Graduation Gift Ideas: Make Your Student Feel Special!

If you are ready to celebrate the accomplishments of a graduate you love, take the time to pick the perfect gift. Graduates are just beginning a new journey, whether they are graduating from college or high school. Each academic step they took brought them closer to this moment. Help them celebrate it by choosing the perfect gift for the next phase.

Commemorate and Perpetuate

When you choose a gift for a grad, you want to celebrate success but provide tools to help him or her move forward. When you choose something to commemorate the moment, make it something small. They are likely to get a lot of gifts to congratulate them, but the fact is that those are the gifts that get put up for safekeeping. Make your commemorative gift something they can use frequently or something that is worth putting up until they can pass it down to someone else.

Now you need to help them perpetuate their success. You can do this by offering tools for their next step. Is the graduate going on to another academic level? Will they be entering the job market? Perhaps they will be doing a dissertation overseas. Find out what they may need to help them succeed in their next step. Some good examples would be a new easel for the artist, a new briefcase for the executive or a bookstore gift card for the continuing education student.

Personalize

When you choose a gift for the grad, be sure to personalize it. Even if the item is a professional item, let the grad know you didn’t buy a generic gift but were actually thinking of them when you bought it. Even a day planner for grad school can be personalized. This helps add a special touch to the gift but it may also help keep the gift safe from theft in the next college or professional setting they go to.

There are a lot of ways you can personalize a gift. You might just have their initials put on it. You could also write an inscription or have an image engraved or embossed. You are only limited by your own imagination so don’t be afraid to come up with something unique.

Make it Fun

If you want to do something different, then offer a fun gift. Most people are probably going to give something useful or something to acknowledge the occasion. The grad worked hard to get to this point so he or she might appreciate a bit of down time. You can offer a day at the spa, a night on the town, tickets to a comedy club, or anything else that might be fun for the graduate. If you want to do something really big, get together with other family members and offer some type of vacation package that they grad might enjoy.

Buying the perfect gift for a graduate should be fun and should take into account the needs of the graduate. We all have our own milestones to celebrate. This particular one will be remembered for a lifetime. Treat it as such and really put some thought into it before diving in. Your graduate will appreciate it.