Hilton Coliseum will be a place of celebration for a record setting number of graduates this Friday and Saturday.

Between the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies, an estimated 2,449 students will be completing their degrees. That number is larger than last year’s December graduation, by about 300 students. Because of this, Iowa State will be holding two commencement ceremonies, a decision that was made at the beginning of the semester.

Each ceremony will be in Hilton, the Graduate College ceremony will be at 7 p.m. Friday and the undergraduate ceremony will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Both the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies will be live streamed on the registrar office’s YouTube channel.

At Friday’s Graduate College ceremony an estimated 406 total students will be recognized. They will be addressed by Anumatha Kanthasamy, the Clarence Hartley Covault distinguished professor in veterinary medicine and Lloyd endowed chair and eminent scholar in veterinary medicine.

Kanthasamy has been a member of Iowa State faculty since 1999, has led the biomedical sciences department since 2011 and is the director of the Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology.

For Saturday’s undergraduate ceremony, Kevin Cooney will address the estimated 2,403 students. Cooney is a Des Moines native, a 1974 graduate of Iowa State’s journalism program and a former anchor at KCCI in Des Moines. Cooney worked at KCCI for over 33 years, retiring in 2015.

Many of Iowa State’s colleges are holding their own ceremonies for graduating students as well. Information about those ceremonies can be found online.