How em-bar-uhs-ing.
A Thomas Jefferson University presenter utterly butchered students’ names during the Jefferson College of Nursing commencement ceremony on May 9.
“My apologies for the phonetic spelling or pronunciation of the names that was on the cards,” the speaker said during the graduation. “I would have been better just reading from the book. My apologies, graduates.”
Thomas Jefferson University explained that the odd delivery was due to the way phonetic spellings were shown on the speaker’s name cards.
She incorrectly pronounced several nursing students’ names, such as Jessica, Allison, Sarah, Louise, Virginia, Stephanie, Maeve, Molly and Elizabeth.
Instead of saying “Molly Elizabeth Camp,” the speaker said “Mollina—zabeth—cap.” For Maeve Elizabeth, she blurted out “May-vee Lee Zu-beth.” And Sarah Virginia Brennan’s name was pronounced as “Sayer Oo-voon Geen-goo Bree-none.”
But one name took many attendees by surprise, and that name was “Tha-mo-may,” also known as Thomas Michael Canevari Jr.
As the presenter says, “Tha-mo-may,” many audience members sigh in disappointment, and the student frustratedly corrects her, saying, “It’s Thomas.”
Many people found it odd that the presenter needed help pronouncing Thomas correctly, even though the institution is named Thomas Jefferson University.
The university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, apologized to graduates for the embarrassing name mispronunciations that went viral over the weekend.
“Leadership and faculty of Thomas Jefferson University extend our sincerest apologies for the mispronunciations of the names of several of our graduating nursing students during our recent commencement ceremony,” the university said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The viral moment had people roasting the university online for such a major flop.
“It’s the fact that the college itself is Thomas Jefferson University and the person calling out the graduate’s names couldn’t pronounce Thomas… it’s literally the schools name lol,” one person tweeted on X.
“As a parent, I would be [mad] if it was my kids,” a parent commented.
“Hysterical!! Glad our profs know what they’re doing!!” tweeted another.
Even comedian Jimmy Fallon joined in on the roast, sharing the clip on his late night show, claiming “she did the impossible, she made a graduation entertaining.”
However with three more commencement ceremonies scheduled on May 21 and 22 at the university, graduations can’t anticipate no muh-stayks.
