Los Angeles Valley College held its 2023 commencement ceremony on June 6 at Monarch Stadium at its campus in Valley Glen, with about 500 students getting much-deserved diplomas after succeeding and thriving in the era of the pandemic.
Two standout students spoke to the crowd to big applause and laughter. Quentin Jones told the audience, “Four years ago, which I call the Year One B.C., which was before COVID, I was sitting where you are, in the grandstands … to see a friend graduate, and I got a little jealous,” and decided to enroll at LAVC, changing his life. He was followed by student body president Ani Ramazyan, who told the crowd she never thought she would go to college, but went on to become LAVC’s student body leader. Ramazyan said, “No matter how difficult a challenge may seem, hard work makes the impossible possible.”
After the crowd joined in the Pledge of Alliance, the school’s choir and chamber singers performed a powerful rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, the national anthem. The ceremony was live streamed on YouTube for family and friends who couldn’t attend (bit.ly/3IYsuGM). The two-year community college, founded in September 1949, is one of the nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District. www.laccd.edu/About/Pages/Our-Colleges.aspx
Fun facts: the Monarch Lion is the school mascot; the sports teams are called the “Monarchs”; the college’s colors — green and gold — were chosen by the 1949 inaugural class.
Los Angeles Valley College, 5800 Fulton Ave., Valley Glen. 818-947-2600. www.facebook.com/lavalleycollege. www.lavc.edu/