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It’s graduation season – for university and high school students alike – but thanks to the global pandemic, this year’s celebrations have a unique look and feel.

“When I was announced the valedictorian, it was so bittersweet,” says the Faculty of Medicine’s Chika Oriuwa. “There's a different gravity ascribed to this speech because of the uniqueness of this situation. There's this added layer of responsibility to inculcate the class with inspiration before we join the front lines.

“It's a much more different transition for physicians than it was a year ago.”

Oriuwa talks with Professor Maydianne Andrade, a Canada Research Chair in Integrative Behavioural Ecology and U of T Scarborough’s vice-dean of faculty affairs and equity, in episode five of The New Normal with Maydianne Andrade.

The weekly podcast, hosted by Andrade and created in collaboration with a University of Toronto Communications team led by producer Lisa Lightbourn, also features undergraduate student Isheeta Chakrabarti and Lily Mason, Andrade’s 17-year-old daughter.

“The coronavirus has interrupted so much,” Andrade says. “Prom. Convocation. The stability of the road ahead. But maybe this generation was already standing up to more challenges than we know.”

See a complete list of episodes