, unlearn and relearn,” she says. “The professors at Lockheed Martin Academy helped me understand the concepts behind math instead of just memorizing processes. It was like a light bulb went off. I took that confidence back into the classroom and shared it with my fellow teachers. Now I have a model classroom that other teachers visit to see how I instruct my kids.”

Helping Others Amid a Pandemic

In addition to her daily role as mom, teacher and student, Malahoo is a strong advocate for her local community. Most recently, she jumped into action after seeing the toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

“When the pandemic hit, I noticed some parents lost their jobs and saw how it affected the kids,” she says. “I live in the same neighborhood as my students, so I observed their needs firsthand and knew that I needed to help.”

One of her first efforts last spring focused on literacy.

“After school went virtual, I would check in on my students,” she says. “Many of them would tell me that they didn’t have access to books. They weren’t reading.”

So Malahoo, who is also a technology trainer at the Orange County Public Library, gathered books and started lending them to students. After finishing one book, they would return it to her house and get another one.

But when Florida afternoon storms soaked several books left on Malahoo’s porch, she explored other solutions that would provide a safe shelter to keep the book-sharing endeavor going. That’s when she learned about the Little Free Library, the world’s largest book-sharing movement. After being awarded a grant, Malahoo put together a Little Free Library in her front yard. Today, the small wooden structure — almost like a birdhouse for free books — provides a space for her neighbors to gather, catch up and find the next book to dig into.

Connecting with fellow neighbors also provided Malahoo a glimpse into their lives. Through conversations, she learned about their needs — from food insecurity to homelessness, among other struggles to make ends meet. When students shared that they were going to skip Thanksgiving because they didn’t have food. Malahoo sprang into action again, this time reaching out to local organizations. That’s where she met and partnered with the non-profit organization Above and Beyond for Change. Together, they were able to secure more than 45 pre-cooked Thanksgiving Dinners from Publix. On Thanksgiving eve, she set up a table in her driveway and distributed the pre-cooked dinners.

Fostering a Culture of Giving Back

Malahoo’s community events and efforts soon became a monthly happening. With the continued assistance from Above and Beyond for Change, she distributed dozens of coats and jackets last December to help keep students warm in colder temperatures. Several months later, she prepared small packages of snacks as a Valentine’s Day gift. Then, ahead of spring break, she rallied community members to assemble boxes of food that would ensure students and their families had at least three meals per day.

The events have not only helped serve those in need but have brought the community together. Local organizations, including the Orlando Police Department (OPD), join in the efforts in getting involved and giving back.

“I invite OPD to many of these events because I know there’s a need to build positive relations between our law enforcement and our community,” Malahoo says. “They even brought their patrol horses and K-9s out to the event, which the kids loved.”

In the final weeks of the 2020-21 school year, Mahaloo achieved another dream: to donate 100 bikes.

“The Florida weather can be tough on students walking home. A bike makes their trek much easier,” she says. “It’s also a great way to keep kids active and gets them outside more.”

Mahaloo also partnered with Bike Walk Central Florida to secure a helmet for each child.

And while school was out for the summer, she spent months organizing her most recent event, a Back-to-School Bash. The event, which saw nearly 200 children and families and hosted 20 vendors, kicked off the start of a new schoolyear. Vendors provided support and information on a wide range of services, including information about mental health awareness, food and nutrition, safety, literacy and more.

“I have a heart to serve. I’m so grateful to have received so much support, especially from the organization nonprofit organization Above & Beyond for Change,” Mahaloo says. “They’ve helped with funding each of my initiatives — I couldn’t do this without them. I want to continue garnering support from other community members, too. If we all wrap our arms around these underserved kids, just imagine what they could do.”

Looking Toward the Future

Mahaloo is looking forward to welcoming her students back to the classroom this fall. This year, she’ll be teaching third grade after spending nine years with first graders and kindergarteners.

“I look forward to meeting my students and applying many of the same concepts that I’ve learned in school to a testing grade,” she says.

She also plans to launch a STEM club for students.

“Working at a Title I school, we have limited resources,” she says. “But I wanted to put something together for students who have a desire and willingness to get involved in STEM-related activities. I’ve secured snap circuits, a 3D printer and Lego WeDo, and am working to get other materials that will provide fun, hands-on experiences for kids.”

“You know you’re doing something good when it’s the end of the school week and you tell the kids, ‘I’ll see you Monday’ and they say, ‘Wait … no school tomorrow?’ That’s worth it to me.”

And after the final bell rings at school and everyone leaves for the day, Mahaloo will transition from teacher to student. Recently accepted into a doctoral program at UCF, she starts working toward her EdD in curriculum and instruction this fall.

