Twenty-one UCLA students will be working in fishing villages in Thailand this summer, helping to rebuild coastal communities destroyed by the devastating tsunami of 2004.

The UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 13, at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block will deliver the keynote address.

After commencement exercises June 13, many UCLA seniors will undoubtedly take a breather during the lazy days of summer. But Jessica Gu, Michael Marcus and Antonio Moya have no intention of slowing down. These three dedicated graduates will spend their summers — and beyond — working to improve the state of public health in far-flung corners of the globe.

Each year in late spring, students and faculty around the world prepare to take part in a tradition more than 800 years old, donning traditional caps and gowns — ritual items born at Europe's earliest universities. But what's the meaning behind the get-up, the variety, the peculiar symbols? Is there a message in all these fabrics and colors? UCLA's experts weigh in.