Higher Degrees of Difficulty

Heather Douglas, 40, of Pacific Palisades was recuperating from a life-threatening bout with lymphatic cancer when she enrolled in music classes at Cal State Northridge to relieve the tedium of recovery.

Joseph Antunez, 40, of North Hills juggled marriage, fatherhood, two jobs and theatrical performances while pursuing a degree in theater arts at CSUN.

Bob Schuett, 36, of Camarillo suffered a severely broken leg in a carpentry accident, endured five months in rehabilitation only to have the leg surgically rebroken to correct the way it was set.

When CSUN officials hand out diplomas to more than 6,000 graduates during commencement exercises Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Douglas, Antunez and Schuett will be rewarded not only for their academic achievements, but for their tenacity in pursuing their goals in the face of overwhelming odds.

“I’m extremely proud of our 1998 graduates,” said CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson. “They have worked very hard to master new knowledge and skills, to overcome every obstacle and to prepare themselves for the challenges of the 21st century.”

For Douglas, Antunez and Schuett, those obstacles came in the form of health problems and financial woes set against family obligations.

Douglas was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphatic cancer in 1990 while working as a sales consultant for a construction products company and singing in local opera companies on the side.

“I was very lucky to have a friend who was an oncology nurse, and she recommended a doctor who was a very spiritual, loving, wonderful and dedicated man,” Douglas said. The doctor recommended she fight the disease with radiation and chemotherapy, which left her bald, thin, exhausted and unable to walk.

When the treatment began to work, however, “He was dancing in the office,” Douglas recalled.

Still, Douglas knew she had a long recovery ahead.

“In December 1991, I was in remission, but I was still really sick,” she said. She spent countless hours in doctors’ offices, physical therapy sessions and, to her dismay, in front of the television.

To get her mind off her illness, Douglas signed up for music theory and French classes at Santa Monica College. After taking all of the college’s music courses, she enrolled in CSUN’s music department.

“I went to my voice audition and I burst out crying in the middle of my song because I knew my voice didn’t sound the same,” she said, adding that she felt embarrassed and humiliated.

Radiation treatments had paralyzed a portion of her vocal cords, she said, preventing her from making use of the full-range of her voice.

Her doctors said the best thing she could do to strengthen her vocal cords and expand her lung capacity was to keep on singing.

Now, nearly eight years after being diagnosed, Douglas has almost full use of her voice and has publicly performed at her junior and senior recitals.

“Going to college gave me a feeling of purpose and a future,” Douglas said.

She intends to combine the fields of voice and speech pathology through teaching the science of sound to voice teachers.

For Antunez, financial troubles forced him to drop out of CSUN in 1985.

“I had different priorities back then,” he recalled, “and I didn’t do well at managing my money.”

For the next six years, Antunez worked as a summer camp counselor and a school clerk before landing a job in 1991 as a clerical assistant in the CSUN provost’s office.

“It had always been a personal goal of mine to earn my degree,” Antunez said.

The free tuition that came in his benefits package, Antunez said, removed a financial stumbling block, and in 1994 he re-enrolled as a theater arts major with a specialty in business administration.

But this time around, Antunez took his education far more seriously because he had a greater responsibilities: a wife, two young daughters, a new, full-time post as executive secretary to the provost and a part-time job in student services at the Learning Tree University in Chatsworth.

“My family helped me to stay in balance,” Antunez said. “It was a challenge for us all the way. That’s why this is really our graduation.”

For Schuett, a freak carpentry accident wound up being the best thing that ever happened to him, he said.

He was building a wall for a house when the 3,000-pound section fell and shattered both bones in his lower leg.

After emergency surgery, six days in the hospital, a month off his feet and three months on crutches, Schuett decided first to enroll at Oxnard College and later at CSUN in 1996.

Schuett carried 22 hours--nearly twice the normal class load--and cared for his young son and daughter while his wife taught school.

Even after his leg was surgically rebroken and reset because, he said, it was improperly set the first time, Schuett kept up his rigorous class schedule.

“I just built up a head of steam and got used to carrying a lot of classes,” he said. “I could see that there was a definite end to school if I kept up the pace.”

After he receives his diploma this week, Schuett won’t be slowing down: He’s already enrolled in an MBA program at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

Campus commencement activities are set to begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday with an Honor’s Convocation at the University Club that is open to the public.

John B. Slaughter, president of Occidental College in Los Angeles and a former member of the Christopher Commission, is scheduled to give the keynote address at the assembly.

More than 1,000 bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates will be recognized at the ceremony.

Seven students will receive $1,000 awards for academic excellence. They include Emily Wargo, a child development major from Burbank and the university’s top graduating senior; Maria Hernandez, a psychology major from Los Angeles; Allan Arnold Gamalinda Aquino, an Asian American historical studies major from North Hills; Olympia LePoint, a statistical mathematics major from Los Angeles; Steve Martinez, a music performance major from Van Nuys; Sonya S. Scott, a health education major from Northridge; and Alisa S. Kramer, a history major from West Hollywood.

The university will also award honorary degrees to movie director Abraham Polonsky and arts patron Harold M. Williams. Opera singer and CSUN graduate Carol Vaness received an honorary doctorate in fine arts at a special ceremony in April.

Banished from Hollywood for 16 years following hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, director Polonsky will be awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters at the commencement for the College of Arts, Media and Communication on Wednesday. He currently teaches in the university’s Radio-Television-Film Department.

Williams, president emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust, will receive a doctorate of humane letters at the College of the Humanities’ commencement exercises on Thursday. For 17 years, Williams headed the charitable trust that funds arts and humanities programs from its $4.3-billion endowment, including several at CSUN.