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 ����Vlog Stories      May 9, 2025

By Cam Adams

For Shondel “Junior” Granison, his graduation cap is more than a square board with fabric stretched across the top. It’s a symbol of accomplishment, but also a canvas for Granison to display some of what’s closest to his heart.

“I'm also going to have a picture of my daughter, a picture of my nephews on the sides of it looking up at that man that was able to do what we set out to do, complete a mission,” Granison said.

“I'm 28 years old, just now getting my bachelor's degree, but I'm also looking forward to accomplishing a lot more in my life.”

Granison will be one of several ����Vlog University students to decorate their caps for spring commencement on May 9 and 10 at the Ramsey Regional Activity Center.

Many other students like Granison will be using their caps to exhibit the things dear to them. Their inspiration can come through a bunch of different avenues, and for Kadeija Lynch, an integrated heath science major from Lincolnton, it came from Pinterest.

Lynch stuck gold glitter letters on a green background that say, “She is fearless because she is faithful.” The quote is accompanied by butterflies and flowers that pop off her graduation cap. Why green? It’s her favorite color. Why the quote?

“I really feel like it resonated with me because I would say I’m a pretty brave person just because I feel like God has never failed me,” Lynch said.

Other students were influenced by their favorite artists, and for Lauren Taylor and Destiny Perez, great minds thought alike.

Taylor, a psychology major from Kannapolis, and Perez, a marketing major from Winston-Salem, printed the words “You’re Gonna Go Far” from the Noah Kahan song of the same name on their caps.

“It's kind of like a growth song,” Perez said. “It's about how things are changing, you're leaving, but you're going to do big things, and you're supposed to be doing those things, and people are happy for you.”

Alyson Robinson also drew inspiration from music, placing “Rock on, gold dust woman” on her cap from the 1977 song sung by Stevie Nicks accompanied by flowers, butterflies and ����Vlog purple and gold.

“I went and saw (Nicks) in concert, and she's just been like my idol ever since I was young,” Robinson, a psychology major from Hillsborough, said. “I look up to her. She's got me through a lot with her music and everything.” 

Like Lynch, Nicole Ng also went with her favorite color: pink, and the message she put on there is deeply personal: “On to the next chapter.”  

“For me, moving to the United States was a big move,” said Ng, an international student from Malaysia. “It's a whole new chapter, and now I'm graduating and moving onto grad school, and that's also a whole new chapter, so I think the idea is really significant to me.”

For all of the Catamounts graduating this spring, commencement will be a time of change. For some, that change will come in the form of graduate school. For others, it’ll be a new career.

Lots is changing for these graduates, but the fact that they’re college graduates will stay the same.

“Through my own parents, I realized that at times, some people are not put in a position to be able to get this honor, opportunity, this chance, this lifestyle,” Granison said.

“It's an honor for me. It's an opportunity to show my parents like 'Hey, this is what we work towards. This is just a step into what we work towards, but this is something that we worked towards.'”