|
Script for Court Reporting Welcome Video "I think the money led me into the program -- the money and the
flexibility -- because like I said, I don't like to be stuck in one
place 40 hours a week. And this way I would be able to go out and take
different depos. And it's always something new. You're always going to
encounter something different." "In the beginning I worked more because it took me longer in my
editing time. But I would say I worked maybe 20 to 30 hours a week, and
I'm making as much as I did before working 9 to 5, five days a week as a
legal secretary." "You meet new people every day. I first started out as a freelancer
in the deposition field, so I was in a different surrounding every day
meeting new people every day. You're hearing new topics every day. It's
an education, and you're getting paid for it." "And I selected Cerritos College because of the fact that it was the
most economical, where I didn't have to worry about student loans or
financing or anything like that. I feel that it's the most affordable
way to go and get the absolute same type of education and quality
training as opposed to going to a private school." "This is the time. This is the time to get in on it. This is the best
time to get in on it." Welcome to the Court Reporting Program at Cerritos College, where you can learn not only the skills necessary to become a court reporter, who either works in courts or takes depositions for attorneys, but where you can also learn the skills that meet the requirements of a growing number of professions that are using computerized machine shorthand, fields such as scoping and proofreading, medical transcription, steno-interpreting, data text entry, and captioning. We'll let you know more about those later. Just know that with your education here and the skills you develop using your steno machine and computer, there are a number of ways that you can profit. Our campus is located in Norwalk just east of the 605 Freeway at Alondra and Studebaker. As a community college, we have an outstanding court reporting program. We offer day and evening classes, and you can even complete your A.A. degree while going through our program. "You know, I have a better background than somebody who just went
through a court reporting school and never took any other classes." "They referred me to this school because it wasn't a private school,
and those are pretty expensive. So I came here. And I checked it out,
and I liked it. And like I was saying, I looked at the pass rates for
the CSR exam. And it was pretty high; so it made me want to come here
and check it out." "Not only do we take in school the machine courses, which is for the
actual stenograph machine, but we take all of our academics here.
Cerritos College offers all of it -- from English, punctuation,
vocabulary, grammar -- all the way to medical terminology, legal
terminology because you need to know -- court reporting is all -- all it
is is vocabulary -- words. That's what we do. We take everything down
that we hear. And it becomes automatic, pretty much. It goes in your
ear; it comes out your fingers." So what have our students been doing with their skills? Modern court reporters and information managers utilize computer technology to perform their work. "Here in our program we have a computer lab that has state-of-the-art
equipment that we can teach our students everything they need to know to
go out and do an exemplary job in the field. We have the computers. We
hook the stenotype machines to the computers, and we have the expertise
to show you how to do it." "I go in there with the class, set up my machine equipment for my
student to be able to see the computer, and I just take down the class.
If there are comments made by the students, those all go in there; and
they get to participate." "I've met a lot of interesting people. I've met some high-profile
lawyers, as a matter of fact Johnny Cochran. I've been to his law
offices. I've met some of his staff. And other people you've seen in the
news -- Robert Shapiro -- and so it's an excellent opportunity to meet
just some interesting and fascinating people and take on different
cases." "I'm right now at 160 to 170 words per minute. And in addition to
going to school full-time, I work part-time for a local police
department; and we transcribe police officer reports. They dictate into
a tape recorder, and we use a transcribing machine. And we listen to
their reports, and we transcribe them for them." "I'm working as a freelance reporter with an agency in Long Beach.
