Op-Tec: Opportunity Technician

[Music] my so [Music] well high school's been fun but i guess it's about time i started making some plans i've been studying welding and right after graduation i'm going to work [Music] um i don't think i'm not going to regular college i'm sure that [Music] i don't think high school cuts it anymore i want to get more education to get ahead [Music] when i first came to high school i was sure i wanted to go in for a university degree but since then i've heard some good things about the community colleges and i think i'll try one of those [Music] i'm really looking forward to getting out of high school and being treated more like an adult and i feel like when i enter a community college they'll treat me that way i want to keep going to school but yet i don't want to invest four years in the future two years is just about right before i starting on a career [Music] when a student arrives here at community college uh he often seems a little bit disoriented a little bit dislocated a little unsure of himself but he soon finds that the community college program has a great deal to offer him at least it's been my experience in counseling and in the classroom i think perhaps more than anything else the fact of the two-year program is attractive a student might might be coming here straight out of high school not entirely sure that he's college material or at least without the motivation that carries a student through a four-year program there are all kinds of reasons why a student might not wish to commit four years of his life to a college program at the same time he would realize that college is necessary in order to get a job that carries a certain amount of prestige that carries a certain kind of salary expectations and holds out the prospect of advancement so the community college seems to appeal to a great many students who might otherwise not fit into a college program and i think one aspect of our program that's particularly attractive is the associate degree in technology this because of the very close link up between the business community and the industrial community and the programs that we have here on the community college campus [Music] so [Music] in high school i started off in auto mechanics and i decided to come to junior college by having auto mechanics and no college preparatory courses i was lost and uh i didn't i didn't know anything except the basic things of a high school education but uh i finally come around now it wasn't the motivation of money it was just the fact of having a job which i think that i would like i would i could get up in the morning and look forward to going to that morning and uh this is the type of job nice uh white uh white collar clean because i got away from all the mechanics because it was a dirty job and this is uh i believe is it i'll find out soon [Music] now myself past experience i was a very average student i graduated and about the average you can get in my graduating class and since i've been to this technical program here i've been on the dean's list and on the honor roll and i work 40 hours a week and go to school it's because that they take the potential that the student has to work with and they work with it they don't expect the student to you know give something that he doesn't care for you know in this program a student is in here because he wants to be so therefore he devotes his whole interest to it and i have been amazed at the grades i've received just because i enjoy doing the work enjoy the subjects and i'm an average student but i've been had a you know a 3.7 out of a four-point system since i've been going to school here in order to see the actual crystalline structure we have to strike it with a hammer in order to cleave uh the surfaces and see the actual crystalline surfaces it looks like a crust on it yes sort of a a surface that doesn't represent the true crystalline structure well how come the crystals won't change shape as instruments they're held very strong when i came here from high school i had no real chemical background i had taken math courses in algebra and geometry but really nothing at all to do with chemistry and i was afraid these technical courses would be way over my head but i'm doing very well my instructors have given me all the help i've asked for all the help i've needed and i think anybody can make it if they really want to if they're really interested [Music] notice anything interesting there rich they yes different angles and see their faces on them if you watch the color very carefully you'll notice that occasionally there's a fleeting brownish red color due to manganese dioxide i chose a junior college because of the two years equivalent program and the associate's degree i could get there of course our end point will be the pink color of the excess permanganate solution i feel that the degree is very important today in any type in any phase of education and i feel that with this piece of paper i'll be able to get my foot in the door to higher and better jobs and from there go on at night school and complete my education if i add still another draw for manganate you notice the color now is quite intense junior colleges are are can be very advantageous to to people nowadays especially uh today since there are so many people coming out of high school that really don't know exactly what field they want to go into and this is one great advantage of a junior college it offers a student a variety of courses his first couple of years to take at a minimum of cost so that he can find he can find out more exactly uh what field he does want to go into eventually when he graduates and this is one of the major advantages of a junior college i believe today how many do you have to make i have to make about six or eight prints how fast you got it going in this situation right now uh i'm taking a class in shop which is uh very interesting and also uh designing uh both from the point of drawing it and uh also from uh point of figuring out problems concerning uh design problems which you might encounter like how big should this bridge be each structure remember how you know what uh what size should it be is a half inch too big you know and things like this the 30 degree template i think yeah the 30 degree template you want to hand me that after i get out of here i plan to go to work get a job in a shop for like i said being able to design things [Music] a person who is competent in the field of engineering technology is a very valuable person to society i believe that that this person who holds this kind of a degree bridges a gap between the non-skill laborer and the field of engineering and personally i i don't believe that i am suited to be an engineer not that i couldn't uh cope with the curriculum it's simply simply because i uh i like to do stuff i like to build things i like to be practical and i don't believe that uh simply because i chose a two-year program that uh this in any way reflects my ability as a student [Music] well i've i've always been interested in electronics and it was sort of like a hobby it started when i i wanted to take things apart i found i couldn't put them back together especially electronical parts and components so i mainly came here just to find out how to put things back together [Music] so [Music] i work at monsanto research and analytical department i started here about a year and a half ago and so forth i really like this type of work usually but women don't go into this field of chemistry very few and the few that i have ran across will they really enjoy it well once you start working here i mean there are so many interesting things to do in the philippines and you just sort of want to keep going okay uh we're gonna check when i came to work in mcdonald's i was put to work on a flight simulator what this machine does it uh simulates actual flight by having a topographical map with a television that floats over and this signal from the television is sent into another room and projected onto a screen with a cockpit in that room and what you do is you can simulate banks landings everything you can do in an airplane without ever leaving the ground in fact some people even get air sick now if you told me i'd be doing something like this after i left community college i really wouldn't have believed you you know like now i'm doing something that i enjoy work with engineers i do something that's challenging i do something different every day and i enjoy coming to work i've been a technician here for about a year and a half now you hear this uh phrase job satisfaction kicked around a lot well i'll tell you i personally for myself i know that i've got it i mean i like my job and i know that it's important to the company right now i'm one of only two people who knows how to make this particular sample analyzer work so i know that people are counting on me and that i'm not lost in the shuffle when i first came to monsanto i was employed as a secretary because i didn't have uh the necessary technical background but i discovered that i could pick up the courses that are needed at a community college and so i did and now i have a degree as a technical associate and i'm currently working in a laboratory i find this extremely exciting and very interesting and also i enjoy the way that i'm treated by my associates i have real professional status now my work as a technician is to me very exciting right now i'm working on a computer system for aircraft uh this system will enable us to check out an airplane in about three hours or before it used to take a crew of men about three days it seems to me that our society is is moving ahead just about as fast and a guy has got to keep up well i feel like i've got a great advantage a great job a lot of my buddies for going through this two-year program at community college and graduating as a technician voltage is the positive 30 volts and the negative 30 volts and the 10 volts here do you all want all these coming out one side yeah i'll tell you what you can run them out the same end you have here and i'll see if i can run down a connector for you okay and uh you'll mount the other board do you have i believe some people have the misconception that a junior college is is just a continuation from high school and it just uh it's just a step towards a vocational degree but this is not really true junior college is actually the beginning of of a four year of a college career and is the beginning of as many years of college as you as you wish to go on to and in my case when i went on to receive my bachelor's in engineering and i have enough background to go on to get my masters and my doctors if i ever desire okay tom yes bob i'm gonna tune in number 306 at one kilohertz new programs that the junior college district is setting up is going to do a great deal toward providing the kind of people that we need and want for the high school graduate who is looking for a career in a technical field is both challenging and rewarding he should take a hard look at this program the opportunity is there [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] thank you oh you