With a more than 10 percent increase in the number of students receiving degrees compared to last year, College of the Canyons will honor its 2019 graduating class – the largest in school history — during the college’s 50th annual commencement ceremony.

The event will begin promptly at 8 a.m. Friday, May 31, in the college’s Honor Grove, located on the Valencia campus.

“We are so proud to celebrate the accomplishments and hard work of the College of the Canyons class of 2019,” said Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook. “They accepted no excuses and are a shining example of what can happen when focus and a commitment to never giving up prevails. I have no doubt that our students will go on to do important things in life. I stand in awe of the stories they will create. This is only the beginning of their journeys.”

The class of 2019 has 2,467 students who petitioned for graduation, representing a 10.5 percent increase from the class of 2018 (2,232).

This class represents 120 majors, with liberal arts and sciences (839) ranking as the leading field of study among graduates, followed by psychology (273), business (254), accounting (201), math and science (174), sociology (167) and communication studies (133).

There are also 817 students graduating with two or more degrees.

The class of 2019 is approximately 57.9 percent female (1,429) and 42.1 percent male (1,038).

Academically, there are 725 students graduating with honors — which requires a 3.5 GPA or higher — and 76 students with perfect 4.0 GPAs, which grants them the status of valedictorians at the college. The average GPA of the class of 2019 is 3.18.

This year’s graduating class is also the first to include 105 First-Year Promise (FYP) students from the program’s first 262-student cohort. Launched in fall 2017, the FYP program offers full-time freshman students waived tuition and fees during their first year of study.

The average age of a COC graduate is 24. The oldest student in the class is 65 years old and the youngest graduates in the class are 42 students who are 17 years old.

Notably, there are also 68 veteran graduates in the college’s class of 2019.

There are 77 graduates from the school’s Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program, which is the largest graduating cohort in MESA history.

Additionally, 69.3 percent of this year’s graduates have completed at least one course at the college’s Canyon Country campus, which first opened in 2007.

This year’s graduating class also includes 77 COC student-athletes, with a combined GPA of 3.3, who will be earning an associate degree.

Graduates from the class of 2019 will be heading to four-year schools including: Arkansas St University, Cal Lutheran, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, CSU Channel Islands, CSU East Bay, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Northridge, CSU San Jose, CSU San Francisco, CSU Sonoma, CSUSD- SDSU, Fisher College, Florida Atlantic University, Henderson State, Holy Names University, Indiana State University, Kaiser University, Lubbock Christian University, Midamerica Nazarene University, Mississippi Valley State University, Missouri State, Ottawa University, Portland State University, South Dakota State, Texas Tech University, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, University of Arkansas, University of Maine, University of Michigan, University of San Diego, University of South Alabama, USC, Vanderbilt University, Presentation College, Missouri Valley, and South Alabama.

The scene of many graduations and other college ceremonies and events, the COC Honor Grove is located in the center of campus and will be outfitted with a stage for the presentation of diplomas and certificates, as well as seating for the graduates and the proud families and friends who will be in attendance.

Community members attending the ceremony should plan to arrive to campus no later than 7:45 a.m., as parking lots are expected to be congested and guest seating will be limited.

For those who cannot attend, the ceremony will be live-streamed.