Thomas Jefferson University is apologizing after the names of some graduates from the nursing program were unrecognizably pronounced at their commencement, as seen in videos from the ceremony that have since gone viral.
The mispronunciations at the Jefferson College of Nursing commencement ceremony, which occurred May 9, according to the university’s website, were attributed to the phonetic spellings written on the speaker’s cards, the school said in a statement on X Friday.
For example, graduate Sarah Virginia Brennan’s name was pronounced “Sayer Oo-voon Geen-goo Bree-none,” according to a video from the ceremony. Maeve Elizabeth was pronounced “May-vee Lee Zu-beth.” A Stephanie’s first name was pronounced “Eff-uni,” and a Jessica, “Jay-sic-u.”
At one point, the speaker mispronounced “Thomas” as “Tom-mu-may” — before the graduate can be heard correcting the pronunciation.
“The leadership and faculty of Thomas Jefferson University extend our sincerest apologies for the mispronunciations of the names of several of our graduating nursing students during our recent commencement ceremony,” the university said in the statement. “This ceremony is a celebration of the significant achievements of our students, and each graduate deserves to have their name honored correctly on this pivotal day.”
Graduates seemingly walked across the stage in alphabetical order. A nearly five-minute video of the speaker announcing graduates with last names that start with “B” or “C” had more than 370,000 views by Friday afternoon. Another video, seemingly taken from the crowd at the ceremony, has received more than 2.4 million views, 230,000 likes and 2,000 comments.