NAU News — Graduate Steven Hernandez Jr.: NAU employee-turned-Lumberjack-grad took expertise to the classroom

	🎓 Amid unprecedented pandemic, NAU graduates more than 2,500 in the Class of 2020 NAU’s virtual ceremony, including remarks from President Cheng, will be live-streamed at 1 p.m. Sunday and the recording will be available throughout the winter. Viewers in the first 24 hours can post shoutouts to graduates on social media using #naugrad and be featured on the commencement feed.
	🎓 Graduate Esther Cadman: After overcoming abuse, Navajo student finds her way back to earn her Ph.D. A simple question from an elementary school teacher started Cadman on a journey that led to this moment. During her time at NAU, she worked with preschoolers in Navajo Head Start and did research for CHER’s Missing and Murdered Diné Relations team.
	🎓 Graduate Steven Hernandez Jr.: NAU employee-turned-Lumberjack-grad took expertise to the classroom Hernandez, who works as a business analyst in Academic Affairs, transferred from Coconino Community College. Besides doing the normal student activities, he found ways to put his work experience to use in the classroom and what he learned in the classroom to use in his job.
	🎓 Graduate Austin Newcombe: After a football injury changed his college path, he found success through NAU statewide Newcombe coached high school football while working on his degree in communication studies through NAU’s program at Glendale Community College. He is the first in his family to earn a college degree.
	🎓 Graduate Valeria Hernandez: After lupus diagnosis, first-gen LJ Scholar fought back to finish her education Hernandez’s parents migrated to the U.S. from Mexico so they could make sure their daughter got the education they never received. Determined to make them proud, she got a full ride academic scholarship to NAU to pursue degrees in criminal justice and sociology. Then, Hernandez got sick.
	🎓 Graduate Darren Ellis: NAU Online leads student to law school as he furthers his passion for criminal justice reform Ellis, who is earning a degree in justice studies, has spent the last decade volunteering at the California Reentry Institute, which works with inmates in the San Quentin State Prison to help them prepare for and adjust to life after incarceration.