After a venue change due to COVID, State College will return to Memorial Field for graduation

For the second year in a row, State College Area High School will host its graduation ceremony at Memorial Field, though not all parents are happy about the move.

The district moved the ceremony from Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center to Memorial Field in 2021 so the ceremony could be socially distanced outdoors due to COVID-19. After consulting seniors in the student senate, it’s back at the field for another year.

Parents weighed in on the decision on a recent Facebook thread that garnered more than 100 comments, with concerns ranging from families needing more tickets to available parking to why students were consulted instead of parents.

Curtis Johnson, the assistant superintendent, said Memorial Field has plenty of room for families of the more than 580 seniors graduating on June 3.

Each family was emailed a link to reserve up to four tickets and could fill out a form requesting more. Johnson said extra tickets were not a problem at last year’s graduation and that some families chose to stand or pull up lawn chairs in the nearby park.

The field in downtown State College had a $14.3 million renovation completed in 2020 and has a 4,000-person capacity. According to the district’s website, 1,458 parking spaces are available in municipal parking garages and lots nearby.

The district did take feedback from last year’s graduation into account, moving to an evening ceremony this year to help combat the heat.

Amy Milgrub Marshall, a parent in the district who attended graduation last year, urged other parents to give the field a chance.

“My whole family had a very positive experience,” Marshall said. “Being able to look down over into the field and see my son right there smiling at me but it’s still a big venue.”

Hosting graduation at the Bryce Jordan Center costs the district around $20,000 a year, Curtis Johnson said. But COVID and costs aren’t the main reason why the district is having the ceremony at Memorial Field again this year; it’s what the students want.

Nathaniel Sims, senior and president of the senior senate, was at last year’s graduation as an usher. At the start of the 2021 school year, Sims and his fellow seniors in the senate voiced their support for their own ceremony to be held at the field.

“Everybody is excited to have it at Memorial, it’s an environment that everyone is comfortable in,” Sims said.

Clarissa Theiss, student body president, said that graduation at Memorial feels more sentimental for students. Theiss said the Bryce Jordan Center can feel unfamiliar and isolating to students when compared to the field many students have seen, practiced and played on for years.

“I think for us it feels like a sort of full-circle moment to be able to graduate in a place that has so much significance and sentimental emotion tied to it,” Theiss said.

Board President Amber Concepcion has attended the district’s graduation ceremonies for the past 12 years and said the energy and excitement from students was much higher at Memorial Field.

“Students were just so excited to be there and be graduating in their own stadium where they have so many memories,” Concepcion said. “It’s such a meaningful place for them and it’s such a central part of our community.”

A permanent return to Memorial Field isn’t set in stone; students and the administration will continue to collaborate in future years to decide where to host graduation.