[MUSIC PLAYING] MARK FORDE: How do I prepare students to work in the industry in a fast-paced environment? By modeling, as much as we can, in our state of the art lab kitchen here in the Chino campus. I want to see compassionate, empathetic leaders, and I also want to see people who are passionate about the industry. What kind of tools do we have in the kitchen? We have everything. You name it, we've got it. JUSTIN BIENDARA: Having access to all of the industry-standard equipment was definitely a huge help, where there was less of a learning curve when I got out into the real world. ROBERT HECHT: I changed my major a few times. This was the one program that I was able to finish all the way through happily. I'm glad I didn't go spend money and go to a big culinary school because I got just the same experience here. We were able to do cooking classes, baking classes, hospitality classes, cooking competitions. MARK FORDE: Last year, we took first and third place in a competition that was held at the Gas Works in Whittier. ROBERT HECHT: Right before the cooking competition, he wanted us to do all three, appetizer, entree, and dessert, and we were able to put out three plated appetizers, three plated entrees, and three desserts during class, and that was really, really cool. We worked really hard for it, and we had a lot of fun. MARK FORDE: You can see the confidence in them. It's amazing. There are so many successes. We have an alumni right now who is down in LA in a Michelin-star restaurant. Students who have been hired as head chefs at the Fontana School District. Cooks that originally started out here transferred, when they finished, to Kaiser and have worked their way up at Kaiser, and now they're kitchen managers. JUSTIN BIENDARA: My style is the more accessible, family, community-based small location. So I work out in a bakery in Glendora, California. It's called Crust & Crumble. I've talked to my head chef there, and she said that when she opened my resume and saw culinary school, that was like half of the reason why she even took it in the first place. So that was super cool. ROBERT HECHT: I did my externship with Disney World in Florida, which Chef also helped me get. Since then, I've gotten the opportunity to work at a Thomas Keller restaurant up in Napa, California. So I did a stage out there, and just recently-- last week, actually-- got the call that I got the job. This has only been a year since we graduated, and we've had some pretty cool opportunities. MARK FORDE: We have a lot of support from our partners like San Manuel. We have a lot of support within the community. We have a lot of support with our locations that provide us intern or externship locations. JUSTIN BIENDARA: If I had to say anything to anyone that was even remotely thinking about doing a culinary-arts program, it's absolutely do it 100%. It was probably the best decision that I've made in my life to date. ROBERT HECHT: They're going to make sure you're well-rounded and complete everything you want at the end of it, so I think it sets you up really well. MARK FORDE: The industry is growing big time. There are very highly paid jobs in this industry. You've got to work up and get them, but there are those opportunities. The future of Chaffey College's culinary-arts program here on the Chino campus is bright. SPEAKER: Steadfast, the Chaffey College's mission of improving lives and communities through education, the Rising Scholars program, has been a beacon of hope for more than 1,000 incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students over the last 20 years. Formerly known as Turning Point, the Rising Scholars program provides system-impacted students a quality education at the California Institution for Men and the California Institution for Women in Chino. Graduates of the program have proven time and time again that access to a college education can be transformational, with scholars going on to transfer to four-year universities and entering the workforce. And now meet recent rising scholar graduate LaTosha Nairn. LATOSHA NAIRN: My name is LaTosha. I am a Chaffey College graduate, Rising Scholar student, formerly Turning Point student. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, and in those streets, I had to be a little tough. My mother and my father, they were a part of the gang culture. The streets were in my home. So there's parties. There's the drinking. There's the hanging. There's the shooting. There's all this in my house, and I'd know that I've got to get up and go to school. I have anger from things that happened as a child, but there was a lot of love. There was times where they stole cars to get me to school. People think that because you come from the streets, everything is bad. Those people gave me what they had, you know? Those young guys that had my back and made sure I had school shoes, somehow they all went to jail, and then I ended up alone. And then I ended up in a circle where there are now people are dying, and I end up alone. I had to realize I was never meant to be saved in that aspect. School has always been a big thing for me. It was my way out. When I got to high school, some things that happened in my home made it to where Children's Services had to come out. So then there I am running from Children's Services, so I couldn't even go to school anymore. I didn't understand emotional language. I didn't understand what I was feeling. The emotion that I can express the most back then was anger. I was in a toxic relationship. I was married, and things transpired to me committing a violent act on someone. I ended up getting 14 years in prison. I was at a program what people would consider a halfway house. It's called CCTRP where you could do the last few years of your time on an ankle monitor, and the only place you can go is to school or to work, and you have to come back. It was a company that has had multiple programs, but they had never had one for women. They gave me a computer and told me to figure it out. At the time, I had been in prison 8 and 1/2, 9 years. I don't know what I'm doing with this computer half the time, and I don't really know much else, but I know Chaffey. ATHALIE SAPP: I started working with the program-- it was Turning Point at the time-- in 2016. I was working as an instructional specialist with our incarcerated tutors inside the California Institution for Women. LATOSHA NAIRN: She had just got the grant for Rising Scholars, and she didn't have any students. So here I am. I need help. She needs a student. And we kind of worked it out that way. ATHALIE SAPP: At the time, she was pretty guarded and didn't necessarily seem very open to building relationships with any of us. There was kind of, I'm just here to learn. Like, everybody, leave me