USC Commencement 2006: Human Interest Stories
USC COMMENCEMENT 2006: HUMAN INTEREST STORIES
More than 8,000 students will graduate at ceremonies on the USC University Park Campus on Friday, May 12, 2006. Here are some of their stories:
Tsunami Reconstruction, Thai Sweatshops
Michel Martinez spent last summer documenting reconstruction efforts after a tsunami overwhelmed parts of Thailand. In the midst of the natural disaster, she quickly found a man-made tragedy: sweatshops, a social ill she now has chosen to fight. Martinez was one of 10 students awarded a $10,000 Renaissance Scholars Prize to help her attend graduate school.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Monique Burgess, whose parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Belize, was guided to USC by the university’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative. The program helps L.A. kids who want to be the first in their families to go to college by providing classes and tutors that prepare the children to succeed at the next level. In 15 years, NAI has graduated 300 students, nearly half of whom have gone on to USC. Burgess plans to teach English after graduation.
Raising Two Kids, Working at Vons, Earning a Pharm.D.
Kellee Lindauer has spent the past 11 years working toward her pharmacy degree, which is a four-year postgraduate program. Lindauer juggled her studies with raising two children and working a job at Vons. She started with the supermarket as a box girl 28 years ago. The company has promised her a position as a pharmacist once she passes the state pharmacy exam.
A Grandmother and New Generation Nurse
Ann Marie Kelly has been a registered nurse for 30 years, but the grandmother braved computers and students more than half her age to become one of the first to earn a Nurse Social Work Practitioner degree, the only one of its kind.
Fighting for Rights in Kenya
Tanya Mburu plans to use the legal education she received at USC’s Gould School of Law to protect and expand the rights of girls in her native Kenya. “Ultimately, I would like to create a program that will make sure these at-risk girls stay in school and have a fighting chance to be productive members of society,” she says.
First in the Family to Attend College – and Law School
USC Gould School of Law graduate Oscar Medellin was first in his family to graduate from college, earning a B.A. at the University of Texas. As he now receives his law degree from USC, Medellin says, “I understand the value of higher education, because it unlocked doors for me and helped me overcome a cycle of poverty that has existed in my family for generations.”
New Kind of Graduate
Even though he’s only been on the USC campus twice since 2004, Ray Ambrose will graduate with a master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering Smart Oilfield Technology from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Ambrose, who lives near Bakersfield, is one of 208 students from all over the United States who will graduate as part of Viterbi’s distance education program, one of the largest classes of any engineering school in the country.
Political Activist
Lee Sherman interned in the office of Sen. John Kerry after the 2004 election and found a climate in which Republicans and Democrats refused to work together. The former president of the USC Democrats took the lessons he learned on Capitol Hill back to USC, where he formed the bipartisan Political Student Assembly. Sherman will earn degrees in political science and theater and was named a Renaissance Scholar.
For more information about USC’s commencement activities, please visit https://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/specialevents/commencement/.
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