Amber Major, Culinary Arts depratment, and Maricela Pedroza, were both recognized for outstanding achievement here at Cerritos College by being named the employees of the month for June and July last Thursday at the Board of Trustees meeting.

Major has been an employee since Nov. 2001 and has had the privilege of receiving two Employee of the Month awards in her seven years of service at Cerritos.

“She has always been in charge of catering the large events, and we have always counted on her and like always has come through,” said Bill Farmer, acting president/superintendent.

Pedroza was also recognized for her outstanding work at Cerritos, but in the Financial Aid Center.

She has been an employee at Cerritos since March 2004, she has always been of great help students and is highly known for her superb help as a senior application analyst.

“Her intelligence and technical abilities are outstanding, and she is extremely accommodating with the students needs,” said Farmer.

After the countless photos and the last congratulations were said to the winners, the meeting headed to more school-affiliated matters, such as the campus construction.

More and more areas around campus are being closed down for the remodeling that Cerritos would be going through for the next couple of years.

Students walk around the green plastic covered fences with absolutely no idea of why the construction is occurring.

“Students want to know what is going on, and I think some sort of information would be greatly appreciated,” said Tom Jackson, board member.

One other important matter that has been laid out in the table recently was the shocking fact of low transfers that will occur here at Cerritos. 2,300 students are eligible for transfer, but 1,300 of them will not apply.

With the Transfer Center open to students, counselors available to answer questions, and the few college fairs that occur at campus, students are yet not using them to their full advantage.

Because of their lack of knowledge of their eligibility many are still attending Cerritos, and missing out of transferring early.

“We are developing a General Awareness Campaign in which we will bring the community around them, and help them. Whether it be in large groups or one-on-one, we will help them with their college transfer here at Cerritos,” said Dr. Bryan Reece, Faculty Senate president.

Many parents rarely help students when it comes to college, so it’s overwhelming when a student has to fill out college applications on his own, with sometimes little or maybe even no sense of direction of where to begin.