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CTE Student Success

Eduardo Sanchez

Certificate: CNC Programmer 

What made you come to Cerritos College and why?

I started here in 2018, a year after I finished college at UC Irvine with a degree in Arts. After graduating, I did a couple of things in studio arts, including two gallery exhibits. Then, I kind of got lost for a while. One of my friend’s fathers, who is retired and takes classes at Cerritos for fun, recommended the machining program here. He really liked it, and since I was trying to become a machinist or a mechanical engineer, he suggested I come here to get some direction.

I wanted to go to college for mechanical engineer, and when I looked into this place, I just stepped into machining. I took a course in Adobe Illustrator, and then I found the machining class and just went for it.

Originally, I had planned to complete my certificate this quarter, but the class I needed this semester was canceled. They are trying to consolidate all the students and increase attendance, so now I have to wait until next semester. My plan was to finish my classes and start working in a machining factory near my current job, but I might be deployed to Italy. If that happens, I’ll probably be gone for a year or maybe two, depending on the situation. Hopefully, when I come back, I can finish my certificates, get into programming, and by around 2025, start working full-time in operations and strive to be a programmer.

STUDENT ADVICE

Make time for it. When classes are offered, take them and make sure you don’t fall behind because you never know what can happen. A two-year certificate can easily turn into four or five years.

If you’re undecided about attending a four-year university, I highly recommend starting at a community college. Community colleges have a surprising number of resources that can be directly utilized. When I was at UCI, machines and other resources weren’t accessible unless you were part of the program, and you had to jump through a lot of hoops if you weren’t in that section of the school. Here, it’s easy access. You can work with people who are active in the industry and get hands-on experience, rather than just reading a book.

INSIGHT

Absolutely, I 100% recommend Mr. Vo, he is really great. He’s hard on students because he wants to ensure nothing gets broken and that everyone knows what they are doing. He emphasizes that we’re not just being walked through the program; we need to learn and take the time to actually study the material. As soon as you start working with a company, if you break something, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’ll get fired or face other consequences.

Additionally, he has industry contacts and occasionally informs us about job opportunities, saying things like, “Hey, I know companies are looking for workers,” or “This place is looking to hire.” He’s also very accommodating about giving us extra time on the machines to redo our project to improve our skills on machines as long as we’re not interrupting or interfering with other students who still need using those machines. He’s very open to helping us get extra practice whenever possible.

The Machining and Machine Tools program has helped me change my thought process. Instead of worrying so much about the things I could break, I learned to double-check everything. This made it easier for me to plan ahead. It also helped me become more confident in starting to work on tasks when they need to be done.

Cerritos College

Machining and Machine Tools

For more information on enrollment, please refer to the current class schedule or consult a counselor.
www.cerritos.edu/mtt