Learning It’s Never Too Late

Sitting in the stands Friday at the third annual commencement ceremony for Cal State Northridge’s budding population of Ventura grads, Crystal and Tyler Hansen could hardly contain their pride.

Their mom was graduating.

“I feel so happy for her,” said 15-year-old Crystal. “Now she will be able to have more time with us.”

Such were the sentiments of hundreds of children who hung over balcony railings and tore up and down Ventura College gymnasium bleachers, better positioning themselves for a glimpse of their parents receiving their diplomas.

A total of 382 students--the largest class to graduate since the university’s Ventura branch opened more than 20 years ago--participated in the ceremony, each receiving a slip of paper saying their degree was in the mail. An additional 92, also a record high, were honored for having completed their teaching credentials.

Administrators say the satellite campus is attracting more traditional--read, younger--students than ever. But many members of the Class of ‘96, average age 31, came to their long-awaited graduation day draped in black caps and gowns and carting baby carriages, diaper bags and baby-bottle refills.

“I’m a 38-year-old mom,” said Pati Foster, mother of Crystal and Tyler. “This is a huge achievement. To work, study, get good grades and take care of my family, it’s worn me very thin.”

Foster, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in child development, was in good company Friday with scores of parents who say the day of celebration--for most earned after years of night classes--could not have come a moment too soon.

“Studying, trying to maintain a relationship, working, managing two different day cares, being a mom, starting one in preschool, and on top of everything else trying to be a good wife,” said 31-year-old Evelyn Jimenez. “It was like hello, goodbye.”

Like many of the students, Jimenez juggled school, a job and raising a family to reach her goal, a bilingual teaching certificate.

“Six weeks after the birth of my second son, I was back in class,” Jimenez said.

Commencement speaker Warren H. Fox, executive director of the California Post-Secondary Education Commission, spoke about the changing profile of college students from the activist hippies of his day to the job-oriented, family focused graduates of today.

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Blenda J. Wilson, president of Cal State Northridge, called the Class of 1996 the pioneers of the university’s yet-to-be-built Ventura County campus, which will eventually absorb the Ventura satellite.

But applause shook the bleachers when Jillene L. Olson--the student speaker, mother of six and one of three students to graduate summa cum laude--addressed the children in the audience.

“Remember this day as you watch your mom,” she said. “I want you to see yourself receiving a diploma.”

A few of the students, who said their children often accompanied them to class, included them in the ceremony as well.

Michael Ward of Ventura, a 41-year-old father of six, marched in the processional with one of his 2-year-old twins, Donegal, perched in the crook of his arm.

“Why not?” he said. “They came around the same time I started here.”

And 6-year-old Ashley Gavin graduated from sitting at the back of her mother’s finance lectures with a box of crayons to sitting on her mother’s lap during the ceremony.

“It was exhausting, keeping 12-hour days,” said her mother, Laya Gavin, of her struggle to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance. “But it was worthwhile.”

Instead of a huge graduation bash, Gavin was planning to celebrate this weekend by taking her daughter to Chuck E. Cheese and Disneyland.

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Others planned to celebrate with their adult children.

“We are so proud of her,” Connie Barraza, 25, of Oxnard said of 44-year-old Margie M. Barraza. “She has done something none of us has accomplished.”

The elder Barraza became the first in her family to graduate from college Friday.

In addition to going to school and working part time, Barraza raised her three daughters, ages 25 to 29, and a son, now 4.

She started working toward her degree at Ventura College in 1987. Now a teacher’s aide in the Rio Elementary School District, Barraza plans to become a teacher in her own right.

“It makes me feel real proud of myself,” she said. “Now I can honestly say I am a good role model for my [children].”