At that ceremony, university officials will recognize more than just an academic achievement, but also the tenacity and dedication of people determined to get a college education.

"Getting a university education is an accomplishment in itself, but earning a college degree while a single parent, juggling the demands of a family, or a job or two makes that accomplishment even more special," said CSUN President Jolene Koester. "Regardless of what has happened, these students were determined to complete their education. They embody what Cal State Northridge is all about--providing an opportunity for individuals, even under the most adverse circumstances, to achieve their dreams." Here is a short list of some of these extraordinary graduates:

• Claudia Hernandez, B.A., Biology and Psychology
  Hernandez always wanted to be a doctor, as a child growing up in Guatemala and as a teenager living in Van Nuys. "I always had this dream of being a doctor and doing something to help the community and humanity overall," she said.

  Achieving her dream has not been easy. Her father had to flee Guatemala when she was little after both sides of the country's civil conflict threatened to kill him if he did not join in their fight. He fled to the United States where he was granted political refugee status, but his family--Claudia, her younger sister and their mother--was left behind. The separation was hard and Guatemala's political factions continued to threaten the family.

  Eleven years ago, Claudia's mother decided to join her husband in the U.S. The family attempted to cross the border illegally, but were caught by Mexican police, who initially thought Claudia's mother was smuggling the girls for illegal organ harvesting. The sisters were taken away from their mother and interrogated by Mexican officials for three weeks before they were reunited and deported back to Guatemala.

  The family made the journey one more time, walking across mountains and deserts before reaching the United States, where they joined Claudia's father and were granted political refugee status. The family received U.S. residency a few years ago.

  Claudia Hernandez, 24, is the first in her family to get a college education. She entered Northridge six years ago fully intending to major in biology and then get her medical degree. But a class in psychology turned her on to the intricacies of the mind, and she decided to major in both subjects, despite working two jobs. Hernandez begins work on her master's in genetic counseling at CSUN this fall. She hopes to get a Ph.D. in the subject some day. And then, she says, maybe on to medical school.

  Hernandez will be taking part in College of Social and Behavioral Sciences commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 2, on the Oviatt Library Lawn in the center of the campus and in the College of Science and Mathematics' ceremony at 4 p.m. on June 2, at the University Club at the corner of Zelzah Avenue and Nordhoff Street.

• Melissa Hernandez, B.A., Environmental Occupational Health Melissa Hernandez, 43, can take a lump of metal and forge from it a sleek lizard basking in the sun. She can coax the lithe figure of a life-sized mermaid from inert steel. She is an artist. She also has been a carpenter, and a certified welder.

  "I was the only woman in class at welding school and rarely if ever saw another woman welder when I was on a job," she said. She shrugged off the gender isolation and kept honing her skills, working for a company that produced structural and architectural pieces for The Getty Museum and Disney.

  "We were assembling a structural piece for Downtown Disney in Orlando," Hernandez said, "when a coworker's inattention to safety caused my arm to be compressed just above the elbow." The ulnar nerve was so badly damaged that Hernandez' entire arm went numb. Surgery and physical therapy brought back most of the arm's use, with an important exception.

  "Small motor skills, like note taking, still escape me," said Hernandez, who since the age of 16 has used her hands to experiment with foundry work, lost wax casting and welding.

  Hernandez met the calamity head on, enrolling in the environmental and occupational health program at CSUN, where note takers were available to assist. Her Northridge will go with her new career as an environmental health and safety technician at Caltech.

  Hernandez will be taking part in College of Health and Human Development's commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on Friday, June 3, on the Oviatt Library Lawn.

• Ed Montan, Special Education Credential The first time Montan walked into a classroom four years ago, he wasn't sure he was ready. After 30 years of working in parks and recreation, he had decided to take an early retirement and fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a teacher.

  "When you walk into a classroom for the first time, you know if you can maintain control you have half a shot of succeeding, but that's far from being a teacher," Montan said.

  The Los Angeles Unified School District had issued the former parks and recreation director for the City of San Fernando an emergency credential and assigned him special education classes at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. After finishing a LAUSD yearlong internship program, Montan decided to pass up the district's accelerated one-year credential program in favor of Cal State Northridge's more formal program, which took him two-and-a-half years to complete.

  "Part of it was the idea of being able to explore ideas, do research and try out new things--which I got to do at Northridge," he said. "I am so glad I went to Northridge. What I did may have taken longer and been harder, but what I learned makes a difference in how I perform in the classroom."

  Montan, 55, of El Segundo, enrolled at Cal State Fullerton in the early 1970s with the intention of being a teacher, but a professor there told him there were no teaching jobs. He transferred to Cal State L.A. to study recreation administration, earning his bachelor's degree in 1975. He earned his master's in recreation and leisure services from CSUN 12 years ago. But he held on to his dream of becoming a teacher.

  "There's such a thrill when you're trying to teach your students something and they finally get it, or when you see that light of understanding in their eyes. The feeling is indescribable," he said.

  Montan is receiving his credential during the Michael D. Eisner College of Education's ceremony at 4 p.m. on June 3, at the University Club.

