WHAT: Cerritos College will hold its 50th annual commencement ceremony to honor its graduating students on Saturday, May 12 at 5 p.m. in Falcon Stadium. Cerritos College’s Board of Trustees will present degrees and certificates earned during the 2006-2007 academic year.

This year’s commencement speaker is Cerritos College Mathematics Professor Manuel Lopez. Lopez came to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of 16 with his parents and two brothers. After he finished high school, Lopez enrolled first as an engineering major at East Los Angeles College. He later switched to being a math major so that he could become a teacher and planned to take classes there for two years before transferring to a four-year school. Because of economic hardship and the fact that he had to work much of the time to afford school, what started out as a two-year stay at a community college stretched into five and a half years before Lopez was able to transfer and graduate from his college of choice—UCLA.
 
After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at UCLA, Lopez became a middle school teacher at Gage Middle School, where he had previously served as a bilingual teaching assistant. Lopez later taught mathematics at Gahr High School in Cerritos and returned part time to school to earn a master’s degree in mathematics at Cal State Fullerton. Soon afterward, Lopez began teaching part time at Cerritos College and Cypress College. He loved his experiences working with community college students. In 2001, when a full-time opening arose at Cerritos College, he applied and was hired. Currently, Lopez teaches all levels of math at Cerritos College.

WHEN: Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 5 p.m.

CONTACT: For more information about Cerritos College’s 50th Annual Commencement, please contact the Student Activities Office at (562) 860-2451, ext. 2471 or visit www.cerritos.edu/commencement.

 

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