The routes to college diplomas are varied.
Many students finish high school and then graduate from college only a few years later. But more and more older students have returned to college classrooms.Here are the stories of four University of Utah graduates who received their sheepskins Friday:
Debbie Marincic: This U. architecture graduate and her classmates truly exemplified teamwork in action.
Paralyzed from the waist down because of an automobile accident, Marincic, 31, said her classmates were so "great in making things work for me." She never missed a field trip, even to such places as the catwalks of the Salt Lake City-County Building and Mesa Verde National Park, because her classmates hoisted her up stairs or did whatever was necessary to get her to the assigned place.
To get to one of the Mesa Verde ruins, the students had to climb a 25-foot ladder. "One of the fellows put Debbie on his back and carried her up. Another hauled up her wheelchair. The Park Service people said they had never heard of a person in a wheelchair getting there before," said Dean Carl Inoway.
Marincic, who was recently hired by Gillies Stransky Brems Smith Architects, plans to help private businesses comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Robert J. Ithurralde: This speech communication graduate didn't need a job when he started taking classes nine years ago. Ithurralde, 48, has been a barber for 30 years.
"It was always in the back of my mind to pursue an academic career. I started taking classes nine years ago, mostly in theater, art appreciation and drawing. In 1989, I got serious about a degree, hoping to get out before I turned 50," he said.
He took classes - eight or nine credit hours per quarter - at night or during "lunch" hours. "With a little patience and persistence, it can be done. The way to do it is to not look at the long-range goal, but to take it a quarter at a time."
Irwin Altman, professor of psychology and longtime client of Ithurralde's Foothill Village barber shop, attended the College of Humanities commencement convocation to share the moment with his friend. Several other U. faculty patronize the barber shop that Ithurralde describes as "a hotbed of intellectual activity and a repository for great jokes."
With his new diploma, Ithurralde plans to continue snipping hair while he looks into communications careers.
Saeed Tavazoie: His family came halfway around the world so that Tavazoie could receive a proper education.
Friday, Tavazoie, who earned a 3.9 GPA with a physics major and double minor in mathematics and chemistry, was the student speaker at the College of Science commencement convocation.
Tavazoie's family's immigrated to Utah from Iran in 1982, when the country 's political and social conditions deteriorated under the reign of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Tavazoie was 13 years old.
"Education became secondary to religion, and universities closed down. Also, boys my age were being drafted to fight the war with Iraq," he said.
This fall, Tavazoie will enter an eight-year M.D-Ph.D. program at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Janice M. Pearson: It was at a U. commencement three years ago as she watched the graduates in their caps and gowns that Pearson was struck with the thought that she could do it, too.
Friday, Pearson, 43, graduated on her own, a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society with a 3.83 GPA in speech communication. Her daughters, two of whom attend the U., watched with pride.
In 1990, recently divorced and needing new job skills, Pearson enrolled in classes that emphasized interpersonal and small group communication. At her first meeting of a study group, Pearson, who had left college in 1969 in order to marry, instinctively provided her classmates with cookies and punch. She no longer feels responsible for refreshments.
Pearson will return to the U. this fall for a nine-month certificate program in dispute resolution. She also hopes to move up from her clerical job at an insurance company to a position that uses her new skills.
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(Additional information)
U. graduation profile
Number of graduates: 4,800
Total degrees awarded since 1886: 98,813
Average age of bachelor's candidate: 27.7 years
Length of time to graduate: 6.5 years
Average GPA of bachelor's candidate: 3.14
Longest time to graduate: 46 years
Average age of advanced-degree candidate: 35.5 years
Length of time to graduate: 9.1 years
Class of '92 composition: 55 percent men, 45 percent women
Percentage who transferred from other colleges: 59 percent