After Allan Hancock College’s 89th commencement, it was neither the school’s president Jose M. Ortiz nor the keynote speaker, Henry A.J. Ramos, who had the final word on the occasion: It was the Allan Hancock College Concert Band, which, after the recession of the graduates, performed the Looney Tunes theme song “That’s All, Folks.”
Graduates at the commencement were among the 683 students who had earned 653 associate in arts degrees and 278 associates in science degrees—that’s 931 total degrees in 66 different subjects.
This year, Hancock’s two banner carriers were distinctive among their fellow graduates: Zoie Daniels, 17, and Sue Ann Erwin, 71. Daniels, who will be transferring to Cal Poly, SLO, graduated with two degrees—one in Spanish and a liberal arts-transfer degree in arts and humanities— after balancing Hancock with her high school courses. The eldest graduate at the commencement, Erwin obtained an associate’s degree in liberal arts and plans to continue working as an accountant—but she “did it to prove [she] could,” according to a press release from the college.
The commencement was also a goodbye to longtime English instructor Bob Isaacson, who presented the graduates.
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This article appears in Jun 10-17, 2010.