alone. I actually stepped away from the program for a little bit to do some other work here with Chaffey. When I came back on board in 2021 to help build the program on campus for formerly incarcerated students, LaTosha was the very first student that I connected with. I'll never forget when I opened up that Zoom window and I saw her smiling, and she was wearing her own clothing, and she just was so certain about exactly what she wanted to do. So we got her enrolled in online classes. LATOSHA NAIRN: I was the only one in school for a while at Chaffey. And then the next semester, I sat with the director of the program, talked to her about Athalie, and talked to her about Chaffey. ATHALIE SAPP: She came to me and said, there's other women here in this house that I'm living in, and I want to help them sign up for college. And she actually single-handedly brought 30 women in custody into our program. Because of LaTosha, these 30 women had access to higher education. LATOSHA NAIRN: The professors that came in, they treated us like human. You had a sense of normalcy where you feel like you're not so isolated from the world. I was determined to graduate on time, be able to transfer and graduate with honors, and I did all three. ATHALIE SAPP: LaTosha left that facility and transferred to Cal State Dominguez Hills. And I know that she's working as a mentor, and we get to keep in touch, and I just get to see all the amazing things that she's doing. LATOSHA NAIRN: I am an NCRP major. For those who don't know, it is Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, Peace building. It's very long, so stick to NCRP. It works well. My short-term goal is to be a gang interventionist for youth. My long-term goal is to be family marriage counseling. Everything that I went through made me the person that I am today. It all ties into one when you bring in purpose and hope into a person, whether it's school, whether it's work, regardless of what it is. ATHALIE SAPP: The most effective way to rehabilitate somebody who is system impacted is for them to pursue their education. I feel really fortunate to get to do work every day that I know matters and that there's data to support it because it's working. SPEAKER: The automotive technology program at Chaffey College is helping meet the high demand for skilled auto technicians throughout California. With more than 1,000 job openings available every year through 2027 and an estimated 12,000 technicians working in the Inland Empire alone, students passionate about cars and technology are poised for career success when they graduate from the program. Students not only get to work with top of the line equipment, but also learn from the industry's best instructors. Meet Jonathan Polidano, a former Chaffey student who now teaches the next generation of skilled auto technicians. JONATHAN POLIDANO: My name is Jonathan Polidano. I am a faculty member in the automotive technology program and also the coordinator for automotive technology; aviation maintenance; industrial electrical technology; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; and engineering tech and drafting. So should I just say automotive tech? I teach people how to work on cars. That's what I do. The Chaffey automotive technology program offers six certificates ranging from general automotive repair, master automotive repair, electrical repair, smog check technician, and then two engine-rebuilding certificates. And we also offer two associate's degree for a general automotive technician and master automotive technician. We have a fully supplied tool room that students have complete access to, pretty much anything they would need to work on vehicles. We also have top of the line vehicles, many of them invested either directly through our own grant funding or through donation partnerships that we have with dealers in the area. Most recently, Ford of Upland donated a 2023 Lincoln Aviator, brand-new vehicle worth well over $80,000. We've invested significantly in purchasing vehicles for the college that are either hybrid or all electric. Both Toyota and Ford have given our students access to their online training modules at no cost to the college, and that makes them significantly more employable. Getting our students placed with quality and kind of lasting careers is a big concern for us, and that was why, roughly three years ago, myself and a couple of the other instructors invested a lot of time in developing and starting an apprenticeship program for our students, just a more formal way of connecting them to employers. KIMONI ROSE: It's very interesting, whether it's changing a high-voltage battery or just doing tire rotations. That just motivated me more just to pursue my career and get my certificate. I really grew up around cars. My uncle had a 96 Impala SS that I did have but I ended up selling. But also my uncle has been rebuilding '65 Mustangs for, I guess, as long as I can remember. When I got the Impala, me and my mom changed the fuel pump together by dropping the gas tank, just little stuff like that. It just holds a lot of sentimental value to me. Mr. Scott and Mr Polidano, great teachers for sure. They're really hands on. And if you need any help, they'll explain it to you. JONATHAN POLIDANO: As a graduate of Chaffey College's automotive technology myself-- I graduated from Chaffey in 2010-- I know firsthand how much programs like ours can lead to very strong careers for our students. KIMONI ROSE: The automotive field is vast, whether you want to be a tech, a service advisor, or work in parts. Once you make your decision on what you want to do, I would say just go head first into it. Don't be scared to take a risk. My academic and career goals are to be able to become a technician after I'm done with the program. JONATHAN POLIDANO: A part of my job that I love the most is really just getting to be that resource for my students and getting to see them come back 5, 10 years later and kind of explain to me how I made a difference in their life, just like the faculty of Chaffey made a difference in my life when I was a student. DEANA OLIVARES-LAMBERT: We hope you have enjoyed and found inspiration in this year's report to the community presentation. More importantly, thank you for your continued support of Chaffey College because, together, we're truly making an impact in the lives of thousands of students each year. CORAH MILLER: On behalf of our student government and our student body, thank you for your support of Chaffey College. As a philosophy major and future lawmaker, I look forward to one day paying it forward to this community and being a Panther for life. DEANA OLIVARES-LAMBERT: So proud of you, Corah. Well, Corah and Rocky, I guess there's only one thing left to say. BOTH: Go Panthers!