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Va. Tech Honors Shooting Victims at Graduation

Families of Virginia Tech students slain in last month's tragedy take part in commencement exercises at Lane Stadium on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Va.
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Families of Virginia Tech students slain in last month's tragedy take part in commencement exercises at Lane Stadium on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Va.

Virginia Tech holds its graduation day, less than a month after a gunman shot and killed 32 people on campus before turning the gun on himself. The ceremonies paid tribute to the victims as the university's community tries to move forward.

The 27 students who were gunned down at the Blacksburg campus were awarded their diplomas posthumously.

Adam Hochberg tells Michele Norris that the day has been bittersweet, as school officials sought to balance the joy of graduation with the somber notice of those who are missing from the university.

In one ceremony Friday, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger told those gathered that he received a letter from an incoming freshman student, who wrote that the killings prompted her to doubt whether she wanted to attend the school.

But after watching how the school's community came together in the aftermath of the mass shootings, Steger said, the student decided that there was no school where she would rather be.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Adam Hochberg
Based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Adam Hochberg reports on a broad range of issues in the Southeast. Since he joined NPR in 1995, Hochberg has traveled the region extensively, reporting on its changing economy, demographics, culture and politics. He also currently focuses on transportation. Hochberg covered the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, followed candidates in three Presidential elections and reported on more than a dozen hurricanes.