And I call them every day for my job for the next day, and I can either
accept or turn down the job. I can also kind of request whether I want a
morning or afternoon job if I have a doctor's appointment or something
going on, which I try not to do because I like to be as available as
possible to work as much as I can." "I own an agency today where we service several municipal courts
within Los Angeles County, and our court reporters go out on
depositions. We also have clients who hire us for planning commission
hearings, city council hearings, civil service commission hearings, and
different miscellaneous items." "I've worked the Hillside Strangler trial, the Richard Ramirez trial,
the Charles Keating fraud case, the Rodney King beating trial, and I've
also reported the O. J. Simpson trial." And you're probably wondering what the teachers are like, two words: highly qualified. "Our instructors are the greatest as far as I'm concerned, and I'm
very proud of them. All of them have a court reporting background. Some
of them have their CSRs, RPRs, their Certificate of Merit, Certificate
of Proficiencies, their Diplomates. They're very well qualified to enter
into the educational process here at Cerritos College. In addition to
that, they all have a minimum of a bachelor's degree; and most of us
have master's degrees also, either in education or in English." "Their rapport with students is excellent. I feel like -- I feel like
some of them could be mothers to me. They're very caring, very
understanding, and very sympathetic to any needs that we have. They work
around schedules for us as far as assisting us if we need it. And I just
really love all of our instructors. They're great. They're very great
people." "When our students do go to the test, the teachers accompany them to
make sure that students gets where they need to go at the right time and
they have their machines with them, that they remember to breathe. So
we're all right there for them during the two-day test." "Another thing about the program that I really like is the quality of
the program and of the teachers and of the instructors. I've been around
many educators, and these are some of the finest. They take a true look
at the student individually as well as the whole. They work with you on
that basis. And they're willing to go more than the miracle mile to help
you out; so there's no reason why, on the face of this earth, with the
help that you get from Cerritos College, that you couldn't get through." And let's not forget Micki. She's our girl Monday-through-Friday. If you have a question, feel free to ask her. When you register for our program, you're automatically enrolled in the Court Reporting Club. The 1995-96 student body President, Vice-President, and homecoming queen were Court Reporting Club members. Our club won first place in the homecoming float contest two years in a row and won the Spark Plug Award out of all clubs on campus. "The social parts of the club activities give our students an
opportunity to get together with other students in the program to begin
networking, to make contacts with former students or students who are
about to go out into the court reporting field to work. And it gives
them an entree into some of the working world." Okay. Now that you're interested, here's how to pursue your career in court reporting. First, attend our orientation if you're able. Call the Court Reporting office to find out when the next orientation will be held. Then you need to fill out an application for admission to Cerritos College. This is done here in the Admissions Office. We also recommend that you make an appointment with a counselor. Dr. Sewell and Dr. Matsuura are our court reporting counselors. Next to the Admissions Office is the Financial Aid Office. There are all kinds of information available to you just for the asking. If you plan on applying for financial aid, you may want to ask about additional expenses so that they may be included in your financial aid package. The bookstore is where you can purchase your class schedule and school catalog, as well as the books required for our court reporting program. To start classes, you will need to rent or buy a steno machine. We can connect you with a company that rents machines while you try court reporting and decide whether you want to go forward with this career. Renting a machine will cost about approximately $15 to $35 per month, depending on the rental plan you choose. You supply the paper and ink. Besides books, there are other miscellaneous materials that you will need to enhance your skills. But your expenses at a community college remain the best deal in the state. You can expect to pay more in one month at a private school of court reporting than in an entire semester at Cerritos College. And don't forget those typing skills. If you need to do some brushing up, classes are available. So that's what you need to know about studying court reporting at Cerritos College. We really look forward to your joining us. "Cerritos College is a very qualified school and program in which
really any person would be happy to go through and finish." "I think that the skills mainly that you need for this field are an
open mind. I think that would be the biggest skill that you can have is
to have an open mind and not be afraid of technology." "In the past, court reporters were threatened that their jobs would
be done better by other means, other technology. Instead of letting the
other technology excel and take over the areas where court reporters
worked, court reporters mastered the technology and combined the
computer with their skills, with their steno machines and are able to
produce a product superior to any other means." "Get your equipment. Get your software. Get started on realtime." "The rewards are just -- I mean, I am so happy and glad that I did
it. I can't think of a better career. I really can't."
|