Louisville education leaders are asking this spring’s college graduates to participate in an initiative aimed at encouraging others who may be on the path to graduation to stick with it.It’s called Pass the Cap and asks those who graduate this May to do just that—pass their graduation cap on to someone else.Mary Gwen Wheeler is the executive director of 55,000 degrees, a program aimed at getting at least 50 percent of Louisville residents to earn a college degree by 2020 and she said this initiative might provide someone with the nudge they need to “take that step.”“We thought, well, let’s give a job to the class of 2014 and ask them to find a family or a friend and say, ‘Here, I did it, you can, too,’” she said.Wheeler said the program is open to anyone preparing to graduate and is intended to boost the morale of anyone pursuing a college degree.“The graduating senior is someone who knows how hard it was and how great it feels to cross that stage and get your college diploma,” she said. “We want them to use that enthusiasm to inspire somebody else.”Organizers of the Pass the Cap are requesting anyone participating in the initiative to post photos or videos of themselves passing on their graduation cap to social media with the hashtag "pass the cap."Here is a list of upcoming Louisville area college graduations:University of Louisville: May 10Bellarmine University: May 10Jefferson Community Technical College: May 13Spalding University: June 7(Image via Shutterstock)
