Walking on Air : Elated Chapman Grads Rejoice With Loved Ones

Chapman University graduate Dawn Odekirk, 22, wore her emotions Sunday, portrayed in two buttons she had fastened on her graduation robe.

One button expressed her joy and said: “I made it.” The other expressed Odekirk’s more immediate concern: “Graduate for hire.”

“A job?” said Odekirk, a communications major. “Well, I’m waiting for any kind of job right now. The resumes have been sent out. I want anything in my major, out of my major, anything that can pay the rent.”

Odekirk was among the nearly 600 undergraduates who received degrees at Sunday’s commencement exercises that drew about 7,600 people to the university’s athletic field. In addition to students, an honorary degree was bestowed on Donald O’Connor, the 70-year-old actor-dancer-comedian, who was described as bringing “laughter and joy” to millions during a show business career that spanned six decades.

As he received a doctorate of humane letters, O’Connor quipped that he had been in show business so long, “I didn’t know when I became a legend.” O’Connor starred in the classic “Singing in the Rain” and in 52 other films.

Also honored were two of Chapman’s outstanding students, Kristina Cordasco, 22, a double major in pre-medicine and economics, and Hieu Tran Phan, 22, a triple major in English, philosophy and religion. They both were honored as 1996 valedictorians and winners of the university’s Cheverton Trophy, as outstanding students.

Cordasco, an Upland native, is the first in her family to go to college. She has been accepted to Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, where she will start in the fall.

Cordasco said that she hopes to combine a medical degree with economics to help reform the nation’s health-care system.

“I want to work on increasing access to [health] care for these American people, especially for children,” Cordasco said. “That’s my passion.”

She also is a 1996 Harry S. Truman $30,000 scholarship winner, one of 80 scholars chosen nationwide, on the basis of her leadership potential, academic performance and desire to serve the public good.

Phan’s journey through college was not as arduous as his journey to the United States in 1981. At that time, he arrived with his mother, Mai Tran of Garden Grove, and two brothers as boat people who escaped Vietnam’s oppressive regime to Malaysia.

The family first lived in Oakland and then moved to Garden Grove, where he was enrolled in English as a second language classes. He finished fourth in his senior class at Santiago High School and first at Chapman’s graduating class with a 4.0 grade-point average.

The ceremony also had its lighter side, especially for the family of senior Aaron Wilson, 22, of Grand Terrace. It’s a Wilson family tradition to salute the graduate with a chorus of hoots and cheers followed by kazoo playing.

So Wilson’s mother, Patricia, aunt Diane Abbot, grandmother Marguerite Goddard, sister Robin Griswold and her husband, David, struck up an impromptu kazoo riff when they heard Aaron’s name called.

With her daughter, Celeste, 13, yelling “Mom! Mom!” to get her attention, Mayela Rivera, 38, of Santa Ana proudly walked into the arms of her family with degree in hand.

“I decided to come back to school after a long hiatus,” said Rivera, a communications major. “I wanted to get a job after raising my family, and to get a job I needed a degree.”

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For Hugo and Sonia Mejia of Rancho Santa Margarita, the graduation of their son, Alvaro Jose Mejia, 23, was a culmination of sacrifice and love.

“He’s the first one to graduate from our family, and we’re proud today,” Hugo Mejia said. “It took a lot of sacrifice. Like most people in the United States, putting your son through college is expensive.”

Hugo Mejia, a machinist in the aerospace industry, said the family wanted to visit their homeland of Colombia, but for the last nine years have had to cancel that dream in favor of their sons’ academic future. Diego Mejia, another son, graduates from UC Irvine next year.

But Hugo Mejia said it’s worth it, especially after Alvaro Mejia came up to them after the ceremony and told them in Spanish: “Thank you, papa and mama, for the opportunity that you have given me.”