“My entire goal in life is to positively impact my society, my community,” she says. “I want to empower students to take control of their world. They’re no longer a passive participant just sitting in listening to me. You know you’re doing something good when it’s the end of the school week and you tell the kids, ‘I’ll see you Monday’ and they say, ‘Wait … no school tomorrow?’ That’s worth it to me.”

Tas grew up in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, as the daughter of a Chinese mother and Turkish father. She says her Chinese name, Xīxī (pronounced “she-she”), means to wish or to hope, and for the final year she lived in Turkey before moving to Florida, she hoped for the ability to enact change.

“Bombs would go off and that was kind of an everyday part of life. My parents and teachers would warn me about avoiding crowds and suicide bombers and it was just normalized,” she says. “I would cry myself to sleep, thinking why do I not have any power? Why can’t I do anything to make things better? At the time I was 16 and I was like how do I get to where I say something and people listen? How can I help anyone?

“Now I try to help people as best as I can.”

She moved to the United States in 2016 as a senior in high school after her father accepted a position as a research professor at UCF. At the time, her family expected the move to be temporary. But when a coup attempted happened in Turkey, they decided to make their stay more permanent.

While she was grateful for the opportunities America offered, Tas says immigrating to a new country during your senior year of high school is less-than-ideal timing. She desperately needed to improve her English, struggled to find friends and lost all her confidence.

“I became really anxious because I didn’t want to make any mistakes,” she says. “I wanted to fit in but there were already friend groups established and I wasn’t in any of them.”

With the encouragement of her parents, college was always a goal and proved to be another fresh start that she needed.

She earned her associate’s degree in one year from Seminole State College and enrolled at UCF as a Burnett Honors Scholar. She overcame her insecurities by getting involved in different student organizations, including Tau Sigma National Honor Society and Delta Phi Lambda, Inc. sorority, eventually assuming leadership positions within the groups.

She felt particularly passionate about improving the transition experience for transfer students to UCF and advocated for reinstating the Transfer Center.

“Seher, along with the rest of her board members, did everything within their power to better the experiences of not just their members but of all transfer students at UCF,” says Lashay Vazquez, career counselor at UCF Career Services who got to know Tas while serving as an advisor for Tau Sigma. “It’s apparent in everything that Seher does that she cares about those around her. She also is very determined. If she wants something, she will tirelessly work until she achieves it.”

Tas also became actively involved within her major — film, which she was drawn to from the time she was a young girl, enlisting her younger sister to play all the roles in her homemade movies.

“I just really loved how you can empower someone through film,” she says. “I was inspired by how they made me feel — I would see someone Asian and I would be really excited about it because I didn’t have anyone like that around me growing up. It hit me in high school when I was like, I really enjoy this. Why can’t it be my career?”

Now that she’s earning her diploma, she is one step closer to realizing her goal. She knows that breaking into the film industry isn’t easy, but she is committed to making it happen and one day starting her own production company that highlights the stories of underrepresented populations.

“I want to contribute to breaking the glass ceiling and empower younger girls to show them you have the power to do this if you’re passionate about it,” she says. “I didn’t know if I could make that change in the world that I wanted. Now I have a lot more confidence because I have more skills in film and I have this network of people at UCF who supported me. So I believe that in the future I will be able to make some positive change.”

Paul, who is earning two degrees in psychology and criminal justice this semester, remembers much of that afternoon in January 2010 that changed her life. Then 12, she was at home with her grandmother, two sisters and cousins while her mother had gone out to call her father, a U.S. citizen who was living stateside at the time.

“I was in the front of my house, and it started shaking. My grandma screamed, ‘It’s an earthquake!’ ” she recalls. “We stayed on the floor until everything stopped and my uncle ran in to help us get out. It was so foggy when we went outside from all the debris. When it started to clear, that’s when I noticed I had been walking on bodies.”

She says the family nearly lost her aunt, who had become trapped under a building. Her relatives all worked to get her out and it took her months to recover. Her grandmother broke her arm from falling when the quake hit. Fortunately, everyone in her family survived.

Paul says that she hasn’t suffered from the trauma and shock of the experience, but there are scenes that stay with her — the school near her house that collapsed and killed the children who were attending; the neighbor who ran back inside a house to save someone but died along with them — and motivate her to make the most of her life.

“That could have happened to me,” she says. “The fact that I got to come the United States, I’m going to take advantage of all the opportunities I can.”

Paul, along with her sisters and mother, eventually moved to Philadelphia with her father, where she started the ninth grade unable to read, speak or comprehend English. She made it a goal to learn it quickly and add to her repertoire of mastered languages: French, Creole and Spanish.

