(L-R) Professors Kevin Schnepel and David Freeman with doctoral graduates Thomas Vigié, Ricardo Meilman Cohn and Thi Hanh Tong, and Graduate Program Chair Simon Woodcock.

Convocation

SFU Economics welcomes back alumni for in-person convocation celebration

May 10, 2022

In a historic first, Simon Fraser University (SFU) hosted a Welcome Back Alumni Convocation last week where the Department of Economics celebrated recent graduates who missed out on an in-person convocation ceremony.

Due to concerns surrounding the pandemic in the last two years, SFU had to make the difficult decision to pivot toward virtual convocation ceremonies for the spring 2020, fall 2020, and spring 2021 graduating classes. Last week's alumni convocation gave those graduates the opportunity to cross the stage in-person and celebrate their achievements with friends, professors, family and former classmates.

Economics honours student Hamza Abdelrahman was selected as student speaker for the convocation ceremony. Abdelrahman gave a moving speech on his journey dealing with mental health challenges, how he persevered through them, and the importance of embracing uncertainty. Since graduating from SFU in 2020, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio to work as a research analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank and is now embarking on a new career opportunity in San Francisco.

Watch Abdelrahman's speech below:

Alumnus Connor Guile also spoke at the ceremony as a representative from the SFU Alumni Association to congratulate the graduates and welcome them to the SFU alumni community.

Guile graduated from the economics undergraduate program in 2017 and recently completed the Master in Business Administration (MBA) program at the University of British Columbia.