UC Davis will celebrate its graduates with 13 commencements from May 17 to June 17. The theme of history will certainly run a bloodline through this year’s speeches, as both students and professionals think about how UC Davis can connect to its past and future.

Kathryn Hempstead, a College of Letters and Sciences (L&S) commencement speaker this year, columnist for The Aggie and senior sociology major, wants us to remember Socrates and his sage words when thinking about how extraordinary a place Davis is.

“I’m pretty sure Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living,’ and while it’s not generally a goal of mine to live by the precepts of dead Greek guys, I think that the purpose of a grad speech is to do a bit of examining and a bit of inspiring. So I hope very much I live up to my own expectations,” Hempstead said.

Aaron Heuckroth, one of two College of Biological Sciences (CBS) speakers and winner of the 2012 CBS College Medal, may not be thumbing through history books, but he will revive students’ memories through song.

“I don’t know how much I can reveal about the song without spoiling the surprise, but it’s called ‘The Ballad of UC Davis,’ and it’s meant to be a humorous look back at our experiences as biology majors here at UC Davis and the things that make this university really special. If I can squeeze even a little bit of entertainment and humor into the long commencement ceremony, I’ll feel like I’ve done my job,” Heuckroth said.

Daniel Turner, another L&S speaker and senior psychology major, similarly thinks back to all the times he spent with fellow students and is most enamored by a very existential idea: parts coming together as a whole.

“I think what I find most exciting about commencement in general is the idea that all the students who I’ve shared classes with (considering we’re in the same grade) are all convening in one room at one time. It’s a unique experience to think that each separate relationship you created with your peers in each different classroom will all be coming together now,” Turner said.

When asked if his speech will be any different from any other graduation addresses, he answered, “No.”

“It shouldn’t be. I feel my job as the commencement speaker is to be a representative of every graduate and so I try not to deviate from that expected role,” Turner said.

Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (A&ES) said that their commencement speaker, Secretary-General Chris Buijink of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, is the type of leader that will help students understand the importance of intellectual diversity. Van Alfen’s perspective is not just on UC Davis’ previous accomplishments, but on what lies ahead.

“Secretary-General Buijink leads a ministry that combines economic development, innovation and agriculture. As we look to the future, countries such as the Netherlands serve as a model for what is possible in economic development based on innovation in food and agriculture while maintaining very high environmental quality standards,” Van Alfen said. “Inviting a leader from another country demonstrates to our students the global connections of UC Davis and importance of UC Davis in addressing global issues.”

Austin Sendek, the third L&S speaker and senior applied physics major, had a similar message as Dean Van Alfen.

“The basic message of my speech is a reminder that what we’ve learned outside the classroom during our college experience is just as important as what we’ve learned inside the classroom,” Sendek said.

Heuckroth already knows how to get students up out of their desks and onto the international stage.

“I think the trick is to just keep saying ‘yes’ when cool opportunities present themselves — UC Davis is full of them. It’s an amazing feeling to take classes with people who care about the material as much as you do. We love this stuff, and it shows,” Heuckroth said.

In regards to actually performing their speeches, some are nervous, while others dread the more mundane aspects of graduation.

Hempstead admitted forthright that nudity may unintentionally be involved during her address.

“I fear I’ll trip over my own feet and expose my undergarments to a stage full of professors and administrators. But on another level, I also fear I’ll pull my punches. I want to be honest about how scary real life is, and the fact that in many ways we will undoubtedly fail, and not achieve what we set out to do. Hopefully I don’t chicken out,” Hempstead said.

She plans on reciting her speech to trees or ducks in the Arboretum, and sleeping with her speech under her pillow. She will also most likely have a “panicky cry” in the bathroom earlier in the day, but said it’s less a ritual and more a neurosis.

Both Turner and Sendek aren’t looking forward to some of the traditional, albeit less interesting, practices of commencement.

“[What’s most boring is] hearing countless names of people you have no clue who they are. And realizing that the only real opportunity for excitement is that you’ll hear a name you know be called,” Turner said.

Sendek said he will work hard to make the event as exciting as possible.

“I guess I was mostly driven by the desire to make commencement memorable for my class. I didn’t want us to have to suffer through a boring speech with too many Dr. Seuss quotes that we’d all forget within a week. Graduation is a celebration of our accomplishments, so I just want to make everybody smile at least once,” Sendek said.

Jean Wigglesworth, who has been an event manager at the Office of Ceremonies and Events for 11 years, choked up a bit when asked about her favorite part of commencement.

“I actually love each and every one because it’s an ending and a new beginning. I can cry even if I don’t know anybody walking! They celebrate what they’ve done in four or five years and then they also think about what is coming,” Wigglesworth said. “For me, it’s about the people, the kids, and making it a good experience for everybody.”

