There were plenty of reasons to celebrate Santa Barbara City College’s 75th commencement on Friday evening, from the hundreds of graduates completing their degrees to the college’s youngest-ever graduate and its first-ever openly transgender woman commencement speaker.

“Today, all of you graduates will join the illustrious lineage, ready to make your mark on the world,” SBCC President/Superintendent Erika Endrijonas said at Friday’s ceremony. 

Endrijonas gave a special shout-out to Krishna García-Martínez, the college’s youngest graduate, who at just 13 years old earned two associate’s degrees. 

“Krishna, like the students who came before him, will leave with knowledge, experiences and friendships that will propel him into the future,” Endrijonas said. 

Families and friends of graduates gathered on the bleachers of La Playa Stadium to watch the class of 2024 graduate. The class included students of various ages and backgrounds, celebrating earning associate’s degrees and, for many, transferring to a four-year university. 

Endrijonas encouraged the graduates to not forget their time at SBCC and to be bold in their next pursuits. 

“Your journey at SBCC may be done for now, but I hope you’re excited about the new beginning that awaits you,” Endrijonas said. “You’re launching into a future that you are well equipped to shape, a future that needs your energy, your passion and your unique perspectives.”

Kimberly Monda, an SBCC English professor and Academic Senate president, delivered a message to graduates that acknowledged the graduates’ success, and the power of higher education but also the long history of silencing diverse voices.

“Higher education is about the development of individual and collective knowledge,” Monda said. “Of course, many institutions of higher education in the past, and even today, have left out too many voices, leading not only to incomplete knowledge but to flat-out lies.”

Monda told the graduates that education also helps uncover the truth and bends toward justice. 

“Education also helps us develop our talents, follow our passions and articulate how we want to be in the world,” Monda said. “In its best form, education helps us learn to listen to others and to find our place and community.”

The student address was delivered by Mariam Gutierrez Gama, an English major and the college’s first-ever openly transgender woman speaker.

Gama delivered a personal address about her life as a first-generation student, being the child of immigrants, and how writing helped her get through life challenges. 

“Poetry was a way for me to communicate and cope with social and personal adversities and allowed me to grieve my losses,” Gama said during her speech. “Once I was able to make reflections from my childhood, I began to write.”

Despite her love for writing, Gama shared how she hated reading as a child and struggled with the English language. She explained that now, her goal is to make English more inclusive. 

“My struggle today is to make English inclusive of culture,” Gama said. “My goal is to let my community know they, too, can become who they desire. I hope to be another writer that allows others to let go of the silence and pass on generational healing.”

Despite the cold weather and the gloomy sky, the crowd jumped and cheered for each graduate walking across the stage, celebrating the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one.