Andrew Huse, Senior Staff Photographer

The GradFest tents pitched outside the San Diego State Bookstore marked the beginning of an exciting time for many graduating students.

Inside the tents, Tamara McLeod, executive director of professional development at the College of Extended Studies, stood by the Alumni Association booth and talked to students about life after college.

“I come back each year to help with GradFest because it’s always so stimulating to see the students graduating,” McLeod said. “They’re so excited to be at this juncture in their future career, so it’s very rewarding and satisfying.”

McLeod, who graduated from SDSU in 1972 with a degree in marketing, said students should also think about their relationship with the university after they graduate.

Mcleod said her time as a student at SDSU provided great learning experiences, both socially and academically.

McLeod, who was part of the first class to live in Zura Residence Hall and later lived on 55th Street, said she looks back on those times as enjoyable memories in her life.

“Both of those experiences were really great because they put you in a really diverse environment,” McLeod said, “which a lot of students, until they come here and experience, may not have had the opportunity.”

Academically, McLeod said the students who are graduating are better prepared to enter the job market than the students during her college years. She said students are going into the workforce with more experience than she had, because internships and opportunities to develop workforce skills are more abundant.

“That’s part of today’s world – being able to move around and decide what the marketplace is demanding and how that fits with their interests – and they may get out there and change gears,” McLeod said. “What I see is a combination of all of that.”

What McLeod takes most from her time at SDSU are the people she’s met and the connections she’s made, which she tried to communicate to soon-to-be graduates.

McLeod still keeps in touch with her SDSU friends and has gone into business with and attended the weddings of such people.

“What I found is the whole college experience, for me, was something that was just phenomenal in terms of the people that I met and then those are people that I’ve stayed in touch with forever,” she said.

Hoggard agreed that the thing she will remember most is the friends she’s made and people she’s met.

For now, she said she is just trying to finish and will take the time to reflect on her college experience when all is said and done.

“I definitely enjoyed my time here, and I don’t regret my decision to come here at all,” she said.

“Right now, it’s just kind of that race to the finish line.

“I’m just hoping to get it over with, but I’m sure once I’m done, I’ll be a little bit sad that I’m not here anymore.”