Cerritos College
Tammy Lee, of La Habra, became a flutist at the age of eight, playing in her elementary school band and taking private lessons. After graduating from Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, Lee started classes at Cerritos College in fall 2005. As a college student, she continues piano and flute lessons while taking general education classes. Soon after arriving at Cerritos College, Lee won first prize at (more about Tammy Lee...)
Vladimir Ochoa was born in Mexico City and raised in Santa Maria, Calif. His leadership was evident at an early age when he was selected as the valedictorian of his high school graduating class. However, he had to overcome many struggles before realizing his strength and potential. During his first two years at the University of Southern California (USC), Ochoa faced severe family problems and (more about Vladimir Ochoa...)
Zulema Carrillo entered Cerritos College as one of Project HOPE's first students after its inception in 2002. She is also the first person in her family to receive a bachelor's degree and to be accepted into a health professional school. Carrillo was born in Los Angeles and raised in Whittier, Calf. with her older sister and younger twin brothers. Carrillo knew she was born to be a health professional and (more abuot Zulema Carrillo...)
Jonathan Stewart is an average college student with an above-average sense of direction. He is uncommonly focused upon his goal of becoming an elementary school teacher. He's a proud alumnus of Cerritos College's Teacher TRAC program, a fast-track program that allows those who plan to teach grades K-6 to complete their general education courses at Cerritos College and then transfer to (more about Jonathan Stewart...)
Fei Yang laughs at the sheer unbelievably of it: his design for a portion of the 2008 Beijing Olympic village was chosen, along with five other designs, to be included in the city's building projects for the summer Olympic games. Yang, of Anaheim, was the only student whose submission won--all of the other submissions came from architectural houses based in bastions of design--London, Paris and Tokyo. (more about Fei Yang...)
When Arner Pitts wrote a letter to Cerritos College School Relations Coordinator Shirley Arceo, he didn't expect her to answer. He just hoped she would send him an application to the college. But Arceo did more than just answer Pitts' letter. She sent him a full packet of information about Cerritos College. That was more than ten years ago. Pitts was in prison, serving a five-year sentence. (more about Arner Pitts...)
Brenda Velis, a sophomore at Cerritos College, was honored with an award for research she presented at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in Anaheim, California in November 2006. Velis is a student in Cerritos College's Project HOPE program, a federally funded program dedicated to increasing the number of Latinos and other (more about Brenda Velis...)
It seems like only yesterday that Armando Ponce was riding in the back seat of his mom's car on the way to school--listening to Power 106 FM and his favorite deejay "Big Boy." Now, he not only hears Big Boy each day, but he sees him in the office. Ponce, a broadcast major at Cerritos College, now has a part-time gig at Power 106 FM, one of the leading hip-hop stations in the Los Angeles market... (more about Armando Ponce...)
