Celebrating among faculty and friends who they now consider to be family, 19 students graduating from the College of Natural and Applied (CNAS) were recognized on December 17 during the CNAS Pinning Ceremony at the Guam Reef and Olive Spa Resort.

Dean Lee Yudin said that this, semester 29 students from nine degree programs—seven undergraduate and two graduate programs—will walk across stage on Sunday during the Fall 2015 Commencement ceremony.

“I’m proud of all my undergraduate and graduate students,” Yudin said. “To me it’s wonderful that some of our students want to become educators. The way to improve STEM education is to get our graduates employed in the middle and high school to improve the next generation.”

Senior biology major Ginger Naburn said she’s excited that all her hard work over the last few years has paid off. Although it was difficult at some moments in her undergraduate career, looking back, the time seemed to fly by.

“I’m very thankful for all the support from my family and help I received from my professors, mentors and advisors,” Naburn said. “What seemed like forever to get to this point, now seems like it went by in a blink of an eye.”

Naburn said after graduation, she plans to attend optometry school in the mainland, but one day return to serve her island community.

“I definitely want to come back and contribute for our community and UOG,” she said. “I owe a lot to UOG, and I just want to be able to serve our people. This is home.”

See photos from the CNAS Fall 2015 Pinning Ceremony on the UOG Flickr.