By Stacha Khatib
Western Sun staff writer
An era of hard work will finally pay off on May 21 for hundreds of graduation candidates as they participate in Golden West College’s 43rd Annual Commencement Ceremony.
As the students enter one side of the stage in the Central Quad, they emerge on the other side as graduates to receive their hard-earned diplomas and Certificate’s of Achievement.
For the ceremony, the reading of the names will be done by Dr. Lois Miller, Vice President of Instruction and Dr. Diane Restelli, the president of the Academic Senate, while degrees will be awarded to approximately 250 students by Janet Houlihan, Vice President of Administrative Services and “Teacher of the Year” Greg Wight, Professor of Design.
Historian, author and Vietnam veteran, Robert “Bobby” McDonald will be a featured speaker who will deliver the commencement speech. He is the current President of Orange County’s Black Chamber of Commerce and is the appointed trustee of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Community Colleges Board of Governors.
The 17-member board oversees 109 community colleges in 17 districts throughout 58 counties statewide. A product of the community college system, McDonald is a proud alumnus of both Los Angeles Harbor Community College and Cal State Fullerton.
The student speaker, Patricia Elizondo, will be the recipient of the 2010 R. Dudley Boyce “Outstanding Student Award” for fulfilling the criteria for this ASGWC award.
Out of approximately 1,339 graduates, approximately 260 to 300 are registered to walk at the 2010 Spring Graduation, according to graduation coordinator Brittney Tran. Of those graduates, approximately 806 students will be receiving Associate of Arts degrees and approximately 533 students will receive their certificates. Missing, though, will be the nursing students, whose graduation ceremony will be held on a different date.
Last year’s graduation had 119 honors graduates, who had 3.5 and above grade point averages and 5 graduates with a perfect 4.0 with the oldest graduate at 80 years old and the youngest, 61 years her junior at 19 years of age.
