The graduation ceremony later this month at the Los Banos Campus of Merced College is another step forward for the local college campus.
On Thursday, May 22, the Merced College Los Banos Campus will hold its third annual graduation ceremony in the campus quad.
It is another significant step toward what I believe will eventually be the Los Banos Community College, not just a campus but a separate college within the Merced Community College District.
This year’s event comes after two previous graduation ceremonies, the recent State of the College address in Los Banos and the celebration of the campus’s 50th anniversary in 2021.
It’s a good feeling with a sense of pride that Westside students who graduate from Merced College do not have to travel to Merced to receive their diploma. They can participate in a graduation ceremony here in Los Banos, along with their family members and friends.
The keynote speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony will be Los Banos Mayor Michael Amabile, a proud alumnus of the Los Banos Campus, where he began his college education and where he met his wife, Michelle.
Michael Amabile is one of thousands of Westside students from Los Banos and Dos Palos who have benefited from their education at the Los Banos Campus and have gone on to be significant contributors to their communities, not only as public official but as nurses, doctors, medical assistants, nursing assistants, lawyers, teachers, police officers, firefighters, business men and women, and on and on.
Many Los Banos Campus graduates have moved on and transferred to a wide variety of universities, including Fresno State, Stanislaus State and UC Merced, to successfully earn their bachelor’s degrees.
The campus has been fortunate to have been led by outstanding deans who related to the community, going back to the first dean Ted McVey and continuing with deans Dr. Anne Newins, Dr. Brenda Lathan, Karyn Dower, Dr. Brenda Latham, Dr. Lonita Cordova, and its current dynamic dean and Los Banos native, Dr. Jessica Moran.
Each dean has nurtured a “family sprit” at the Los Banos Campus where faculty, staff, and especially students feel they are part of not just an institution but a family that cares about each individual student and her or his success.
The campus has also benefited from having smart and caring faculty members over the years in all the disciplines that students need to be successful. And the quality and congeniality of the campus’s classified professionals is clear to anyone who walks through the doors of the campus and is greeted by one or more of them.
The Los Banos Campus has been fortunate to have Merced College presidents who have put their faith in the campus, located 40 miles from Merced. These leaders include Lowell Barker, Tom Harris, Jan Keough, Ben Duran and the current president Chris Vitelli.
The campus has also received the faith and support of members of the Merced College Board of Trustees over the years, including Westside representatives Richard Rodoni, Suzanne Redfern LeCompte, Gene Vierra, and the current board member, Joe Gutierrez.
Over the years the Los Banos Campus has developed strong partnerships with high schools in Los Banos and Dos Palos and with the communities the campus serves and even with the elementary and junior high schools, as evidenced by the long-standing College for Kids program the campus has sponsored in conjunction to the Banos Parks and Recreation Department.
As graduates and their family and friends, other students, faculty, staff and community members gather on the quad the evening of May 22, they can justifiably feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in their local college campus.
And the future looks even brighter as the campus embarks on an expansion thanks to the passage of a bond last year that will enable the construction of a new Career Tech Education building that will include both classrooms and labs, as well as many other improvements at the campus in the years to come.
As the Chinese proverb says, ““If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years, educate students.”
Thanks to the Los Banos Campus of Merced College, the future of the Westside in the next hundred years looks bright.
On another note: Los Banos lost another person who had a passion for his community as well as for his family and agriculture. Dan Ramos, with his warm smile and upbeat personality, will be deeply missed.
John Spevak’s email is john.spevak@gmail.com.