CHELSEA MEHRA can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

As summer seeps into Davis, almost the entire campus population is gearing up to head home and not come back until September. But what about the ones who are sticking around, working in the area and looking for things to do during the summer in Yolo County?

There are so many nooks and crannies in the area offering one-of-a-kind entertainment, especially during the summer. More importantly, the history of Yolo County is so intertwined with these activities that one is also bound to learn something new while having fun.

For starters, the Sacramento River Train has been conducting murder mysteries, romantic sunset dinners, relaxed Sunday brunches and the old west Great Train Robberies since 2005.

“A train is a great venue for a Murder Mystery show,” said Chris Hart, president of the Sierra Railroad Dinner Train. “The show is a fun, sometimes over-the-top whodunnit where you try to figure out who killed who.  And while this fun show takes place in your car, you are served a delicious three-course dinner while you ride through the countryside.”

The Great Train Robbery is another classic show.

“The trip features a trip back to the old west with sheriffs and bandits,” Hart said. “There is usually a lot of action around Robber’s Roost so keep your head down!  The train stops at a park along the Sacramento River where an [old-fashioned] barbecue lunch is served.”

The Sierra Railroad has just recently added some new trips to the Sacramento River Train’s summer schedule such as the Sunset Happy Hour Trips and the Graduate Train, which is on June 9. All new graduates ride the train for free.

To learn more about the Sacramento River Train, go to www.sacramentorivertrain.com.

Another Yolo County attraction is the Barnyard Theatre.The 120-year-old Schmeiser barn is located off County Road 31 between Davis and Winters. During the summer, the barn is completely renovated by the Barnard Theatre production team. The barn becomes a theatre, hosting plays for the Yolo County Community as well as workshops for next year’s play. This year’s play will be Psyche by Meghan Brown.

“There’s the excitement of theatre, the excitement of seeing new theatre, the elaborate production itself; then there’s the strangeness of seeing theatre in a barn, then there’s whatever it is to be out in the country,” said Briandaniel Oglesby, the literary manager of Barnyard Theatre and organizer of the Nights of New Plays Festival (NNPF).

Besides attracting audiences for a unique showing of an original play, Barnyard Theatre also welcomes people who have a passion for theatre to attend the NNPF workshops.

“NNPF pieces may be written by emerging or professional playwrights, Barnyard folks, UC Davis students or other members of the community,” Oglesby said. “Artistically, I believe that it’s important to develop and celebrate new work. I find original work by living playwrights exciting. We’ve built a playwright-centered workshop model over the years. Last year, we workshopped Psyche during the NNPF, and the results are a phenomenal script and excellent relationship with the playwright.”

To learn more about the Barnyard Theatre, visit  www.barnyardtheatre.org.

Last but not least is the Yolo County Basin Foundation’s Bat Talk and Walk 2012.

Every summer, a little more than a quarter million Mexican Free-Tailed Bats sleep under the three-mile-long Yolo Causeway during the day, flying out in great colonies during every summer sunset.

It is possible to watch the bats fly out around the west end of the bridge on your own accord. But the Bat Talk and Walk provides a 45-minute indoor presentation on the local history of bats as well as an offroad tour to see the 250,000 bats that fly out at the east end of the bridge. Yolo Basin asks for a $10 donation for adults age 16 and over.

“All the live bats that we show at the indoor presentation come through the wildlife rescue,” said Corky Quirk, the Yolo Basin Foundation’s education associate and founder of Norcal Bats. “The presentation helps people to understand the importance of these animals for the ecosystem, and watching their movements and interactions kind of helps to get rid of those preconceived notions that are produced by big Hollywood movies.”

To learn more about the Bat Talk and Walk, visit www.yolobasin.org.

DOMINICK COSTABILE can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

“We were sitting there peacefully. I didn’t even hear a warning for the spraying, just by the students telling us all to turn around, and then we turned and we were sprayed, just like that. One of the cops was yelling at a guy saying he’s going to spray him in the face and then grabs him in the face and sprays him. They grabbed one of the protesters and sprayed it directly in his mouth. We were there peacefully, the tents were down, they had no reason to spray us.”
Fatima Sbeih, senior international relations major
on the Nov. 18 pepper spraying of students

“I’m pretty sure I saw Hagrid once, with a full beard, hat and trenchcoat, but he was wearing a Hawaiian print shirt.”
Paige Minichiello, senior religious studies major
on people-watching at the Quad

“I really like the idea that we don’t have one set of goals. To me it’s more of a wake-up call … It’s about all these issues we think we’ve overcome … but the truth is, we haven’t.”
Sophia Kamran, senior philosophy and comparative literature double major
on the Occupy movement

