It has been four years since we last visited California. This time we came to attend our favorite niece’s graduation from UC Santa Barbara. Kerry graduated with high honors in Chemistry/Biochemistry. She will be starting her Ph.D. program in Organic Chemistry at UC Berkeley, ranked one of the top programs in the world, next month (July 2018). We were surprised to learn that UCSB has transformed from the party school reputation of the 1970’s (when we were in college) into one of the top public universities in the US, ranking #8 in the US New & World Report, #3 in California, #2 in impact on the sciences as measured by number of attributions to UCSB research papers, and with six noble laureates since 1998.
We started the weekend with a private dinner celebration with just family and Mary (upper-left in background), one of Kerry’s roommates. Pauline (Evelyn’s sister, and proud mother of Kerry) is seen center above, with Keith (father) center-right, sitting next to Evelyn. The bottom image shows Kerry opening our present, one that Evelyn painted of Kerry on elephant-back, from their recent trip to Bali and Thailand.
The next day, Kerry had a party where she invited close friends and colleagues that had the most impact on her undergrad life. A photo booth was set up, which proved to be a hit, as everyone got into the fun and hammed it up for the camera and for Kerry’s memories. It was obvious that Kerry was extremely popular and that her friends all knew how to let loose and have fun.
We learned a new college drinking game, beer dice (upper row). Late in the afternoon, we saw a naked student running down the street, and we were later told that the person lost in beer dice (though Kerry says that her house rules did not include that particular penalty…). Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves at the party.
The final day of our visit involved a group photo session with the entire graduating class of 80 CCS students. Mark (Kerry’s brother, bottom-left) came down to congratulate her after having done his first sky diving lesson that morning, and to be part of a family portrait (lower-right).
Kerry attended the College of Creative Studies (CCS), which has been called “a graduate school for undergraduates”. CCS is a special program within UCSB for highly motivated students in 8 majors, and their Class of 2018 graduated one week earlier than the other 5300+ students of UCSB. Kerry is seen above with close friends from her graduating class, dorm mates, and with Sasha (her dorm roommate), and neighbor (lower-left and lower-right).
As Kerry walks into her future, we want to give her kudos for her diligence and hard work. We’re quite proud of her accomplishments, as she was able to balance school, jobs, boys, sports, girl friends, all while having fun at the undergraduate level.