Wearing a newly bestowed nursing pin beneath a black robe, Dallas Rose Lawry told her fellow CSU Channel Islands graduates Saturday that she would be relying on them in the future.

The Class of 2014s Spanish majors will help her bridge the language-divide with many patients, said Lawry, the student speaker at the Camarillo universitys morning graduation ceremony. Her fellow business and political science majors will be the driving force behind healthcares future, while the biotechnologists will advance medicine.

At CSU Channel Islands, we have been taught to help each other and thrive off of our differences, said Lawry, 21, a Ventura native who plans to become an oncology nurse and eventually a nurse practitioner.

More than 1,600 Channel Islands students received degrees this year. Of those, about 1,225 participated in commencement Saturday on the south lawn of the campus. They were divided among morning and afternoon ceremonies, based on their majors.

The lingering heat wave was addressed with water bottles tucked under every graduates chair and permission given to unzip their black robes. By the end of the mornings two-hour program, faces were flushed and many robes were completely off.

We definitely had to take the heat into account during preparations, said Nancy Gill, spokeswoman for the university.

The 9 a.m. ceremony included the first graduates of satellite programs in Santa Barbara, including the first graduating nursing class from a partnership between CSU Channel Islands and Cottage Health System. The afternoon session began at 3 p.m.

The universitys focus on international studies was a celebrated theme this year, Gill said.

Sneha Venkatraman, a masters degree student from Mumbai, India, sang the national anthems roller-coaster melody and the schools alma mater. Spanish majors Edwin Mancilla of Santa Paula and Melynda Atkins of Newbury Park gave welcome speeches in Spanish and French a tradition of languages reflecting the worldly personality of Californias youngest university, Gill said.

Photo by Carmen Smyth, Ventura County Star

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CSU Channel Islands graduates plan to be force of future [Photo gallery]