“This will come as no surprise to anyone who spent more than three minutes with me this weekend, but ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen may just be the crowning achievement of the human race.”
Andy Verderosa, Aggie columnist
on Jepsen’s hit song

“The pepper spraying incident that took place on Nov. 18, 2011 should and could have been prevented.”
Former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso’s pepper spray task force report

“Students should come for the sultry singing. I have seen all of these groups perform and they are sexy good.”
Omri Kruvi, sophomore landscape architecture major
on Occupella: LocalTones 2012

“There’s obviously something much bigger here than just me. The Delta has her own vibe to her. I’m interested in her becoming everything that she’s trying to become and helping her, more than me dictating her life.”
Lee Walthall, owner of Delta of Venus
on Delta of Venus’ evolution

“Personally, though, I’d avoid doing more damage than you’ve already done. 1) Maybe the insect will recover, depending on how damaged it is. 2) Some faiths do forbid taking animal lives, so why go out of your way to kill? 3) You’ll stain your shoe.”
Matan Shelomi, Aggie columnist and UC Davis entomology Ph.D. student
on what to do if you injure an insect

“It’s a more exciting time. The environment has completely changed. All of the genres are breaking their own rules.”
Steve Aoki
on the future of house music

“My awareness of people’s general ability to suck becomes especially heightened while working on the receiving end of the rotating dish return.”
Dylan Gallagher, Aggie columnist
on his job in a dish room

“I am here to apologize. I feel horrible for what happened on Friday. If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had on Friday, I am just telling you, I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday.”
Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
at the rally on the Quad after the Nov. 18 pepper spraying

“If you took everything away and just left nematodes in place, it would
outline the world.”
James Carey, UC Davis entomology professor
on the importance of nematodes to the ecosystem

— Compiled by Erin Migdol

Friends, family and mentors will gather this weekend to witness graduation, an event of such grandiosity that attendees might forget the complexity of what it symbolizes for many students.

Although graduates will be grouped together in massive commencements to receive their diplomas in identical caps and gowns, the feeling of accomplishment will be different to each. Some students have faced challenges, first in the process of getting to college, and then while navigating their path towards graduation.

For students who are the first in their families to graduate from college, in particular, completing their bachelor’s degree means reaching a milestone yet to be surpassed, serving as role models and paving the way for future family generations to go to college.

“Growing up, my parents always told me that education was important, but didn’t have a reason why,” said Ricardo Buenrostro, senior economics and psychology double major, whose parents immigrated from Mexico after completing a middle school education. “So I always wanted to go to college, but didn’t have the know-how to make it happen. Today, graduation is important, but not just for me; I have a younger sister and three brothers, and I now have the knowledge and experience to help them.”

Lauren Ilano, psychology and women and gender studies double major and student director of the Bridge Program at the UC Davis Student Recruitment and Retention Center (SRRC), said that graduation for students like Buenrostro is significant not just for the students, but also creates a lot of pride for the mentors that helped to get them there.

“They do want to strive for higher education, it’s just structural things that get in the way,” Ilano said. “There are parts of the process such as SATs, finances, that they don’t have anyone to guide them through with because they are first-generation. In this way the students’ graduation is an accomplishment for the community that assists them as well.”

Ilano acknowledged how broad the challenge of recruiting first-generation students is. To help mitigate it, the SRRC aims to promote all forms of higher education to underrepresented groups, with the message that a college degree is attainable and that resources do exist to help get there.

“Some students work, or are involved in their communities and families to the extent that they don’t consider college as an option,” Ilano said.

The outreach on behalf of the SRRC to bring kids to college works in tandem with the knowledge and experience of teachers, who serve as a primary inspiration for those trying to move into the university setting.

“I had great teachers who told me exactly what I had to do to get into a university,” said Bree Rombi, senior communication and Spanish double major, whose parents never had the opportunity to finish college. “For this reason, I’m doing the Teach for America program after graduation — I want to be able to be a motivation and inspiration for students the way that my teachers were for me. Knowledge is power.”

But even after getting to UC Davis, many students have found that staying at UC Davis is an equally, if not more daunting, challenge. To help retention rates, the UC Davis Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) leads the Special Transitional Enrichment Program (STEP), a month-long orientation for first-years coming from low-income households or who are first-generation college students in their families.

“Dropout rates are high among first-generation students,” said Al-Jerometta Chede, junior biochemistry and medical biology major who participated in STEP and now works as a peer counselor for the EOP. “Students can come and not know how to balance classes, and their parents don’t have the knowledge to help them.”

To help guide students to succeed with a rigorous course load, counselors put on mock classes run by tutors at the Student Academic Success Center, lead skill development workshops and provide academic advising during the month of STEP. Such a network of social and academic support, which continues to be available throughout the year, has made the difference in students’ success at Davis, Chede said.

