Whoopee!!

This blog is late this week for a very gratifying reason!

Our granddaughter, adopted into our family at the age of 11, graduated from CSUStanislaus this week end.  Family traveled to Modesto, CA, for her graduation, and had an absolutely marvelous time with her, her two daughters, her sister and her two children, and, of course, our daughter and her husband.  It is a tribute to not only our granddaughter for her hard work, because she wanted to do as much as possible herself, but to our daughter and her husband, that they encouraged her and gave her the support she needed.

Stanislaus State is in the San Joaquin Valley, near to Stockton and the Bay area.  The graduation ceremony, itself, was also very gratifying.  The young man who gave the student speech was informed, articulate, had a good sense of humor, but was also imbued with a sense of social justice.  The President asked all of the graduates who were the first in their family to graduate from college to stand up, and nearly half of them stood up.  He also commended those students who were single parents, but who had worked, raised their children and still made it.

As I was reading over the program of events for the ceremony, what struck me was the wide variety of ethnic names listed.  One occasionally ran across an Anglo-Saxon name.  Our granddaughter graduated with a degree in Business, but under the Political Science department, once again the names were predominately ethnic.  Two were Anglo Saxon out of maybe 25-30 names.  I only hope these students enter the political arena.  They are desperately needed.

Both my husband and I had the same reaction.  When we graduated some 55 years ago, the names were just the opposite.  There was occasionally an ethnic name, and these were generally foreign students who had come to the US to get an education, but most names were Northern European.

One of the comments made during the ceremony was that with the wide variety of students with different cultural backgrounds, the campus had become a location where all of these students could share their backgrounds, and make lasting friends with students from different cultural backgrounds that would last for many, many years.

All of this made me really proud of what we have accomplished in California.  It used to be said, “As California goes, so goes the nation”.  I devoutly hope so.  It will only be to the benefit of our country as a whole.  Whoopee!!!