What a Romp, This Pomp and Circumstance

Saturday wasn’t the first UC Irvine graduation where “Pomp and Circumstance” was played. It wasn’t the first graduation where a commencement speaker told students the day marked a beginning, not an end.

But it was the first UCI graduation for Alan Nguyen--one of 3,858 students awarded diplomas Saturday at the university’s 32nd commencement. Nguyen’s grandmother, parents and four sisters were among the 30,000 people attending the graduation ceremonies, which were held throughout the day at Aldrich Park and the Bren Events Center.

For Nguyen, born the same year the communists conquered his native South Vietnam, it was an achievement that almost never came to pass. A decade ago, a then-12-year-old Nguyen tried to flee Vietnam with his father a dozen times before they successfully found sanctuary in a Thai refugee camp.

There, Nguyen and his father, a former officer in the South Vietnamese army, languished for two years before finally making it out of the country. They later settled in Westminster.

“It was very scary to leave Vietnam. It was very dangerous, and we had to split up our family,” Nguyen said, proudly wearing his cap and gown. “I feel so lucky that I was one of the few to make it here.”

The biology major is the first of his four siblings to graduate from a university. He said he plans to spend his summer relaxing before attending dental school at UCLA this fall.

“Today is very exciting,” Nguyen added. “My father barely gives out hugs, but today he was all over me.”

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While the vast majority of Saturday’s graduates did not overcome such dramatic circumstances, the day was still meaningful to their families and friends. Three generations of Jennifer Talevich’s family cheered as the 22-year-old claimed her psychology degree.

“She’s my first grandchild to graduate from college,” Elaine Hickman, 73, of Tustin said as her granddaughter’s class prepared to receive their degrees. “It’s a perfect day for Jennifer.”

Talevich’s mother, Jeanette Jensen, also of Tustin, added: “When I got the graduation announcement, I saw her full name on it, just like her birth certificate. I was so proud.”

Graduation day brought out the kind of widespread enthusiasm the campus rarely sees. As the School of Social Sciences students waited to collect their diplomas, the atmosphere seemed more like Anaheim Stadium than Aldrich Park.

Students in caps and gowns performed the wave. At one point, graduates batted about three inflatable beach balls.

“I love the feeling of a graduation day. A lot of my friends are graduating today,” said Jarrod Foken, 21, who will be a senior in the fall. He had volunteered for his third straight UCI graduation this year and helped lead the afternoon’s processional march. “It’s a great way to get amped.”

The day supplied many familiar sights and sounds. Speakers were politely endured, names were called and mangled, parents fumbled with video cameras, and tassels were proudly flipped from right to left.

And one speaker reminded the graduates that the day marks an important passage.

“You’re different because you’ve been to UCI,” Jean Aldrich, wife of UCI’s first chancellor, Daniel G. Aldrich, told the social science graduates. “And UCI is different because you’ve been here.”