SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns graduated in droves over the past few weeks. Here is a roundup of our coverage of those graduations. To read the full story, click on the headline.

SLCC honors its second-largest graduating class

Dressed in her cap and gown, new Salt Lake Community College graduate Ana Patricia Pastor Butt posed outside the Maverik Center for photos surrounded by her children and closest friends.

“I feel happy. I made it,” she said.

The Sandy woman worked hard over the past 10 months, taking 18 credit hours each semester to receive her associate degree in health science.

“All of this is for them,” she said pointing to her children. “This is an example for them to be graduated and be better than their mom.”

Butt, who plans to attend nursing school in the upcoming months, said her educational success, even with English as her second language, raises the expectation for her American-born children to excel even more.

Butt, who moved to the United States from Peru 15 years ago, was one of many SLCC graduates with ties outside the U.S. Friday’s graduates came from 74 countries and ranged in age from 16 to 67.

Salt Lake Community College celebrated its second largest graduating class in history, awarding 4,125 certificates. Among this year's graduating class, 894 students earned certificates or diplomas and 3,928 earned associate degrees. Seventy-five percent of these graduates have plans to go on to receive bachelor's degrees at four-year colleges, according to SLCC officials.

The college boasts that it is among the top 10 colleges in the country for total associate degrees awarded.

More than 61,000 students attend SLCC each year, according to the college. It has 1,000 continuing education sites located throughout the Salt Lake Valley and is the sole provider of applied technology courses in the Salt Lake area.

Salt Lake Community College awarded humanitarian and community leader Barbara Lindquist Tanner and Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Stanley B. Parrish with honorary doctorate degrees. Engineer Marisa Dawn Egbert and chef/restaurateur Gerard Ford Craft were named distinguished alumni.

Family a commencement focus for graduating class at University of Utah

For Calli Dressen, a college degree has been eight years in the making.

Family, work and a baby have taken the Salt Lake City native to various places across the country. But Thursday was the culmination of years of work, late nights and lengthy assignments at the University of Utah for Dressen, who now holds a bachelor's degree in psychology.

"It feels so good. Huge weight lifted off my shoulders," she said. "I loved it. It was a lot of fun."

Dressen and other graduates of the U. were encouraged to remember that "care is as important as career, heart is as important as head, and family is as important as fame."

That was the counsel of national policy and thought leader Anne-Marie Slaughter, the university's featured commencement speaker Thursday.

"Family in many different incarnations is not the thing that you have to struggle to make time for as you reach for the stars," Slaughter said. "Family is the foundation of your ability to thrive."

Slaughter is an author, esteemed professor at Princeton University, and the president and CEO of New America. In that company, she leads a team of scientists, technologists and economists in finding solutions to problems of national security, health, education and other issues.

This year, Utah's flagship university awarded 8,761 degrees to 8,291 graduates, down slightly from 8,830 degrees given to 8,363 people last year.

Roughly two-thirds of this year's awards were bachelor's degrees, one-fourth were master's degrees, 7 percent were doctorates, and the remaining 3 percent consisted of juris doctors, doctors of medicine and doctors of pharmacy.

The university's class of 2016 represented 23 Utah counties, all 50 U.S. states and more than 90 countries.

UVU graduates charged with cultivating 'love of discovery'

Scott Krage began his college career at BYU at the recommendation of his brother. But he soon changed course after sitting in a class at Utah Valley University that was "different."

"I really enjoyed the way of how we had more application work, rather than some hard book work," Krage said. "I really felt that the experience from my professors really kind of stepped up above the other classes, so I switched over here.

"We have this theme of engaged-type learning, and that's really what caught my attention, and I thrive with it," he said.

Three years later, the accounting major joined more than 5,000 of his classmates for one last walk down the halls at UVU.

In its 75th commencement ceremony, UVU awarded 5,409 degrees Thursday, up from 5,082 degrees last year. Among this year's graduating class, 185 students earned certificates or diplomas, 2,039 earned associate degrees, 3,079 bachelor's degrees were awarded, 99 students earned master's degrees and seven graduate certificates were given.

The Orem university this year awarded the largest number of bachelor's and master's degrees in its history.

Last fall, UVU became the largest university in Utah, with enrollment totalling 33,211 students, a 6 percent increase from the year before. The institution also accounted for more than half of the growth in public college enrollment across the state last year.

Contributing: Abby Hobbs, Morgan Jacobsen

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