HANCEVILLE — It wasn’t a typical graduation, but that didn’t stop Wallace State Community College’s Class of 2020 from celebrating their achievements Thursday morning.

The day before the college would have hosted its regular graduation ceremony before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a change of plans, Wallace State held a drive-thru commencement ceremony in front of the Burrow Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.

Graduates drove through a long line of school faculty and staff members, cheerleaders and Wally the Lion to receive their diploma cover and tassel from Wallace State President Vicki Karolewics, along with a free Chick-fil-A sandwich.

Before the festivities kicked off, Karolewics spoke to the crowd that had gathered to celebrate for the graduates, and pointed out that this year’s graduates had to deal with a rough beginning and end to their final semester.

The school faced a cyberattack that delayed the beginning of the spring semester and now saw the end of the year move online because of COVID-19, but graduates were able to deal with those challenges

“It’s not normal at all, but I’m so glad to see all of you,” she said. “It’s so good to see all of you on campus.”

Wallace State’s regular commencement ceremony has been rescheduled to July 31, but nursing graduate Loren Bates said Thursday’s drive-thru graduation helped give students some closure for their time at the college.

“It’s really nice,” she said. “It’s disappointing that it got canceled because today was going to be our last day with our classmates, but we’ve been blessed with amazing faculty and they took the time to still give us a celebration.”

2020 graduate Makenzie Tuten said she was happy to be able to celebrate with the other members of her class — even if it was a little unconventional.

“I loved it,” she said. “I’m very thankful that they did something special like this for us.”