Like father, like daughter: A CSUN graduation shared
As final exams come to an end, graduation season begins and the preparations at CSUN have taken over the campus for the last two weeks to be ready for its multiple commencement ceremonies, starting on Saturday, May 10, and ending on Monday, May 19. Students can take their grad photos, buy merchandise from the Campus Store and purchase tickets for all family and friends to watch them walk the stage and get their diploma.
For the Blancett family, this graduation is very special, as they will have two family members walk across. Dave Blancett and his daughter, Alexis Blancett, will receive their diplomas. It has been over 50 years since Dave graduated from CSUN and Alexis has been working for her own special day for nearly 20 years.
Dave lived close to CSUN as a kid, still living with his parents. Back then, it was still called San Fernando Valley State College. After graduating from high school in 1970, in the middle of the Vietnam War, he didn’t have many options for continuing his life. As a man, he had two paths: to enlist in the army or further his education. He chose college.
Dave recalls how he struggled to keep his grades up during his first year, failing one of the biology classes he had signed up for on a pass/no pass basis. This brought down his GPA below a 2.0, urging him to ask a counselor for help and bring the issue to the professor. After pleading his case, his status changed to an actual grade of a D, increasing his GPA back over 2.0 and allowing him to stay in college.
Two years later, the campus was officially changed to CSUN, and Dave was now officially enrolled in a university system. He started as a sociology major but changed to urban studies, where he obtained his degree.
However, Dave will be walking the stage with his daughter so long after his actual graduation because he missed 3 class units. Only able to make them up during the summer semester, he missed his chance to walk with the rest of his class. The closest he got was during a commencement ceremony a decade ago, which he decided to attend on a whim.
“I thought, this is the closest I’m going to get,” he said.
After leaving CSUN, Dave got into the boat business, washing boats and teaching others how to sail. He stayed in the field until he became a yacht delivery captain, but took a position when his degree came in handy. Now, Dave is retired in Florida, and his last job was as president of a yacht banking company. He occasionally volunteers and works as an accredited financial counselor and a mentor for a program that helps small business owners build up and work on their financial issues.
“I am sure I am going to the oldest person up on that stage,” he said with a laugh. “When Alxeis told me she was going to graduate, I said I don’t want to step on your toes, this is your day. But she said it was okay.”
He expressed his gratitude towards his daughter and the campus, understanding it’s a unique situation, but appreciates everything the university has done for them, including giving them reserved seating and creating graduation invitations.
“What Alexis did was 10 times harder than what I did. I lived at my parents’ house and I had no choice,” Dave said. “If I didn’t have those advantages, I’m not sure it wouldn’t have taken me 20 years to get it done.”
Alexis Blancett, at 42 years old and a senior majoring in sociology, graduated high school in 2000 and has been on and off college campuses since then. She expressed overcoming obstacles throughout the years, including getting sober at 21 and having her daughter at 27. She now works at a hospital in Pasadena as a chemical dependency counselor, where she has been for 16 years.
“There were a lot of times I felt like I wanted to give up on my degree, just because it felt like life just kept happening,” she said. “The whole time my dad definitely supported me to go and paid for a lot of that at the beginning.”
Alexis graduated from Glendale Community College with her certificate in addiction studies, transferring to a university after mapping out her education with the help of a counselor who motivated her to continue her studies.
It wasn’t until after starting at CSUN that she found out her dad had graduated from the campus years ago. This became the perfect bonding moment, as they had not been as close together during her childhood.
“We have this together,” she said. “This was ours. This was really special, and it really encouraged me to continue and finish the degree and classes, and then go full-time even though I worked full-time. A lot of it was just showing my daughter that I can do this and she can do this and that I am prepared for when she is ready to do this.”
After so long, Alexis expressed how she is still in awe that she will be able to graduate and how now, she plans to even go ahead with her master’s, potentially through CSUN’s School of Social Work.
“I knew he had gotten his diploma and that he didn’t get a chance to do it, and so in my head, it was I can do this for him,” Alexis said. “Imagining actually walking on stage, one just in general, without my dad, I can believe I am doing it. This is just something I never thought I would do. And then to have my dad walk with me is just something that is incredible.”
Among those in the audience on graduation day will be her teen daughter, who decorated her graduation cap. Alexis hopes to show her daughter how important it is to have a higher education, especially as a woman, and already plans on supporting her throughout her school years.
“If it’s something she wants, never give up on it,” Alexis said. “Life is going to happen no matter what, and if it’s important to yo,u you keep pushing through.”
