Embarrassment at Thomas Jefferson University’s Nursing Commencement
The graduation ceremony at Thomas Jefferson University’s Jefferson College of Nursing on May 9 took an unexpected turn when a presenter completely botched the pronunciation of students’ names. The blunder left many attendees in shock and disbelief, as the presenter struggled to correctly say even the most common names.
The university later explained that the unusual delivery was a result of the phonetic spellings provided on the name cards. It seems that the presenter had difficulty deciphering these phonetic spellings and ended up mispronouncing several names, including Jessica, Allison, Sarah, Louise, Virginia, Stephanie, Maeve, Molly, and Elizabeth.
The mispronunciations were not just slight errors, but rather complete distortions of the names. For example, instead of saying “Molly Elizabeth Camp,” the presenter said “Mollina—zabeth—cap.” Maeve Elizabeth became “May-vee Lee Zu-beth,” and Sarah Virginia Brennan was pronounced as “Sayer Oo-voon Geen-goo Bree-none.”
However, the most astonishing blunder came when the presenter attempted to say Thomas Michael Canevari Jr.’s name. Instead of pronouncing it correctly, she said “Tha-mo-may.” This mistake garnered a particularly strong reaction from the audience, given that the college itself is named Thomas Jefferson University.
The university was quick to apologize for the embarrassing mispronunciations. In a statement posted on Facebook, they expressed their sincerest apologies to the graduates and their families. The viral nature of the incident led to widespread criticism of the university online.
Many people found it perplexing that the presenter struggled to pronounce “Thomas” correctly, considering the university is named after Thomas Jefferson himself. This irony did not go unnoticed by social media users, with one person tweeting, “It’s the fact that the college itself is Thomas Jefferson University and the person calling out the graduates’ names couldn’t pronounce Thomas… it’s literally the school’s name lol.”
Despite the online roasting, some individuals saw humor in the situation. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon even shared the clip on his show, joking that the presenter had managed to make a graduation ceremony entertaining.
As the university gears up for three more commencement ceremonies on May 21 and 22, it is clear that they cannot afford any more mistakes. The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of attention to detail and proper preparation when it comes to such significant events.
