Top honors for Marine veteran from Selma highlight Fresno State commencement

A Marine veteran from Selma was one of the top award-winners Saturday during Fresno State's 107th commencement, held at the Save Mart Center.

Patricio Galindo was selected as the President's Medalist, the University's top honor for an undergraduate student. He earned a bachelor's in social work from the College of Health and Human Services with a 3.85 GPA after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Galindo earned eight medals while serving in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. As if the stress of earning his degree wasn't enough, he became a new father with the birth of his son Thursday.

Annemarie Schwanz of Neuruppin, Germany, was selected as the University Graduate Medalist, Fresno State's top honor for a graduate student. She earned a master's in civil engineering from the Lyles College of Engineering with a 4.0 GPA after starring for the Fresno State track and field and cross country teams.

The university's top academic honorees were chosen from a group of nine Deans' Graduate Medalists and nine Undergraduate Deans' Medalists.

Fresno State had a collection of commencement events Friday and Saturday, including ceremonies for the university's eight schools and colleges and other various programs and diverse offerings. The largest besides the main commencement is the 42nd annual Chicano/Latino Commencement Celebration, held Saturday night at the Save Mart Center. An expected capacity crowd approaching 14,000 makes it the largest Latino commencement celebration in the nation, organizers say.

Fresno State said it had 5,017 students who completed their undergraduate degree work in the class of 2018, and another 1,059 who completed postgraduate work.

This story was originally published May 19, 2018 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Top honors for Marine veteran from Selma highlight Fresno State commencement."