Students honored at OCC graduation ceremony

Michael Miller

When Shana Jenkins graduated from Pacifica High School in Westminster

two years ago, she imagined herself attending an expensive college

back East. Financial limitations got in the way of that dream.

“I had no idea I would attend a community college, so I went into

Coast blindly and without direction,” Jenkins said Thursday at Orange

Coast College’s 57th commencement.

Whatever direction Jenkins may have lacked coming in, she made up

for it during the next two years. Earlier this spring, the

20-year-old political science major was named to the USA Today Phi

Theta Kappa All-California Academic First Team. In May, her college

awarded her its fifth annual Sharon K. Donoff Student Leader of the

Year Award -- the highest leadership honor on campus.

On Thursday, she capped off her two years by serving as student

speaker at the Orange Coast College graduation ceremony. The title of

her speech summarized the journey she’s taken since the end of high

school: “I Wish I Would Have Known.”

Jenkins was one of 1,965 students honored at the ceremony, held in

the Pacific Amphitheater at the Orange County Fairgrounds and

Exposition Center. A total of 1,499 students received associate in

arts degrees, with 466 taking home certificates of completion. Orange

Coast College president Bob Dees, who succeeded Gene Farrell in

March, hosted the event.

The commencement speaker at the ceremony was marine science

professor Dennis Kelly, the Orange Coast College Faculty Member of

the Year. Kelly, who chairs the college’s marine science department,

has been on the faculty for 31 years and also serves as the director

of the campus cold-water aquarium.

“Commencement is the beginning of great things,” Kelly told the

crowd. “A great start. And that’s what you’ve done by staying at

Orange Coast College until tonight.”

Later, the college presented its annual Outstanding Citizen Award

to Bob Campbell, the president of C. T. Realty in Newport Beach.

Campbell founded the Guardian Scholars Program, which supports

emancipated foster care youth, at Orange Coast College in 2001.

Thirty-six Guardian Scholar students, Dees said, currently attend

Orange Coast College.

Dees awarded honorary degrees to former Orange Coast College

students Debbie Cook and Rollande Sampson, who have volunteered their

services for the past 20 years.