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REMINDER! You can view the ceremony live on YouTube by click here! Replay available shortly after as well.

Hello there to all friends and family of the Cullen College of Engineering's Spring 2024 graduation class! In honor of that group, we're bringing back a staple from the early aughts Internet when our undergraduates were born — The Live Blog.

Check back here for updates, pictures and other media from throughout the day! Myself, communications manager Hunter Corfield and photographer Andrew Dees will be at both of Cullen's commencement ceremonies. We're backstage as graduates lineup, in the crowd during graduation itself, and archiving after graduation.

Want to share a picture or have your story featured? You can say 'hi!' to one of us! Or, contact us by email (sjgreen2 [at] central.uh.edu (sjgreen2[at]central[dot]uh[dot]edu)) or message us on social media, preferably Instagram.

For the day's first Commencement, click here!

— Stephen Greenwell, writer and editor

1:33 p.m. — Our graduate students have begun checking in and lining up for our second Commencement ceremony, scheduled for 2 p.m.! In advance of that, we've gotten some great photos of their mortarboards, and talked to them about their work at UH.

Alberto Garcia, Khiabett Flores and Catherine Rucas are all earning their graduate degrees in Human Resource Development.

"We're super excited today," Flores said, with Rucas adding that they completed their degree "one step at a time," which made the task less daunting and more tangible.

Alyssa Iverson and Kithmini Widanage were also part of this group earning their HRD graduate degrees. Iverson is looking for a career in the field of organizational development.

"I'm really excited," Iverson said. "I've been in school non-step for most of my life."

Widanage came to UH from Sri Lanka, attracted to what she said was the school's diversity and openness to people from a wide range of cultures.

"I'm excited about what's next to come, but there are also some nerves," she said. "I learned a lot of new things, and I'm excited to see what America has to come for me."

Poojitha Mudiyala is the youngest person to earn a master's degree this year. The 22-year-old will be putting her Electrical Engineering degree to use in a career with Mott Macdonald, a management, engineering and development consultant group.

"Education is the key to achieving your goals," she said of her pursuit of an advanced degree at a young age.

2:30 p.m. — The graduate degree ceremony is now underway. As students queued for the ceremony, we were able to chat briefly with Kristen Toliver, another HRD graduate with a fantastically designed mortarboard.

"I'm very excited to be graduating with all of the friends from my cohort," she said, before being hurried from her line and into the Feritta Center.

Inside, Divya Pillendla was there with family to wish her niece, Rishika Elupula, congratulations. Elupula earned her master's degree in Construction Management.

"We're so happy, and she recently bagged a job, too," Divya said.

4 p.m. — Whew! In contrast to the undergraduate ceremony, the graduate commencement is a brisk sprint of efficiency. After about an hour-long ceremony, the new graduates poured out on to Cullen Boulevard and Holman Street to celebrate with their family and friends.

That's where Tiffany Davis, a master's degree recipient from the Human Resource Development Department, was taking pictures with her mother, brother, second mom, sisters, boyfriend and others. She said she's going to "take a breath for now" before looking for a job in the human resources field that suits her.

This is going to be our final live blog update for the day. However, we're still going to be posting new pictures on social media, and our photographer Andrew Dees will have an extensive gallery from both days up within the week. Keep your eyes peeled on your favorite Cullen outlet to know when it happens!