The Naming Ceremony

The Naming Ceremony (The Naming) is a graduation ceremony for the student cohorts of the Institution. The Institution hosts in vitro fertilized children from birth until the end of their graduate studies (all students of the Institution are required to enroll in graduate school, this can be academic-based, research-based, or trade-based). The graduation marks the completion of their entire student careers and the transition into adulthood and the workforce. From the surface, the naming ceremony is just a graduation ceremony in which students receive their graduate degrees and diplomas. However, due to the nature of how students are reared within the Institution, as Institution/government of Zion beneficiaries, students are more so viewed as Institutional "property" (such that they are without their own agency or do sponsor adoptive parents have agency over their children). To note: despite being Institutional "properties", citizens all over the world may opt to sponsor/adopt a student of the Institution and become monetary secondary benefactors of their corresponding students at birth. Most students are adopted at birth and sponsored throughout their lives. Students are selected in majority anonymously and randomly, however, there are various cases in which students are purposely selected by sponsor parents. For example, the only twins (Maze and Syncope) born to the Institution were purposely selected by Governor Henri Townsend as sponsored beneficiaries. Additionally, it needs to be noted the reason for this selection is initially the Institution opted to abort both Maze and Syncope after the discovery of the double implantation of embryos into a single surrogate mother. For genetic variability and consistency of treatment conditions between subjects, identical twins were not permitted to progress in the in vitro fertilization process. However, an embryo selection and implantation error led to two genetically distinct embryos being implanted into one surrogate mother. The Institution initially protested against maintaining the twins, however, Governor Townsend protested against the unnecessary abortion of the already implanted fetuses. Townsend argued that because they were genetically distinct, and despite being grown in the same in-utero condition, surrogate mothers were purposely selected for their optimal host condition (thus many mothers share similar uterine profiles), thus the fetuses still satisfied the growth conditions of Institution in vitro children. Thus, Maze and Syncope were allowed to be born. Marking them as genetically dissimilar "fraternal" twins and the only twins born to the Institution. Moreover, due to the wealth and status of Governor Townsend, Maze and Syncope both became Townsend's sponsored beneficiaries, making it the only case of one sponsor having multiple beneficiary children. Other examples of children specially selected for sponsorship were Dr. Tobias Sable (The Historian) purposely selected various children for him and his sisters to sponsor, despite his sister's knowledge of the children's identities, the sisters maintained the rule of anonymous sponsorship. It should also be noted that not all children are sponsored. Those without sponsorship maintain beneficiaries of the Institution and may be assigned surrogate sponsors (monetary means are provided by the Institution, while other factors such as home visits/holidays may remain the same). A certain class division, although minimal, also exists despite the general limitations of the Institution, such that those with personally selected sponsors (usually of higher socioeconomic class may be able to provide more lavish personalized benefits, i.e. gifts, holidays, and such). The next class would be those with anonymous sponsors, then are Institute paired sponsors. Noted here that despite all children having the benefits of holidays (days off from studies, Institution hosted trips with supervisors), those with power (and thus may abuse it somewhat, such as Governor Townsend and Dr. Sable, may wield their status to have actual holiday trips with their sponsored children). Governor Townsend and Dr. Sable (particularly the latter), are also known to extend their generosities to their children's selected peers and friends. Nevertheless, because of the "sponsor" program and the lack of family and self-agency of the children, children growing up within the Institution are often just referred to by an identification code (a single given name). Thus, until their graduation from the entirety of the Institution program, a cultural phenomenon that has been unofficially incorporated into the final graduation ceremonies is also the "Naming" ceremony. With the official release of agency away from the Institution into the students of the Institution, as the student officially become integrated into society, the workforce, and "adulthood", they are also given surnames for identification. Students are given the option to adopt the surnames of their sponsor adoptive parents, or they may also choose their own (the majority of students choose to gain their adoptive parents' surnames).

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