ORANGE >> It was a commencement ceremony for one.

Tears of joy filled the eyes of relatives, friends and doctors in attendance Thursday afternoon at UCI Medical Center as President Jane Close Conoley of Cal State Long Beach delivered a diploma to 26-year-old Cory Sullivan, a psychology major who missed his May 20 campus commencement after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.

“Now you’re one of the newest alums in our 300,000-strong alum family, so you may move that tassel over,” an emotional Conoley told Sullivan, who wore a cap and gown over his hospital garb, brought to him by family members and CSULB administrators who surprised him with the personalized commencement ceremony.

For Conoley, it was the last diploma handoff of her first commencement season.

Sullivan, who still has use of his arms and fingers, was in shock for several minutes. He shook his head in disbelief and fought back tears under black-and-gold party ribbons and a balloon congratulating him for completing his studies.

“It’s pretty emotional,” Sullivan said of the ceremony, which included the playing of “Pomp and Circumstance” and was held inside a lounge at the hospital. “It was something I didn’t see coming.”

Sullivan was riding a Honda CBR1000 motorcycle on the westbound onramp of the 22 Freeway at Euclid Street in Garden Grove when the open throttle got stuck. After trying in vain to fix the emergency, including hitting the kill switch, Sullivan decided to lay the bike down rather than put other lives at risk by entering the freeway.

Cristobal Barrios, a trauma surgeon at UCI Medical Center, said Sullivan snapped off two vertebrae, which ended up floating in his chest. Sullivan’s body now has two rods, 13 screws and a cage to replace his missing vertebrae. A GoFundMe page for Sullivan’s medical expenses received, by late Thursday, pledges of nearly $9,000 of the $10,000 friends and family are seeking.

“This is one of the worst fractures we’ve ever seen,” Barrios said. “The fact that he’s alive impresses a lot of people.”

Indeed, dozens of people congratulated Sullivan and wished him well in his recovery. Professor Courtney Ahrens taught Sullivan in a psychology fieldwork class. She said Sullivan touched the lives of his classmates through a steadfast commitment to education.

“Cory had to struggle to find an internship, but whereas other students in my class dropped out, he didn’t,” Ahrens said. “He saw the challenge, he faced it and he persisted. And he did so with grace, with humor, and with optimism (that was unlike) anything I normally see in students. I know from what I saw from him this semester, that he’s going to take that same humor, optimism, strength and resilience, to face the challenges ahead. And I’m just so proud to have known him.”

Sullivan has undergone multiple surgeries, including one on the day he would have received his diploma during the commencement ceremony.

“I was looking at the date, and I was like, I should be walking. I should be there,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan’s mother, Cindy Sullivan, said her son is a strong young man with a great heart, as was demonstrated when he sacrificed himself to prevent harm to others.

“As a mom, I take comfort in that, because he knew it could have been a lot worse,” Cindy Sullivan said.

She said it was humbling that CSULB officials personally delivered her son’s diploma. And she’s grateful, saying that missing commencement on campus was one of her son’s toughest hurdles to cross in his nascent recovery.

“His dreams mean a lot to him,” she said. “He worked for it and he wants to go on to graduate school. … I’m very confident he’s going to go on to do the things he wants to do. I think it’s going to heal parts of me too, knowing he’s got this diploma.”

Contact Josh Dulaney at 562-714-2150.