Senior political science and English major Zahraa Saheb and several other seniors gathered at Lou’s Place Tuesday morning for the 2018 Spring Grad Kickoff.

“I’m very excited about graduating,” Saheb said. “I’m just here to get more information about what I can do to successfully graduate.”

At the kickoff, which started at 9 a.m. and will continue to 7 p.m., seniors were given the opportunity to get graduation information from representatives from the registrar, provost, Jostens, career services, financial aid, alumni relations, and graduate programs.

“This is their opportunity to make sure that they have everything they need for graduation,” said Tammy Titlow, an academic credit evaluator and records processor. “If they’re lacking classes this is their opportunity to find out as well as their opportunity to look at class rings, cap and gowns, and all that fun graduation stuff.”

Senior political science major Corrina Palomino came to grad kickoff looking to get the jump on her graduation preparations like ordering her cap and gown, signing up for robing and hooding, and getting class ring information.

“Well, I wanted to make sure that I got everything squared away like cap and gown,” she said. “I wanted to look into class rings and all the stuff they had in the grad kickoff email that I got.”

Palomino was particularly interested in class ring information, because she’s thinking about getting one.

“It’s (graduating college) like a bigger milestone,” she said. “I didn’t get one (a class ring) in high school, because I knew I was coming to college. I was just going to get one once I graduated college.”

The best part of coming to the grad kickoff for Palomino was getting to see the cap and gown displayed in the back and the rings displayed off to the side.

“It kind of makes things real for you,” Palomino said. “It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to graduate in four months.’ Just getting all this information and seeing all this stuff here is just exciting.”

Palomino felt like the stop was beneficial. She and Saheb recommended all seniors go to grad kickoff.

“It has some good information to have just so you can readily graduate and have all the tools,” Saheb said. “They give you a lot of tools here that you can use to readily graduate, so you have everything set up and set out for you for graduation.”

Titlow said she hoped many seniors came to the kickoff.

“We hope for a good turnout,” Titlow said. “We really wish that all seniors would come out and participate in grad kickoff, because I think for it gives them that benefit of knowing they are really almost done.”