Nearly 3,000 Chaffey College Students Graduate
The largest graduating class in the history of Chaffey College celebrated completing thousands of degrees and certificates at Toyota Arena in Ontario on May 21.
For the 2,942 members of the class of 2026, it was a happy milestone to experience
before transferring to four-year universities or entering the workforce. Around 1,000
attended the 109th Commencement ceremony and more than 8,000 family members and friends filled the stands.
“This moment belongs to you,” said Chaffey College Superintendent/President Henry D. Shannon. “There is no single path to this stage. So many of you have reached this moment by navigating very different journeys.”
The class included 11 valedictorians and 111 high school dual enrollment students, with the youngest graduates being 14-years-old and the oldest at 78.
Commencement keynote speaker Daniel Walker shared with graduates his mother’s journey of struggling with poverty, homelessness, a history of abuse and mental health challenges, to earning a degree in respiratory therapy at Chaffey College in the 1970s.
Walker, an award-winning television and film producer, as well as a veteran educator,
described how he and his siblings saw their lives transform from living out of a car,
to living in a home surrounded by textbooks and knowledge. Walker’s mother went on
to have a successful career as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Arrowhead Regional
Medical Center.
Walker shared the story to tell graduates of the importance of influencing other family members to follow in their path.
“Somebody in your lineage is going to see this and they’re going to exceed you,” he said. “It is the greatest thing, that you will set the foundation.”
Chaffey College Student Government President and Trustee Matthew Caddell shared with his fellow graduates his struggles to persevere despite the hospitalization of both of his parents and the death of his father while pursuing a degree in mechatronics.
“I am not standing here because I am the smartest, the most talented, or because I had everything figured out,” he said. “I am here because I did not quit.”
Business major Hailey Contreras, a dual enrollment student serving as class speaker, described the fears she faced and overcame to graduate in the top three of her class at Hesperia High School and get accepted to the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. The self-doubt she felt disappeared once she discovered her calling while interning at a law firm. She aspires to become a corporate lawyer.
“It showed me that there isn’t just one path to success—and that my journey, with all its challenges, was enough,” she said.
