West Hills Alumnus to Speak at Grossmont College Graduation

Submitted by Grossmont College

Thursday afternoon’s marks the end of Grossmont College’s yearlong and Danny McKay, a West Hills High School graduate, will be the student speaker at the event.

Despite the , forcing the cancellation at Grossmont College of 40 percent of classes over the past 4 years, this year’s Commencement will feature 1,664 graduates (associate degrees or certificates), even more than .

The Keynote speaker at this year’s Commencement is Diana Pico, the wife of Anthony Pico, the elected Chairman of the Viejas Band of . Diana Pico, a San Diego native, graduated from Grossmont College in 1986 with an associate degree in nursing.

About Student Speaker Danny McKay

Danny McKay is graduating with honors from Grossmont College, receiving his associate in Science Degree in Math and Science and a certificate of achievement in University Studies. He is also graduating with honors designation, having completed the Grossmont College Honors Program. He also has been inducted into the college’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honors society that recognizes and encourages academic achievement of two-year college students. To be eligible for PTK membership a student must complete a minimum of 12 hours of associate degree course work and generally earn a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

Danny is a San Diego native and graduated from in Santee in 2007. Upon graduating, he joined the United States Air Force, following in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather, and enlisted as a Missile and Space Facility Maintenance Technician. While stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Danny was involved in a life-changing car accident while driving drunk that caused a severe head injury, ultimately ending his promising military career.

At age 20, with encouragement from family and friends, he enrolled at Grossmont College. He had battled drug and alcohol addictions in high school.

"I didn’t know if I could walk into school and do well,” McKay said. "Coming to school was scary to me.” However, in his two-and-one-half years at Grossmont, Danny has maintained a minimum 3.95 grade point average. "Because of the people and programs here, I was able to dive in. People didn’t judge me,” he said. "If it wasn’t for the professors and the funds available through financial aid, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

Danny has formally presented two research projects in the field of psychology at the Honors Transfer Council of California (HTCC) Honors Research Conference at UC Irvine and at the Bay Honors Consortium (BHC) Research Symposium at Stanford University and at UC Berkeley. During his last semester here at Grossmont, he has headed the Peer Counseling Club and served as Vice President of the Inter-Club Counsel.

Danny is interested in the field of psychology stemming from his maternal grandfather’s diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia after a brain injury in 1975, his mother’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder after a traumatic brain injury in 1997, and his own struggle with mental disorders before and after his own head injury.

Daniel has been accepted to UCSD, UCLA, and UC Berkeley, and plans to attend Stanford University in the fall. His goals include a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a Ph.D. in psychology and continue researching the physiological and biochemical causes and effects of mental disorders.

"Life is overall excellent compared to how my life was,” he said. "I plan on going as far as possible.”