91st Annual Commencement Exercises
College of Marin celebrates the Class of 2018
KENTFIELD / NOVATO, CA—May 22, 2018—This week College of Marin (COM) will confer 465 degrees and certificates as students in the 91st graduating class celebrate their accomplishments. There are 374 graduates in the class of 2018 ranging in age from the youngest at 19 years old to the most experienced at 68 years old.
The College welcomes Emily Pilloton—designer, builder, educator, and founder of the nonprofit Project H Design and its sister program, Girls Garage—as the honored commencement keynote speaker.
Using architecture and design as a vehicle for social justice, Pilloton works alongside youth ages 9 to 18 to co-design and build public architecture projects that transform lives and communities. Past projects include building a farmers market with high school students, a playhouse with and for the daughters of abused mothers, a school library designed by its own middle school students, and micro homes for a transitional housing agency. Her work seeks to change the authorship of our built environment and cultivate power in underestimated communities—specifically young girls, undocumented youth, and communities of color.
Pilloton holds a bachelor of arts in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and a master of fine arts in architecture, interior architecture, and designed objects from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a lecturer in the College of Environmental Design at UCB and is the author of three books, Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People; Tell Them I Built This: Transforming Schools, Communities, and Lives With Design-Based Education; and a forthcoming book about tools and building for young women.
Her work is documented in the full-length film If You Build It and has been featured on the TED Stage, the Colbert Report, in the New York Times, and presented to the Obama administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House.
Joselyne Quiróz will address her fellow graduates as the class of 2018 student speaker. Quiróz was born in Southern California to Mexican immigrants and has lived in Richmond, California since 2001. As a child, Quiróz began her educational journey in accelerated learning programs and local music schools throughout the Bay Area. These experiences led her to leadership opportunities, which she embraced wholeheartedly. At age 14, she was already giving back to her community in roles as a teaching assistant in preschool music classes and as a peer tutor to students studying English as a second language.
With this background, Quiróz had the experience to become a student leader at COM, serving as club president of Students for Social Justice, as a member of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action and Zero Textbook Cost Committees, and as a volunteer at the Child Study Center. Her passion for affecting social change and equity is reflected in her work on campus. This desire and commitment helped pave the way for her future as a sociology student at the University of California, Davis, where she will further develop and refine her interests in studying social deviance and urban communities. She intends to use her degree to help shape public policy in hopes of creating a more equitable and accessible world for all.
“It is a privilege and an honor to recognize the graduates of the class of 2018,” said Superintendent/President Dr. David Wain Coon. “The education and skills they have gained while at College of Marin form a solid foundation for their future and we wish them continued success in their endeavors.”
COM’s 91st Annual Commencement Ceremony will take place on Friday, May 25, 2018, at 6 p.m. in the Irwin P. Diamond Physical Education Center, 700 College Avenue, Kentfield.
About College of Marin
Established in 1926, College of Marin remains committed to educational excellence, providing equitable opportunities, and fostering success in all members of its diverse community. With campuses in Kentfield and Novato, students of all ages have affordable access to an exciting variety of credit and noncredit courses as well as community education classes for lifelong learning. College of Marin is one of 114 public community colleges in California and approximately 13,000 credit, noncredit, and community education students enroll annually.
College of Marin is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, 10 Commercial Boulevard, Suite 204, Novato, CA 94949, (415) 506-0234, an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education.