‘Celebration of Their Success’

Like a person hosting a big dinner party for the first time, Santiago Canyon College’s staff had to do some serious planning in the months before the school’s first commencement.

Where would the guests sit, and how many chairs would be needed? What should the music be, and would the event require purchase of a sound system?

Many decisions and $25,000 later, everything went off without a hitch Friday, when about 140 students in caps and gowns received associate’s degrees on a warm, sunny afternoon at the Orange campus.

“We wanted to set the tone for our commencement with the focus on the students and have it be a meaningful occasion and a celebration of their success,” said Bob Deegan, vice president of student services.

Students have been attending classes at the site since 1985, when the school was considered a satellite campus of Santa Ana College, then known as Rancho Santiago College.

Santiago Canyon became independent in the fall of 1997. By autumn 1999, about 9,700 students were enrolled. The school was awarded degree-granting authority in January by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges.

Because the fledgling campus still has no auditorium, stadium or gymnasium, Friday’s ceremony was in a campus courtyard. About 1,000 friends and relatives were on hand to applaud the graduates.

As a measure of how new the campus is, yellow construction vehicles and mounds of rubble provided a backdrop for the ceremony. The land adjacent to the courtyard is being graded for soccer fields, and future commencement ceremonies for larger classes could be held there, Deegan said.

Despite the makeshift setting, the planning committee went beyond basic logistics and added special touches that could become school traditions: When all the diplomas were conferred, a flock of doves was released. And as students left the courtyard, faculty members lined both sides of a walkway to congratulate the new graduates.

“When you’re establishing tradition and you’re starting from scratch, you try things and see what you’d like to keep,” Deegan said.

Many aspects of the event were unavoidably conventional. Children ignored the speeches and played in the grass, proud relatives angled for camera shots, and bouquets of flowers lined the aisles of white folding chairs.

One part of the ceremony is already firmly entrenched: presentation of the Dean R. Strenger Service Award, named for the college’s president.

Devon Trahan, one of its first recipients, spent more than three years earning his degree while working full-time as a security officer at the college. On days when he had class, the 47-year-old graduate spent 16 hours on campus.

“I’m blessed,” Trahan said after the ceremony. “And there’s more yet to come for me.” He plans to go on to a four-year university.

Melissa Hernandez, 23, also traversed a winding road to her associate’s degree. She earned the necessary credits with a patchwork of classes at Santa Ana, Coastline, Cypress and Santiago Canyon colleges over more than four years while holding down two jobs--one in sales and another as a cocktail waitress. In August, Hernandez will begin classes in business management at Pepperdine University.

“It’s a miracle,” Hernandez said, holding the blue leather cover containing her diploma.

As she walked past a line of college trustees and shook their hands, her 2-year-old daughter, Melinda, toddled up to her, carrying a single red rose.

“She thinks it’s a birthday party,” Hernandez said of her child. “That’s what she said on our way over here.”