Wednesday, May 11, 2016, marked the inaugural graduation of the class of 2016 when 13 local students were conferred their bachelor’s degrees by Marymount California University (MCU) at the Lakeside Campus in Lucerne. 

The graduates walked the stage to the applause of their families, friends and the community. 

I will remember that day always as I was fortunate enough to walk this journey with them the last two years: to know of their stories, their struggles, their challenges and their personal successes when they received their diplomas.

They were involved in the community before their graduation, and they are excited to move into greater roles of leadership and service out of their love for our community and a desire to be involved in our efforts to work together in many ways and across many fields.

I thanked our “village” in my commencement speech and asked the audience to stand to recognize themselves as that village.

We hear that said so often but the visual of all those people standing really brought home to me how vital our community has been in welcoming the Lakeside Campus and in supporting its growth by providing the academic opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in the county for the first time.

I’d like to congratulate the class of 2016 again and thank our community for all its support. None of this would be possible without the vision of the county of Lake and its partnership with MCU to create a campus here.

All of our employees are local and all but one of our instructors is, for a total of 16 Lake County residents employed across the year.

We have contracted with many local businesses as vendors whenever possible and that list includes JP Specialty Cleaners, Advanced Electronic Security, Nathan DeHart Photography, Lake Transit Authority, Uribe Landscape, N & A Electric, Bicoastal Media, Westgate Petroleum, Chic Le Chef, WeedTech, Pak N Mail, California Exterminators and more.

A huge special thank you to Pak N Mail for the beautiful job on senior Capstone and biography posters; Fresh and Bangin’ Eatery for their wonderful hors d’ouevres; Lake Event Services for making “the Castle” even more spectacular than ever; Patrick Fitzgerald for the first-ever playing of “Pomp and Circumstance” in the Castle; Nate Rogers, professional events security, for all of his care and concern for the students, staff and campus; Lake County Land Trust for partnering with us to present the first Distinguished Speaker Series; and the Lake County Office of Education for its ongoing support and partnership.

Lake County News has our gratitude and appreciation as they have been tremendous supporters of the campus in their advertising, taking the initiative to film all of our Distinguished Speaker Series and making this remarkable series on the natural history of Clear Lake and Lake County available on their YouTube channel. 

Great thanks to John Jensen who live-streamed the graduation ceremony, making it accessible to friends and family all across the world who were unable to attend and didn’t want to miss this special moment in their loved ones’ lives. 

I want to extend my gratitude, that of my staff at Lakeside and the MCU community to our greater Lake County community for the warm welcome and tremendous support. 

Michelle Scully is executive director of Marymount California University's Lakeside Campus in Lucerne, Calif.