COLLEGE OF CANYONS SET TO DISTRIBUTE DEGREES TO 570.

Byline: Mary Schubert

College of the Canyons will hold its 27th annual commencement exercises tonight on campus, where 570 associate degrees will be conferred on graduates ranging in age from 16 to 59.

The 6 p.m. ceremony will be held at the Honor Grove, a grassy area on campus. Degrees will be conferred in 33 majors - 214 to vocational students and 356 in other subjects, said College of the Canyons spokeswoman Sue Bozman.

This year, the graduates' favorite area of study was the social sciences - 23.5 percent of them chose majors in that field. The next most popular majors were business (13.6 percent), math/science (12.4 percent), humanities (10.7 percent) and nursing (10.1 percent), Bozman said.

The Class of 1997 is 62 percent female - 351 women grads - and 38 percent male, with 219 men. The average age of a grad is 28, a year older than last year's norm, Bozman noted.

The ethnically mixed graduating class includes 26 percent minority students. Bozman said 101 grads will receive their associate of arts or associate of sciences degrees with honors, meaning their grade-point averages were 3.5 or better.

Graduates Kimberly Freilich and Saima Karim will be the featured speakers at the ceremony. School President Dianne Van Hook, along with Joan MacGregor, president of the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, will hand out diplomas.

A reception in the campus Student Center will follow the ceremony. All graduates, their families and friends are invited. For information on commencement, call the student activities office at [phone], Ext. 3261.