Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. JoAnna Schilling, started this years convocation off by saying that the event “Starts off the year. We bring all of our faculty and staff together…, it’s like a kick off.”
Convocation was held at the Burnight Center on Thursday, Aug. 27.
Diana Melina Echeverria was named Los Angeles Universal Preschool’s Teacher of the Year, and Cerritos Head Coach of the Men’s Soccer team, Benny Artiaga, was recognized as the National Coach of the Year.
As for student achievements, the dental hygiene students made history by winning three times at the American Dental Hygienists’ Association National Competition, and the culinary arts students assisted with the 2015 Golden Globes Awards dinner at the Beverly Hilton.
Convocation filled with nonstop laughter when President/Superintendent of Academic Affairs, Dr. Jose Fierro, received a special surprise from The Falconer band led by Dr. David Bentancourt, director of Bands and Orchestra.
They performed “Fierro’s Words to Live By,” to the melody of “Mustang Sally.”
The last one to take the stage and spread inspiration of his own was Dr. Fierro.
Dr. Fierro said, “Being able to understand what college life is like, the expectations of college have a significant impact on whether or not a student is going to be successful.”
In his speech, he addressed the issue of students whose parent’s didn’t go to college. He referred to this as the first year gap. The possibility of those students graduating are very low.
Dr. Fierro presented a slide which stated that 12.4 percent of children whose parents didn’t obtain a high school diploma went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree or better.
Furthermore, 59.1 percent of children whose parents earned an advanced degree attained a Bachelor’s degree and beyond.
Fierro spoke about a program set in place to help first year gap students.
According to Fierro, the relatively new program, “seems to provide a very good support to students, but I would like to extend that program to all incoming freshman.”
Professor David Betancourt, who acknowledged this inspiration, stated, “Well I think the thing I really like and I took away from it is this whole idea that he was talking about how we can affect the future in a positive way. I think it was a great reminder for all of us.”
