By Lookout Staff

May 28, 2024 -- Some 1,000 students are expected to attend Santa Monica College's (SMC) 94th Commencement Ceremony, which will take place in-person at Corsair Field on June 11.

This year's graduating class is the largest yet, with 6,309 students -- from ages 15 to 85 -- earning 9,725 degrees and certificates, SMC officials said.

The ceremony, which includes congratulatory speeches and “Move the Tassel Moment” for the graduates, will be webcast live and available on the SMC Commencement webpage (smc.edu/commencement).

The ceremony features a "Salutation" by SMC Superintendent/President Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery, "Welcome" by SMC Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Margaret Quiñones-Perez, "Faculty Challenge" by SMC Academic Senate President Jamar London and the "Student Challenge" by graduating Student Speaker Patrisia Diaz Maldonado.

“The changes this class have encountered in a few short years have been monumental,” said SMC Superintendent Jeffery. “They faced a global pandemic, a world roiled by wars and campus protests, a nation rocked by social injustice and political upheaval.

"They have also seen the promise of the future in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, new economies such as ocean farming, new ways to combat the climate crisis in SMC’s recently planted microforest."

SMC Enrollment Services Dean Esau Tovar said the graduating class reflects the wide diversity of the students who attend community colleges and the myriad reasons they have choose to enroll.

“This year’s graduates truly represent the spirit of community colleges -- places of opportunity where individuals from diverse educational backgrounds come to realize their dreams,” Tovar said.

“Whether they started SMC as high school concurrent students, returned to college after a break, came seeking training for a new career, or pursued a long-held dream of earning a degree, they fulfill that at Commencement. This year's graduating class is particularly amazing."

Superintendent Jeffery said she is confident graduating students are well prepared to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

"As graduates move beyond SMC to the next part of their academic and career journey, they will encounter many things that are very different or substantially changed from what they knew when first embarking on the pathway through SMC," Jeffery said.

"Because they have successfully reached the important culminating point designated by a commencement or graduation ceremony, we are confident they are ready to move onward and upward.”