An environmental activist, a foundation president, a gang worker, an archbishop and an ex-prisoner of war will address more than 2,500 students receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees at local Catholic colleges this spring.

Erin Brockovich, who helped to successfully represent residents of Hinkley, Calif., after they were exposed to the toxic chemical Chromium 6, will speak to 1,295 undergraduate students at Loyola Marymount University receiving bachelor degrees in 46 different academic fields May 5 at 9:30 in the Westchester campus' Sunken Gardens.

The following day at 10 a.m. in LMU's Sunken Gardens, 610 students will receive graduate degrees in 31 areas of study. Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation and a professor emeritus at Stanford University, will deliver the graduate commencement speech.

Father Greg Boyle, founder and director of Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights, will address 277 undergraduate and 100 graduate Mount St. Mary's College students receiving associate, bachelor's and master's degrees plus certificates May 14 in a 3 p.m. commencement ceremony at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City.

At Thomas Aquinas College's commencement ceremony, Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith will speak to 74 seniors receiving a bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts on May 12. The Secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship in the Roman Curia will be the principal celebrant and homilist of the 9 a.m. baccalaureate Mass, followed by commencement exercises at the Santa Paula campus.

At Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, some 150 students will receive associate degrees at the two-year institution on May 26, with commencement ceremonies starting at 11 a.m. Louis Zamperini, a World War II prisoner of war survivor and former American competitive runner, will speak.

---R.W. Dellinger