Fifth-graders in Julie Sanchez's class at Hathaway School are going on a field trip Friday to California State University, Channel Islands.

The 29 students will attend their teacher's graduation, which also happens to be the inaugural commencement for the new university.

More than 400 students from the class of 2003 will participate in the 10 a.m. ceremony on the university's south quad. The event is open to the public.

Fewer than 20 of the graduates are actually CSUCI students. Three students are scheduled to receive the first bachelor's degrees from the new school, while another 16 are expected to earn teaching credentials.

The remaining graduates, including Sanchez, are earning degrees or teaching credentials from CSU Northridge. Northridge students who take at least 30 credits through the school's off-campus center at the CSUCI campus are eligible to participate in the local ceremony.

Sanchez, 49, took most of her classes through the off-campus center, which has been offering classes in Ventura County since before CSUCI opened. Sanchez wanted to include her students in her graduation celebration because they've stuck with her all year as she completed her master's degree in educational psychology.

"Fifth grade is a really tough year," she said. "At the beginning of the year, I said, 'I want you to know, I'm going to school, too. I know how you feel. I have to do this, too.' "

"These kids are a part of my life. I wanted them to know that I struggled, too, but I'm not going to let it stop me."

To help instill the importance of education in her students, Sanchez organized them into groups identified by the name of colleges such as Stanford, Princeton or the University of California, Los Angeles. She also put tally marks representing her school assignments on the chalkboard, then erased them as she completed each task. The class visited Oxnard College and now will get to see CSUCI.

"They have heard of these schools now," she said. "They've really started to make that broader connection (to college.) The idea of a local university -- this is a local place they can go, where they can live at home."

By including her students in her graduation, Sanchez also is including them in a historic moment for CSUCI.

After more than 30 years of planning and preparation, the university opened with 650 transfer students in the fall. Because most of those students started as juniors and have to complete at least 30 units at CSUCI, no one knew if any would complete their course work in time to graduate this spring.

"We thought it was possible all year long, but until we actually found out if students were going to finish their programs, we didn't know," university President Richard Rush said. "(The ceremony) is going to be really exciting. We really are on our way."

Although the number of CSUCI graduates might be small this year, the ceremony will include one of the largest groups of CSUN graduates to participate in the Ventura County ceremony, said Nancy Covarrubias Gill, chairwoman of the graduation planning committee and associate director for operations and special projects in the division of student affairs.

The challenge for graduation organizers has been establishing new traditions and recognizing the importance of the university's first graduation without overlooking the Northridge students and their achievements.

"What we've really tried to do is blend it so it was one graduation for all the students," Gill said. "It's going to be similar to the past ceremonies, but we also wanted to do some new traditions. We really wanted to make it special."

The new traditions include a welcome in English and Spanish, symbolizing the university's commitment to graduating students with multicultural perspectives; and an archway through which the graduates will walk, symbolizing the completion of their studies and passage into a new phase of life.

Kirsten Moss, a 31-year-old sociology major, is excited about participating in the historic ceremony, even though her diploma will list her alma mater as CSU Northridge.

CSUN students' biggest concern was ensuring they would still be able to graduate at CSUCI even after the new campus opened, said Moss, who served as student body president at the Channel Islands campus this year. Most Northridge students on the campus already consider themselves Channel Islands students, she said.

"If you're at the Channel Islands graduation, it's because you identify with Channel Islands," she said. "It doesn't matter who's who. We're all part of Channel Islands."