On Saturday, 3,226 seniors will throw their black caps into the air and celebrate the completion of their college degrees.
Among those seniors will be students who finished their class work after fall or winter term, but according to the Office of the Registrar, 2,379 graduates will be seniors who will take their last final exams and turn in their last papers throughout the week.
Three of those graduating seniors have taken different roads and made different choices on their way to graduation, but next weekend they will all arrive at their destinations and take home that diploma they worked for so hard throughout the past four or five years.

The road less traveled
One student wearing her black cap and gown to ceremonies over the weekend is Shay LeBray, a senior business major who will also receive a minor for completing the Honors College curriculum. LeBray said although there were instances when time seemed to have stopped, her years at the University flew by.
“These four years just went by so fast,” she said. “Part of me feels like it’s not really happening.”
She said maybe the reason her college years seem to have flown by is that she always pushed herself to live up to her own high standards in an effort to see what she is capable of doing.
LeBray said she always wanted to major in business because she felt a business degree would help her prepare for a number of careers.
“It seemed like business was something that affects all different professions in some way or another,” she said.
LeBray also chose to go through the Honors College curriculum that included completing a thesis during her senior year. But although the thesis added extra work, LeBray said the experience of writing a long-term research paper was rewarding.
“It was a good experience,” she said. “I learned so much more from that experience besides just the thoughts that go into the thesis.”
When LeBray defended her thesis at the end of the term, she said she was nervous because although she likes giving presentations, sharing her own research in front of a faculty committee and her family was very personal. Her mother brought brownies and crepes to the defense and helped make the atmosphere somewhat more relaxed, she said.
As her topic, she chose to examine how GreaterGoods.com, an on-line auction company that enables its users to contribute to charity when making a purchase, could incorporate on-line auction services for non-profit organizations into its existing services.
“It was really exciting to share something that you worked on from start to finish,” she said.
LeBray said she might send the company a copy of her research, but did not choose the topic to make money off her ideas.
Whether the company likes those ideas or not, the faculty committee did, and LeBray passed with distinction, the highest honor possible. In yet another effort to see what she can do, LeBray entered the business honors program during her junior year and belongs to the first graduating class of that program. She said she did not enter the program because she was looking for more work, but she liked the idea of studying in smaller groups with an emphasis on teamwork.
“It wasn’t the more work that attracted me, but it was the smaller classes and the excellent faculty that were selected to teach the classes,” LeBray said.

The fun times
Even though LeBray kept herself busy with academics throughout her four years of college, taking 16 academic credits a term, she said she always squeezed some fun classes such as sailing, aerobics or yoga into her schedule, too. LeBray said she also made time to be involved in her sorority, Delta Gamma, and a number of other honor societies. Every now and then, she said she escaped to hike Spencer’s Butte.
LeBray also spent a summer studying at a university in Angais, France, and traveled across Europe.
“It was one of the best experiences,” she said. “I had always wanted to go.”
She said besides improving her French skills, studying abroad also offered a new perspective.
“I think it’s easy to get really bogged down and really stressed out here in your own little world,” LeBray said.
If she could do her college years over again, LeBray said she might make some room to travel more and take classes such as acting, which might not advance her progress toward her degree, but would be fun to explore.
“For me to have done those things, it would have probably taken a fifth year,” she said.

In retrospect
Now that it’s all over, a fifth year does not sound like such a terrible thing to LeBray, who will study for the Graduate Management Admissions Test over the summer. After all, college is about more than academics she said, and she will miss her friends and her life as a student.
“I think it’s such a unique time,” she said. “When you have so much independence, you are with so many different people and there are so many opportunities. You’re never again going to have this many people that are your friends and that you know.”
LeBray said she decided what she needs is some time to think about what she wants to do.
“I really want to find something to do that I’m passionate about and that I like,” she said. “I want to do something that makes a difference. It doesn’t have to be some big thing to be good.”
And for the first time in years, LeBray seems to feel comfortable taking a break. She said time is not important as long as there is a reason for making a choice.
“It’s more important that you have a reason for doing what you’re doing,” she said.
And so far, LeBray said all her choices throughout college seemed to be right for her.
“I’ve had the best four years here,” LeBray said.

Another experience
Another face among the sea of black caps and gowns will be that of Michael Perkins, a senior political science major who can hardly wait to celebrate the end of his college years with his friends.
When Perkins arrived at the interview, he was hot and out of breath because he had just walked up to the ninth floor of PLC to turn in one of his last political science papers only to find out that he had come to the wrong place. He said a receptionist politely directed him to the second floor, but after he had climbed seven flights of stairs to that floor he still had not found the right place and walked back up to the ninth floor to find out that the office he was looking for was on the eight floor. Perkins said he never liked the elevators in PLC because they tend to stop on almost every floor.
Perkins said his family will come to graduation from Newport. But rather than planning his own party Perkins said he plans to celebrate at friends’ houses.
“I think I’ll just hop from friend to friend and not mess up my own place,” he said.
Perkins said he majored in political science because he plans to go to law school and eventually be a judge. Political science, he said, just seemed like a good alternative to a pre-law program, which the University does not have.
But before Perkins hits the books again, he said he is going to treat himself to a year off, which he plans to spend traveling.
“I figure after 16 years of school, I’m ready to take a break,” he said.
Perkins said he has been suffering from senioritis since last term and can hardly wait to be done with finals.
“Oh man, it’s so bad,” he said. “Every time finals week rolls around, I’m so sick of being a student.”
But he also said even though he was ready to be done at times, in retrospect, his years at the University seem to have flown by.
“It went by real fast,” he said. “I was on a four-year track, and I wanted to be out of here.”
And even though Perkins said he often procrastinated until the last minute to get assignments done, he said college had its perks.
“It’s not the real world,” he sai
d. “If I mess up, I’m just hurting myself.”
Besides falling short of the “real world,” Perkins also said he enjoyed taking classes that had nothing to do with his major. Taking some sociology classes helped him broaden his horizons and offered a new perspective to thinking about issues, he said.

Detours
Senior public relations major Nicole Benson will also celebrate graduation and the end of her five year-college career Saturday.
After starting out at the University as a psychology major, then switching to business and back to psychology, she said she finally settled on a public relations major and a business minor.
Benson, who is from Portland, said she picked the University because it was far enough away from home to be independent and yet allowed her to pay in-state tuition. After her freshman year, she transferred to Portland State University where she studied for two years before retuning to Eugene.
“I just felt that business is a really versatile degree, and I wanted some background in it,” she said.
Benson said had she taken a year off after high school to get some work experience, she probably would have known what she wanted to study by the time she got to college. That is why she said she now is in no big hurry to find her first job.

Benson plans to take a break, continue working at her job as a cocktail server at the Oregon Electric Station in Eugene and think about what she wants to do.
“I don’t want the pressure on myself,” she said. “My gift to myself is to take it easy and relax.”
As Benson was getting ready for a graduation party with her family, she said her years at the University flew by, even though there were times where time seemed to have stopped.
“Right now I think they went really fast, but I also feel that they dragged on forever,” she said.
Benson said it is almost too bad that she is graduating now because she feels she has become really good at being a student and managing her time. She said she is not even stressing about her last finals she will be taking throughout the week.
“When I go into finals, I don’t have that nervous feeling,” she said.