• Andrea Nemeth, B.S.. Mathematics
  When Nemeth walks across the stage during the College of Science and Mathematics' ceremony on June 2 to receive her diploma, her three biggest fans will be cheering from the audience--her husband, Attila, and her three-year-old twins, Anna and Andras.

  Nemeth came to the United States from Hungary 11 years ago, knowing no one except for Attila (whom she met while he was on a visit to his native country) and speaking not a word of English. But with her husband's support and encouragement, she was determined to make the most of her new life.

  Her first goal was to master English and then she took community college classes with the idea of becoming a physical therapist. "The only problem was I really didn't like chemistry or biology. I didn't like memorizing all those bones," said the 38-year-old Agoura Hills resident. What she did like was math. "Math has always come easy to me."

  She changed her major and transferred to Cal State Northridge in 2001. Classes were about to start when she got pregnant. There were complications with the pregnancy, so she had to postpone starting school for a semester, and then she postponed her classes again for a semester when her twins were born.

  With the support of her husband and her professors, she returned to CSUN, juggling a full load of classes, her children and a part-time job in the process. But she says it was worth it, and said some day she would like to get her doctorate in mathematics and teach.

  "It wasn't easy," Nemeth said of her accomplishment. "But I hope I am an example to my children, and that some day they will follow in my footsteps and go to college and follow their own dreams."

• Anja-Leigh Russell, M.A., Creative Writing
  The epiphany hit Russell nearly a decade ago, when she was helping her then 10-year-old granddaughter with homework. It was such a pleasure to flip through books, examine illustrations and learn about the selected topic that Russell realized she truly enjoyed learning.

  The same could not be said when she graduated from high school years earlier. The Granada Hills resident, now 62, was not encouraged to go to college but rather to get married and start a family.

  "It wasn't until I was with my granddaughter that I realized my love of learning," Russell said. "I had a reawakening of how much I loved to learnÉI decided to make it formal."

  Russell enrolled in college for the first time at Santa Monica College at age 52, then transferred to CSUN in the fall of 1997. Russell pursued her education part-time for six years while juggling the demands of a full-time job.

  At one point during her first year, she recalls sobbing on the floor surrounded by all of her books. "Everything at first was a struggle," Russell said. "I had to learn a new set of skills."

  She earned her bachelor's degree from CSUN in 2003 and is getting her master's this year in creative writing. Russell is currently a teaching associate for a CSUN freshman composition class, a writing consultant for the university's Learning Resource Center and, during her spare time, she tutors high school students.

  "I would like to be an inspiration to older women, because we have so many life experiences to share and to impart to our grandkids, to anybody, to education," Russell said.

  Russell will be taking part in College of Humanities' commencement ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1, on the Oviatt Library Lawn.

• Kanna Uehara, B.A., Social Welfare
  At the age of five, Uehara was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, an illness that limits the movements of her joints and causes her pain every day. She has been confined to a wheelchair since she was nine. Some days the pain is so severe that she can't sit in her chair, making attending class impossible and concentration on her studies difficult.

  "There were times when I wanted to give up everything," Uehara said. " I wanted to give up fighting my illness and quit studying."

  She was once denied admittance to a public junior high school in her native Japan because of her disability. School officials suggested she should study with other physically disabled people in a special school instead. But Uehara refused to give up.

  She came to CSUN initially as an international exchange student in 1999. But she had to return to Japan for hospitalization after only a few months of study. When she was released from the hospital in 2001, Uehara was determined to return to the campus where faculty, staff and students were supportive of her dreams of becoming a social worker.

  "I believe I wouldn't have been able to graduate without them," she said. Uehara, 26, will pursue her master's degree at USC's school of social work this fall. After her studies, Uehara plans to return to Japan to be an advocate of economic and social justice.

  "I want to change the education system in Japan, because even today, many disabled students cannot go to regular public schools," she said.

  Uehara will receive her bachelor's during the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences' ceremony on June 2.

• Julie Wallach, B.A., Psychology
  When she is out running, Wallach's feet come close to flying over her beloved Santa Monica Mountain trails. She does not look back. It's the way Wallach, a 35-year-old wife and mother whose nature is to fix on an idea and to act on it, leads her life. But it was not always so.

  The Granada Hills resident, who has compiled a 3.87 grade point average at CSUN on her way to a degree in general experimental psychology, barely graduated from high school because of academic difficulties. "No one said to me, ÔHere, let me help you, let me guide you,' " said Wallach, who decided after her nearly-failed high school career that she would be the one to motivate others.

  At present, she is actively working on helping four Compton College students secure academic scholarships to attend Northridge. Wallach, a teaching assistant at Compton for CSUN psychology professor August Hoffman, also serves as mentor, tutor and overall "motivator" for her students. Before class, she arrives with gardening tools in hand to help students plant flowers and beautify the community college campus.

  "Before I started working with Dr. Hoffman, I had a black thumb," said Wallach of her own mentor. "Once we started, people became interested. Before we knew it, the program grew." As it grew, Wallach's "can do" nature took over. She applied for and won spring 2005 CSUN service-learning grants for the garden project.

  Wallach acknowledges Hoffman's tremendous impact on her life. Her goal now is to be a university professor who, like Hoffman, "communicates with students and pays attention to their needs inside and outside of the classroom."

  Wallach will receive her degree during the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences' ceremony on June 2.