Graduates Bring Their Family Ties as They Cut the Cord at UCI

When Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam eight years ago with little more than the clothes she wore, she thought she had left behind not only her homeland but also her lifelong dream of becoming a dentist.

Saturday, however, Nguyen moved a step closer to her goal when she became one of 2,553 students to receive degrees during commencement ceremonies at UC Irvine. Nguyen, 31 of Huntington Beach, was awarded a bachelor of science degree in biology. She hopes to enter dental school in the fall.

“It’s been hard,” said a beaming Nguyen, “but graduating today makes all the hard work worth it.”

Nguyen spoke no English when she arrived in this country in 1979; it was her toughest subject at UCI.

“My first year here (at UCI), I had a lot of trouble with English,” she said, “but I’ve improved a lot.” At the same time, she juggled a full-time schedule of classes, cared for her 7-year-old son, Thien, and worked part time in her husband Son Nguyen’s automobile parts store.

Nguyen said her days began about dawn and seldom ended before midnight.

Although the mood among students and their families Saturday was celebratory, the conversation kept returning to the hard work, sacrifice and expense of the college years.

Eileen Dorsey, a 24-year-old social ecology graduate from Fullerton, is the last of her sisters to graduate from college. To mark the occasion, the four sisters planned to give their parents, Delores and Thomas Dorsey, a mock “doctor of financial support” diploma at a party later in the day.

Bina Parekh, a 21-year-old biology major from Costa Mesa, was the third of the four children in her family to complete college. Her youngest sister will graduate next year, and their father, Navit Parekh, said he was relieved that his days of paying tuition bills are nearly over.

The 52-year-old real estate investor said he had no idea how much he has spent. “It’s been expensive, but somehow we’ve managed. We pulled all our resources together, the kids worked part time and they got student loans. And we all managed to stay under one roof.”

Parekh, who emigrated with his family from India a decade ago, added: “The financial sacrifice has been worth it, because I believe in education.”

University officials estimated that 16,000 friends and family members attended the two-hour outdoor ceremony in Aldrich Park in the center of the campus. For some, it was a long two hours in the sun.

Halfway through commencement, Kristin Jostad, a 22-year-old art history major from Valencia, left her seat and began strolling around. Jostad said she and many other graduating seniors living on campus had begun “party hopping” at 11 a.m. Friday and hadn’t quit until 3 a.m.

“I don’t feel too good,” she said.

About 20 of his family members came to see Frank Zaldivar Jr., 24 of Gilroy, receive his diploma in biological sciences. “They supported me throughout, so I think it’s important for them to be here today,” Zaldivar said as a relative recorded the moment on a home camera.

Following the commencement, several graduates and their families drank or dined alfresco. Nancy and Paul Barker of Norco had a picnic for daughter Kimberlee Barker, a 24-year-old political science major, and five of her friends.

“Having a picnic after graduation is kind of a family tradition,” Nancy Barker said. “Going to college is a shared experience for the student and her family and friends. I think it’s important to get together like this to share in its culmination.”

There were 1,992 bachelor’s, 321 master’s, 160 doctoral and 80 medical degrees conferred at UCI’s 22nd commencement.

The UCI Medal, the university’s most prestigious award, was given to four recipients for their contributions to the campus:

- Philanthropist Arnold Beckman was honored for having been the benefactor and founder of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at UCI.

- Athalie Clarke received the UCI Medal for playing a major role in the 1950s in seeing that the new University of California campus was built in Irvine.

- Marianne McDonald was honored for having been the benefactor and founder of UCI’s Thesaurus Linguaecq Graecae project, the world’s largest computerized data bank of ancient Greek.

- The final recipient, Frederick Reines, a professor of physics at UCI, was one of the discoverers of the neutrino, a subatomic particle.