Special
UC Berkeley convocation for December graduates to be held Friday,
Norman Mineta to speak
05
Dec 2000
By
Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations
Berkeley
- This Friday, for the first time in recent campus history,
University of California, Berkeley students wrapping up degree
requirements during the fall semester will be honored with
their own formal graduation convocation.
Some 1,800
undergraduate students are eligible to participate in the
new December Graduate Convocation, scheduled from 4-6 p.m.
in Hertz Hall auditorium. U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Y.
Mineta, a UC Berkeley alumnus, is the guest speaker.
Until now,
students graduating in the fall have been invited to an informal
reception in December or to join in commencement celebrations
for about 10,000 graduates each spring.
"But very
few of them come back (for the spring ceremony)," said Cindy
Leung, director of student services at the California Alumni
Association. "Once they're gone, they're gone."
Also welcome
at Friday's event are approximately 1,000 graduate students
earning advanced degrees.
Emerick
Gallego supports the December convocation, which is sponsored
by the Chancellor's Office, California Alumni Association
and Alumni Scholars Club.
"I think
it's a good idea, definitely, for those people who had to
take an extra semester to finish," said the 25-year-old student
from Mexicali, Mexico, who is earning degrees in December
in both molecular and cell biology and in Spanish.
Teddy Liaw,
21, president at UC Berkeley of the Associated Students of
the University of California (ASUC), is a December graduate,
too.
"I'm double-majoring
(in business administration and political science) and taking
four and a half years," Liaw said. "I prefer this because
I have more time to complete my requirements rather than being
academically rushed and possibly missing another aspect of
my college experience. Also, I have another summer to get
a summer internship. This will allow me to recruit an additional
season, and hopefully it will open up even more job opportunities."
Christina
Noz, a senior and president of the Alumni Scholars Club, said
students graduate whenever their schedules allow, even though
they may feel a December graduation date lacks the drama of
the traditional springtime ceremony.
"A friend
graduating in December purposely planned her schedule so she
could graduate in three and a half years instead of four,"
Noz said. "Another friend walked in his May departmental graduation
and said that experience was anti-climactic because he still
had one more semester of classes. Both were excited to receive
invitations (to the December convocation) in the mail."
Students
in the Alumni Scholars Club led the charge to create a celebration
for December graduates similar to the one for students finishing
in the spring. A decade ago, the club successfully lobbied
for a December graduation "reception."
In the
past year, however, club members have rallied for still more
recognition for fall finishers.
"The December
grads kind of get forgotten," said Yuwynn Ho, 22, a December
2000 graduate from San Diego, who is earning bachelor's degrees
in political science and economics.
"We want
to let these graduates know that we think they are just as
special as those who graduate in the spring, and that their
work is no less important," added Samia Husain, a UC Berkeley
sophomore, chair of the December graduates' convocation and
an alumni scholar.
Ho began
working on the December convocation with others in the Alumni
Scholars Club, which includes about 1,000 UC Berkeley students
recognized by the California Alumni Association for their
outstanding leadership.
As vice
president of commencement for the senior class council in
1999-2000, Ho helped secure U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright as UC Berkeley's commencement speaker last May. When
assigned to find a speaker for the December convocation, Ho
wasted no time making important contacts with potential speakers
while serving an internship at the White House last summer.
Among the prominent figures he met was Mineta.
Ho and
Husain later invited Mineta to speak to the December graduates.
"I am thrilled
that we are able to get two prominent individuals to speak
at the Class of 2000 commencements (in May and December) who
have shattered many glass ceilings," Ho said.
Mineta,
69, served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in Korea, as
a city council member and mayor of San Jose, and in the U.S.
House of Representatives for 21 years. He retired from Congress
in 1995 after a career that included leading the passage of
legislation granting $20,000 in compensation to every Japanese-American
interned - as he was - during World War II. He also was involved
in settling a semiconductor chip dispute with Japan.
After leaving
Congress, Mineta became a senior vice president of Lockheed
Martin.
Mineta,
who graduated from UC Berkeley in June1953 with a bachelor's
degree in business, became the nation's first Asian American
cabinet secretary when he took the commerce post in June.
Former Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, the first Asian American
to head a major U.S. research university, hosted the campus's
first December graduation reception, held for about 200 students
in 1993.
Ho, an
Asian American born in Malaysia, said Tien and Mineta have
been role models for him, and that he's honored that both
of them agreed to speak - one years ago, the other this semester
- to December graduates.
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