MCKEON TO RECEIVE HONORARY DEGREE TODAY.Byline: Daily News SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon will receive an honorary degree from College of the Canyons College of the Canyons is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the state. According to the National Junior College Research Association, College of the Canyons consistently ranks in the top 50 community colleges in the nation. today during graduation ceremonies for its largest class ever. The honorary degree will be conferred at 6 p.m. today as the college celebrates its 30th commencement, graduating 719 students. ``As our congressman representing our district, he has made tremendous strides,'' COC See chip on chip. spokeswoman Sue Bozman said. ``We felt he ought to be recognized for that work.'' With the college's attendance growing rapidly in the past three years - now at 10,000 this school year - the graduating class has also increased. This year, the class rose by 15 percent over the 1999 graduating class. Bozman notes that the college graduates are also smarter. ``The number of our honor students increased by 20 percent,'' Bozman said. ``The average GPA GPA abbr. grade point average Noun 1. GPA - a measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted is a little bit higher than at other schools.'' Among the graduates are eight valedictorians who have grade-point averages above 4.0 and 137 honor graduates who have earned 3.5 or above. The average GPA for all the graduates is 3.0. ``On the average, our students when they transfer do as well or better than the students who are native to the school,'' Bozman said. ``Our freshmen and sophomores get a lot of TLC TLC total lung capacity; thin-layer chromatography. TLC abbr. 1. thin-layer chromatography 2. .'' In this year's class, the youngest graduate is 18 while the oldest is 57. McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, who will receive an honorary associate of arts Associate of arts and Associate of science are two-year undergraduate degrees offered by many community colleges or junior colleges in the United States. Such degrees transfer to four-year institutions which offer full bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. degree, is the second person in the college's history to be given the designation. The school previously recognized former Republican state Sen. Ed Sen. abbr. 1. a. senate b. senator 2. or sen. senior Sen. or sen. 1. senate 2. senator 3. Davis. School officials said that McKeon is being recognized because of his leadership and support of educational issues, and his consistent promotion of the College of the Canyons as a model of affordable and quality education. As a congressman, McKeon often visits the campus, participating in class discussion and serving as a role model for students interested in political science. He also has worked to improve financial aid and scholarship opportunities, cut student loan interest rates, streamline financial aid, increase grants and provide incentives to control college costs. Commencement ceremonies will take place at 6 p.m. in the center of campus at the Honor Grove. |
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