Valley College’s Pathways event guides students in the right direction

The event called Pathways to Degrees and Careers was held in hopes of aiding students in search of their degrees and jobs.

By Justyn Frutiz, Staff Writer

A feeling of excitement was in the air as 10 faculty members from the political science, psychology, history, sociology, economics departments and more gathered in a Zoom meeting to help students in their academic endeavors.

The event was held Thursday, May 6 at 3:30 p.m. and had a gathering of 57 people at the Zoom meeting. Spearheaded by the department head of economics, Tyler Prante, the event was intended to assist students to transfer and provide them with the necessary information to make sure they do not take too many classes.

Ten faculty members and a counselor were on hand after the event in breakout rooms to answer questions about their specific department; there was even a room for undeclared majors as well. Among the 10 were Professors Eugene Scott, Scott Weigand, Darby Southgate, Elmida Baghdaserians, Wesley Oliphant, Anthony O’Regan, Chris Nielson, Christina Peter and Jose Arrieta.

Prante served as host and opened up the event, stating, “The purpose of the event is to give students more information to use before signing up for a class, so they don’t end up taking too many units.”

Most of the event was taken up by professors speaking about their journeys and how they got to the point they are at. A common thread with many of the professors was that they too attended community college. O’Regan of the political science department seemed very sentimental about his own experience.

“Like many of you, I started out at a community college so I’m very grateful for the opportunities I have gotten so far,” said O’Regan.

Baghdaserians of child development echoed that sentiment.

“Work does not feel like work when it is your passion.”

Some professors also revealed that they, like many students in the LACCD district, are immigrants. Arrieta of the Chicano Studies department is one of those people. Arrieta stated that he was a “Dreamer” before the word even existed.

After the professors finished telling their stories, there was time for some general questions, but not many of the 57 participants spoke up. There was one question from a student regarding their specific path in the psychology department and all of the professors gleefully gave their advice in regards to that student’s situation.

Breakout rooms where students had specific issues or questions for a department were available as the faculty stopped speaking.

The social & behavioral CAPs event allowed professors to personally connect with and assist their students in making sure they know what’s ahead of them.