Well, it's only been a semester but it feels like much longer. Over these past few months I have come to meet and network with all you fellow students, Mrs. B and of course the ever-diligent Michele. We were all fortunate enough to be eligible for this amazing program, but it was a one-in-a-million chance that we fell under the umbrella of protection afforded to us by Michele.
Firstly, allow me to say that I have worked for the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, State of California, Humboldt State University and been a private SCUBA instructor. Never in all my working life have I been offered the opportunity to take college courses for free. This union-sponsored program is surely an anomaly in the professional world. Although registering for this class guaranteed me many hours of homework-based frustration I have come out the other end a better person for the experience. The lessons learned have applications in both my professional and personal life. I can apply this class to my Gas Company career because I am now up to date with the latest database management and word processing software. If I can manage to get promoted out of my current position, Part Time Meter Reader-Transitional, I know that my contributions to the organizations will grow exponentially. I can also manage to transform seemingly meaningless facts from my personal life into useful data: spending habits, bills, to-do lists and even my route times for my meter reading routes. With the tools that this class has sharpened, all this information can easily be transformed with the click of a mouse into check-lists, graphs, spread-sheets and databases.
Mrs. Sandra Balderrama, the instructor I always wanted in my B.S. program, was also a delight. She managed to customize our syllabus and course-load to our unique circumstances. She understood we are all thoroughly exhausted from our shifts of answering customer service calls, processing mountains of payments, dealing with delinquent customer accounts and scrambling to meet the seemingly impossible bench-mark of "Route-Time". Mrs. B customized our material and most importantly her teaching style to meet our needs and energy-levels. If only more of my university-level instructors were as understanding and flexible as her I might not have spent so many sleepless nights cramming for exams.
Michele Gracia, if there ever was a real-life superwoman surely it would be her. From the beginning Michele managed to gather all us union brothers and sisters into one place and effectively conduct an orientation. Speaking as a witness, it was not an easy task. Going above and beyond, Michele managed to register every single member in attendance with the California Community College central website. My memory of Michele will surely be of her waiting patiently for me in the college parking lot one our first day and taking me to get my textbook and parking permit. Later Michele managed to lobby for us to receive our software package just to make life easier for us when we worked on our homework. I would be at fault if I did not mention her ever-present text messages to remind us of the latest updates for class. All in all I am overwhelmed by level of effort demonstrated by Ms. Gracia, she truly is a dedicated professional unmatched by any mentor or case-worker I have ever met.
My only regret is that I will not be able to attend further union sponsored classes next year. I will be sure to keep my eyes open and my back pack ready if ever the opportunity again arises. Thank you all for your time, friendship, camaraderie and humor I could not have done this without all of you.
-Alfonso Campa
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