1,039 march in graduation ceremony before families, friends and teachers

The graduates, faculty members, families and friends gathered, as so many before them have, in the shade of the mossy limbs of Santa Rosa Junior College's signature oak trees.

In the audience, Ruben Lopez Sr. fidgeted in his chair.

"I'm so proud I could burst buttons right now," he said, as he waited for his 21-year-old daughter, Carolyn, to cross the stage during the college's 86th commencement ceremonies.

She was one of 1,039 students to graduate Saturday, a day blessed by a gentle breeze and what seemed the broadest of light blue skies.

"It's an emotional day for all of us," said Dean of Instruction Steve Olson, as "Pomp and Circumstance" played over a solar-powered public-address system designed by the school's engineering students.

Although he's an old hand at the event, he never tires of it.

"I have the same feelings today as I did then, it's just a special time," said Olson, who graduated from the junior college in 1962 and has been a faculty member since 1970.

Graduates are stepping into a North Coast economy that by most measures has been only slowly recovering from the 2001 recession, and many struck a practical note in reflecting on their education.

"A degree from SRJC offers a distinct advantage in the job market and educational system," said Edina Bohanec, 20, of Santa Rosa, who delivered one of two student speeches and plans to attend UC Berkeley in the fall.

Her travels with the college's overseas studies programs - in Egypt, China and India - broadened her perspectives, she said, and showed her "there is nothing quite as powerful as experiencing the plight of humanity first hand."

Graduate Mark Pe?, 19, of Sonoma, said the junior college offers a key point of entry for students daunted by the costs of higher education.

"I think it's one of the most economic and practical ways to go about getting a higher education," said Pe?, who plans to attend CSU Monterey Bay in the fall.

Others said that over the years, the college had proved a reassuring bulwark against what they described as weaknesses in public secondary school education.

Pat Obergfell of Rohnert Park said she'd watched two daughters and a niece revitalize their educational aspirations at the junior college after they had flagged in high school.

"I wasn't thinking that highly of our California public education," she said, "and I feel like the JC really has redeemed our education."

For more than an hour, the names of students were read, the procession of caps and gowns advanced, and the diplomas were handed out.

"I've achieved a goal I've worked very hard for," said Kelly Formway, 39, of Santa Rosa.

A former hair stylist who who enrolled in the college five years ago after her second child was born, she graduated from the nursing school.

"It finally felt real," she said.