College of the Canyons will honor its 2014 graduating class – the largest in school history — during the college’s 45th annual commencement ceremony, being held at 8:30 a.m. Friday, June 6, in the college’s Honor Grove, located on the Valencia campus.

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.

2013 Photo by Cory Rubin for SCVNews.com

Community members attending the ceremony should plan to arrive to campus no later than 8:15 a.m., as parking lots are expected to be congested and guest seating will be limited.

For the first time in the college’s history, the COC commencement ceremony will also be live streamed, in its entirety, at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/cofcadmin.portal.

The class of 2014 has 1,343 students who petitioned for graduation, representing a roughly two percent increase from the class of 2013 (1,317).

This class represents 85 majors, with accounting (153) ranking as the leading field of study among graduates, followed by nursing (99), psychology for CSU transfer (71), administration of justice (71), liberal arts and sciences (68) and biological and physical sciences (63 students).

There are also 60 students graduating with two degrees, and two students who have earned three degrees at the college.

The class of 2014 is 59 percent male (793) and 41 percent female (550), which represents a 20.6 percent increase in the percentage of male graduates, when compared to the class of 2013.

Academically, there are 271 students graduating with honors — which requires a 3.5 GPA or higher — and 24 students with perfect 4.0 GPAs, which grants them the status of valedictorians at the college. The average GPA of the class of 2014 is 3.06.

The average age of a COC graduate is 26. The oldest student in the class is 72, with a total of seven graduates over the age of 60. A 16-year-old student is the youngest graduate in the class.

Four graduates will also be celebrating their birthdays on commencement day!

Notably, there are also 68 veteran graduates in the college’s class of 2014, who will receive their diplomas on what will be the 70th anniversary of the historic D-Day Invasion that took place in France on June 6, 1944.

In 2013, the college awarded diplomas to 39 veteran graduates.

There are also 19 international students included in the 2014 graduating class.

Additionally, nearly 76 percent of this year’s graduates have completed at least once course at the college’s Canyon Country campus, which first opened in 2007.