College was another goal. It always was.

“Education is a huge thing in Haitian culture,” says Paul, who is the first in her family to attend college. “Our country believes that with education you can get really far, so it’s something they push hard from the time you’re young. Since I was little, I always wanted to become something big.”

Her family eventually moved to Florida, where she started at Palm Beach State College before transferring to UCF. She has found ways to become involved in the campus culture, joining the Caribbean Students’ Association and a jujitsu club. She says her fellow jujitsu club members have become like family to her. She also made the dean’s list.

“We been through so much in surviving the earthquake, but what amazed us the most is her courage and her determination to keep going and do well in life and think that no matter what everything is going to be alright,” her parents, Jean and Yvonie, wrote in an email. “We feel proud and happy at the same time, and we will do everything in our power to make her earn a master’s degree also because she can and she will.”

“It’s not easy to get through college and get a degree. When I look at where I’ve come from, I’m proud of the fact that I kept going.”

As she achieves one of her dreams Aug. 7, she looks to her future where she hopes to earn a master’s degree in data science and eventually pursue a career as a criminal profiler. When she thinks about finally having her diploma in hand, she can’t help but think about her family.

“I wanted to go to college and get my degree for my family — to make my parents proud and everyone around me proud and be an example for my sisters to look up to,” she says. “It’s not easy to get through college and get a degree. When I look at where I’ve come from, I’m proud of the fact that I kept going.”

“Those experiences gave me tremendous life lessons,” Faraci says. “Teamwork, perseverance, being dedicated to something bigger than yourself.”

Faraci was among 121 College of Medicine students to receive their M.D. degrees May 21 in a socially distanced in-person commencement ceremony. Over its nine-year history, the UCF College of Medicine has graduated 847 physicians. Physicians from the Class of 2021 now enter residencies across Greater Orlando, Florida and the nation in specialties that include pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, psychiatry and diagnostic radiology.

Faraci started his medical career as a registered nurse after graduating from Robert Morris ����ֱ�� outside Pittsburgh, where he played Division I football as an offensive lineman. Clocking in at 6-foot-2 inches and 290 pounds, he jokes that he was the ����ֱ�� of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s “big guy” of the spinal cord injury unit. Nursing showed him how much he loved physiology and the science of what made the body work. So he decided to take on medical school, where he graduated with top academic honors.

Now he will return to the same medical center as a Physician Knight specializing in internal medicine. He says the specialty allows him to get to know people and become part of their lives, just as he did as a nurse.

“Internal medicine is all about the relationship with a patient, understanding what they go through day-to-day,” he says. “I’ll take those qualities with me as I go home to care for the community that raised me.”

Friday’s College of Medicine commencement was different this year because of COVID-19. The ceremony was held in the 10,000 square-foot Addition Financial Arena to encourage social distancing. Speakers commented on how the pandemic had changed the world. As Deborah German, vice president for health affairs and dean, told graduates, “Medicine has never needed you more.”

UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright talked about how the pandemic had shown the university’s resilience and spirit. “While our graduates’ final year at UCF did not go as any of us had planned, the optimism, compassion, and determination they have shown illustrate that Knights can always be counted on to rise to every occasion — no matter the obstacles,” he said.

This year’s M.D. graduates chose Faraci as their class speaker and he talked about how the pandemic had tested students’ determination and passion for serving others. He reminded them of their first class at UCF’s medical school where Dr. German asks students to list the qualities of “The Good Doctor,” the physician they want caring for the person they love most in the world.

As students provide traits, the dean writes them on a blackboard that is displayed year-round in the College of Medicine rotunda. Faraci ended his speech with some of the words his class had selected: Resilient. Innovative. Patient. Compassionate.  Knowledgeable. Brave.

“Now more than ever, the world needs exactly what we directed Dean German to write on the chalk board four years ago,” he said. “It needs the UCF College of Medicine, Class of 2021.”

Mercedes, grew up in the Dominican Republic and wanted to be a doctor.

But right after Mercedes began medical school, her father died, and she had to abruptly drop out and give up her dream to help take care of her siblings.

Later, as a parent herself, Mercedes moved 8-year-old Loida and her siblings to the United States.

Loida gave her mother an incredible surprise over the weekend.

On Saturday, Aug. 1, Loida graduated from UCF with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree — and her mother had no idea.

Under a ruse, Loida’s husband drove Mercedes to UCF’s College of Nursing where Loida was waiting, in cap and gown, to break the surprise to her mom.

