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CSUDH Celebrates 39th Annual Commencement In front of some 15,000 friends and family, approximately 2,000 graduates received their diplomas on May 20 at the Home Depot Center, celebrating the 39th Annual CSUDH Commencement. In its second year at the HDC, organizers kept the ceremony as short as possible while honoring students’ requests to have their names called individually by setting up three stages for the Conferral of Degrees. The highly organized system directed three sets of speaker systems toward corresponding sections of the stadium so that family and friends could cheer for the graduates after they received their Certificate of Participation from the appropriate dean. The 2,000 graduates represented roughly half of the total number of 2005 CSUDH graduates. Prior to the Conferral of Degrees, Antonia Coello Novello, the commissioner of the New York State Health Department, delivered the Commencement Address. As the first woman and the first Latina to be named surgeon general in 1990, Coello Novello served as living testimony to her inspiring speech, maintaining women and minorities can reach the top in today’s world. Her accomplished career has also included leadership positions with the U.S. Public Health Service, UNICEF, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Author, educator, and activist Ngugi wa Thiong’o of Kenya, who currently directs the International Center for Writing and Translation headquartered at UC Irvine, was presented with an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. James Cooper, professor of graduate education, and Suzanne Medina, professor of graduate education, were respectively recognized as the 2005 Outstanding Professor and Lyle E. Gibson Distinguished Teacher award winners. |
