“It was so dangerous. They plant bombs in the street so any car that goes there explodes. You also can’t tell if it’s going to happen to you or the other person because it happened to other people before me or after me.”
The breeze rejuvenated as it passed through the masked students in the warm May evening while graduates congregated outside Bulldog Stadium ahead of commencement. For many, this was among the first gatherings in the 14 months since the quarantine lockdown
With future professional goals that include teaching, traveling, community organizing, publishing their own books, and more, the power of writing and literature is alive and well in these 2020 graduates of the Fresno State English Department.
As grand marshal, bearing the mace — the ornamented wood staff carried by the Commencement ceremony’s senior faculty member — carried added significance for Henson. Her husband served as the ceremony’s grand marshal and mace-bearer at least three times before his retirement. Zumwalt was back in attendance this year to watch Henson march in.
On Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18, hundreds of College of Arts and Humanities students celebrated their accomplishment with family, friends, faculty, administrators, and staff. Here are photos from those events.
The community is invited as the College of Arts and Humanities 2019 Convocation celebrates our graduates at 12:15 p.m., Friday, May 17 at the Save Mart Center. The event will feature guest speaker Jon Parrish Peede the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
As a youngster, Fernandez loved reading and writing. Her mother always encouraged her to write down her feelings and eventually Fernandez used this as an outlet.