Iowa Lakes Community College is taking away the opportunity to have both of our parents and our professors at our graduation ceremony. This isn't a very big school and we are graduating in a huge gym. They have plenty of room for families of the graduates. They are making us choose between our parents and won't even allow our professors to be there to watch us. We have worked so hard to graduate and a lot of us are graduating with honors.

This is an experience that doesn't come around very often, our parents watched us walk at our high school graduations which wasn't as big of a deal as it is to graduate from college. Some of our parents didn't go to college at all and to see their children walk across the stage and graduate from college is a huge accomplishment. The Governor has lifted all of the social gathering bans, and the mask mandates so there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be able to invite more then one guest. The college as a whole is the reason for this, they don't have to require masks anymore, they don't have to enforce social distancing, they don't have to limit the people that come to watch.

I believe that we should be able to invite our families and allow our professors who have been with us every step of the way and have grown to be more of a family then our teachers. They are proud of us too, and I want everyone who cares and everyone who is proud of us to be there as we get our diplomas and go out into the real world.