COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL)-  The sound of car horns filled the Civic Center parking lot as Columbus State University had its drive-in graduation.

The university presented over 950 degrees and certificates during their drive-in commencement. The drive-in graduation was broken into three different ceremonies, the first ceremony was held at 9 a.m. for the college of Arts and Turner College of Business. The college of Letters and Sciences had their ceremony at 12 p.m., followed by the college of Education and Health Professions ceremony at 2:30 p.m.

While the ceremony was taking place, graduates and their guests were seen in the parking lot with decorated cars. Theatre graduate Will Oliver said today was a bittersweet moment for him.

“I’m happy, it’s like a bittersweet moment. Especially as you know with the whole pandemic going on, I feel like we got really blessed to have an actual graduation afterward. So I’m stoked, I’m excited, it’s just, I don’t know, it feels good for sure,” Oliver said.

Just like other college graduates, Oliver was afraid he would miss out on this milestone due to the pandemic.

“I think 2020 was a rough year, I was kind of nervous that we’d be doing graduation at home. It’s nice that they have this set up for us that we can just drive through. We can still celebrate with all of our friends and family,” Oliver said.

Even though this event was outside, graduates and their guests still had to follow CDC guidelines. Everyone was required to wear face mask and social distance. CSU staff presented graduates with their degrees and certificates while wearing gloves to prevent the spread of germs. CSU also provided a live stream of the graduation for those who were unable to attend.

Oliver told News 3 he’s ready to pursue a career in acting now that he has received his degree.

“After graduation I hope to land an agent and then after that I’ll start working, basically outside Atlanta getting small roles and then work on to bigger roles,” Oliver said.

The link to view the livestream graduation can be found at graduation.columbusstate.edu.