2,000 graduate from Sonoma State University

The trees waved along with the families and friends as 2,000 students graduated in two ceremonies Saturday at Sonoma State University.

A steady breeze kept the tree branches swaying behind three sets of temporary bleachers as 1,000 students entered the commencement lawn for the 3 p.m. ceremony. Another 1,000 had received bachelor's and master's degrees Saturday morning.

The mood was festive and congratulatory to both the students and the families who had supported them. A few speakers at the podium encouraged applause for all the moms in the audience on the eve of Mother's Day.

"I love you, Mom," student speaker and theater arts grad Ashley Kimball said at the start of her speech.

The graduates join more than 58,000 alumni who have received diplomas from the Rohnert Park campus since it opened in 1961.

Before the ceremony, the black-gowned students lined up beside Stevenson Hall, the campus' oldest classrooms.

There, Kurt Martin and Zachary Hasbany, friends since high school, acknowledged that the day was special for the chance to see classmates and friends one last time before setting out on a new stage of life.

"It's the final get-together," Martin said.

Said Hasbany, "It's a little bit scary because we're facing the real world."

While Martin has a summer internship announcing games for a college baseball league, both intend to eventually move back with their parents near Morgan Hill and to seek jobs. Hasbany, who had lead roles in Sonoma State's 2012 production of "Oklahoma" and other community roles, hopes to save money and eventually return to school to study theater.

The graduation, he said, was a milestone for parents as much as for students.

"Congratulations," Hasbany said. "You raised us well."

Nearby, Kayla Swain posed for photos with fellow seniors Courtney Scales and Yvette Rangel.

Swain, who finished her undergraduate classes in December and now is enrolled in Sonoma State's teaching credential program, said the best part of graduation was being with family. That includes her 21-year-old brother, who just finished finals at Penn State University and flew across country to surprise her on the big day.

"I literally jumped on him and cried at the same time," she said.

As the students waited, some clutched champagne bottles, and the popping of corks set off whoops and cheers around them.

Later in the ceremony, SSU President Ruben Armi?na made reference to the bubbly beverages as he bestowed an honorary doctorate on Gary Heck, owner of Guerneville sparkling winemaker F. Korbel & Bros. Many of the grads were Heck's customers, Ami?na observed, "some of them quite recently."

Heck serves as the board chairman for the university's Wine Business Institute, an organization he told the audience he takes "great pride" in being associated with.

Commencement speaker Adam Braun, founder and CEO of the New York nonprofit Pencils of Promise, told the graduates he had gone to Brown University with an aim of acquiring wealth. Instead, the nonprofit he founded has built 200 schools to provide education for children around the world.

He encouraged the graduates on their first job to concentrate on mastering skills and to see the work as sort of "a paid form of business school." But he called on them to seek a bigger purpose than themselves.

"I haven't pursued happiness," Braun said. "I pursued meaning."

He left them with a thought from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: "If your dreams do not scare you, then they're not big enough."

(You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@ pressdemocrat.com.)