“[With our help], they’re not homesick, they don’t feel like they don’t belong here, or doubt that they can do this,” Chede said. “I got a lot out of the program when I went through it, so I wanted to be able to give that to someone else, to let them know that they can do it.”

Evelyn Garcia, senior community and regional development major, took advantage of resources the EOP had to offer and said that it certainly helped her plan out her college career.

“During my freshman year I was really worried about things like not being able to write at the college level,” Garcia said. “I was worried it might not be for me. One of the challenges is definitely being confident in yourself. I went to the EOP peer counselors before my pass time every quarter before I figured out what I really wanted to do.”

Persevering through the challenges that the college experience presents can be difficult enough even if students are following in the footsteps of their parents and older siblings, which makes this weekend’s commencements the recognition of not only the milestone it is for all graduates, but for some, one that is unprecedented.

“For me it was just about surviving, finding something I was good at and to get to the end,” Buenrostro said. “My grandparents and younger siblings will be here [at graduation], and for most of them, it’ll be the first time they’ve ever stepped onto a college campus.”

Rombi said that her invaluable experience at UC Davis has shaped her into a better person in the four years since high school.

“There’s something about coming to a university that keeps you in it,” Rombi said. “It shapes you. I got away from home and made a new community here.”

So, for many, the endurance paid off. Graduation, for first-generation students, is a symbol of success for a community, for those who made the resources available for them to complete a higher education.

“It’s going to feel really good,” Chede said. “The whole time, you’ve got this burden when everyone’s just looking up to you to finish, so when you do, it’s amazing because you’re doing it for something bigger than yourself.”

LANI CHAN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

The outgoing Editor in Chief of this newspaper is a white male former sports writer. The Chief before him? White. Male. Former sports writer. The Chief before him? White. Male. Former sports writer. The Chief before him? White. Male. Former campus news writer, but later, turned sports writer.

What have I gotten myself into?

Maybe you can’t tell by my little mug shot, but I am a female minority who has a writing background that spreads across news, features, art, opinion and food. I’m the first female Editor in Chief in at least a decade. I’m not accusing anyone of being sexist here — I am merely stating facts and I am merely proud.

A few weeks ago, I returned from a year abroad in Brussels, Belgium. I learned a lot there — how to navigate public transportation, how to avoid confusion when reading signs that are in both Dutch and French, how to live off of waffles for a day without feeling sick and plenty more.

Obviously I can use these skills in leading The California Aggie. Along with my new international perspective. And experience at The Aggie as former Campus News Editor, who has completed various daunting tasks like reporting on ASUCD Senate meetings that last from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., covering protests at the Capitol or trying to explain “technocultural studies” to UC President Mark Yudof.

Part of me, though, is nervous. Maybe I’m not qualified enough. Can I even do this job without bailing on an afternoon of editing for the Super Bowl? What if I don’t want to work for the Sacramento River Cats after I graduate? Is my one-year stint as a co-Sports Editor for my high school newspaper enough to prepare me for next year? I apologize profusely if my office in Lower Freeborn does not bear a single San Francisco Giants poster. Truly.

That said, my office door is open for you. Yes, you.

The California Aggie is not some weird, secret club full of vampires out to make you look bad. If we look pale, it’s only because our office is in a basement. And if you have concerns about our coverage, I want to discuss them with you.

There is no journalism department at UC Davis, so The California Aggie is the best way for students interested in the field to obtain that learning experience. Key words: learning experience.

We’re all learning here. We are students, not professionals. In fact, most of our writers don’t even get paid. We’re a financially independent newspaper, and like most financially independent newspapers in the world right now, we’re kind of broke.

On that note, we’d probably like to hire you.

Are you a UC Davis student? Do you like to write? Edit? Read? Talk? Listen? Learn?

Do you like to create? Photograph? Design? Graphically excite?

Are you on Facebook all the time and consider yourself to be a social media expert?

Do you have not-so-secret dreams of being Don Draper?

Do you have not-so-secret dreams of working alongside Don Draper and then secretly sleeping with Don Draper in a secret darkroom not secretly known as The Orgasmatron? I’m not condoning such behavior, and please be advised that you would really, really need to keep such activity a secret.

Or maybe you just like the idea of having a boss who bakes you cookies! (Me.)

I’ll admit to being sad leaving Belgium and my year studying abroad. But I’m more than excited to be starting this venture. I came back because I love the UC Davis community and The Aggie, and I want to see them thrive. I came back because I strongly believe in free student media, and after the events of Nov. 18, it has never been more important.

JANELLE BITKER genuinely hopes you are not more concerned about the fate of The California Aggie after reading this column. Be reassured by e-mailing editor@theaggie.org.