She chose to disclose the surprise at the College of Nursing, where Loida has spent so much of the last three years, and where she’s been able to finish what her mother started so many years ago.

COVID-19 has changed commencement ceremonies across UCF, the nation and the world. As 117 College of Medicine students graduate Friday, they, like so many others, will have a virtual ceremony.

To make the long-distance commencement more personal, the medical school asked each student to send a video or photo that will play when their name is read. Some students sent family portraits, including newborn babies. Others posed with their pets. Some took pictures and video in front of the Medical Education Building in Lake Nona. Others did mini-home videos featuring digital animation.

“When I was asked to make a video to celebrate graduation, the first thing that came to my mind was to include my family,” said Glener, who will do his neurosurgery residency at Thomas Jefferson ����ֱ�� in Philadelphia. “Without their support and advice, I would not have been able to accomplish the things that I did throughout medical school.”

Glener’s father is an anesthesiologist, his brother is a plastic surgery resident at Duke and his sister, Julie, who graduated from the UCF College of Medicine in 2017, is an orthopedic surgery resident at West Virginia ����ֱ��.

“It was important to me that they were involved with the metaphorical passing of the torch to the newest M.D. member of the Glener family,” he says.

Jacklyn Locklear infused her poolside graduation with New Orleans flair to celebrate her upcoming OB/GYN residency at LSU. Because COVID-19 also canceled traditional Match Day festivities in March, students had to create their own events for the day they learn where they will do residency training. Locklear orchestrated a “second line” parade around her pool.

Such parades are a New Orleans tradition. The person celebrating forms the first parade line with a live brass band. As the parade travels through town, it picks up the second line – people who follow along, dance and enjoy the music. Locklear didn’t have a band but played brass music. Friends followed behind her waving napkins – instead of the handkerchiefs used in traditional parades.

The Second Line match celebration was such a virtual hit that Locklear decided it was perfect for her commencement video and more fun than shaking her boyfriend’s hand instead of the dean’s. “As they say in New Orleans,” Locklear says, “‘Laissez le bon temps rouler.  Let the good times roll.’”

Sonia Dela Cruz used virtual fireworks for her commencement video after her mother, who sings karaoke online, suggested using a green screen. Dela Cruz attended the medical school’s 10^th anniversary celebration in 2016 that ended with Disney fireworks over the Health Sciences Campus.

“The fireworks were a way to pay homage to that memory and to celebrate all the moments since our first year until now,” she says. “Also, I am somewhat of a pack rat and luckily I was able to find my undergraduate cap to decorate and use for the video.”

After commencement, Dela Cruz will provide mental health care for Central Floridians. She matched into UCF’s psychiatry residency in partnership with HCA Healthcare, the Orlando VA Medical Center and Nemours Children’s Hospital.

“I am very excited to serve the local community, work with my mentors who made me love the specialty in the first place and be able to stay near my family and close friends,” she says. “My best friend actually works in the VA so I’m also thrilled to have the chance of working alongside her as professional colleagues.”

The UCF College of Medicine will at 10 a.m. May 15 through YouTube.

Strickland is renowned as one of the world’s leading pioneers in the field of ultra-fast lasers. Her research with French physicist Gérard Mourou led to the creation of high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses resulting in several industrial and medical applications, including Lasik eye surgery and advances in industrial machining.

The professor at the ����ֱ�� of Waterloo in Canada became only the third woman in 117 years to earn the Nobel Prize in physics.

In 2018, the professor at the ����ֱ�� of Waterloo in Canada became only the third woman in 117 years to earn the Nobel Prize in physics. She is a past president of the Optical Society of America and a friend and colleague to several UCF faculty members, including Dean Emeritus Eric Van Stryland, also a past president of OSA. Van Stryland invited Strickland to participate in a live Zoom session on Saturday, and she immediately accepted.

“I am super-excited for our college graduates to have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Nobel Laureate Dr. Donna Strickland,” says David Hagan, interim dean of the College of Optics and Photonics.  “As a leading member of the optics community and the first woman to with a Nobel Prize in Physics since 1963, Dr. Strickland is an inspiration to us all. Her participation in our college’s commencement celebrations adds a bright silver lining to the cloud cast on our regular ceremony by COVID-19.”

The college’s virtual ceremony begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 2, and will be shown on UCF’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Strickland’s interactive session with graduates will follow at approximately 9:45 a.m. and will include invited faculty, academic leaders and current students. The public is invited to watch live from either or . A recorded version of the session will be available later on UCF’s YouTube channel.

All of UCF’s colleges will hold virtual ceremonies at separate times on Saturday. UCF’s traditional commencement ceremonies will be rescheduled when it is safe to do so.