Amira Ryce

Prior to my time spent at MPC, I really had no idea what career I wanted to pursue. I only knew that I liked math and taking computers apart; however, engineering wasn't even on my radar! It wasn't until I took Tom Rebold's Intro to Engineering course that I realized just how perfectly computer engineering fit my interests. His circuits course prepared me extremely well for EE classes I would take after transferring, and the computer science courses offered at MPC did the same for future CS classes. Learning the foundational information of my major under professors such as Tom Rebold, Lisa Chovick, Don Philley, and Lijuan Wei instilled in me a strong intuition and an even stronger passion that certainly came in handy later on! I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to take advantage of the quality and accessibility of the faculty and resources at MPC.

Andrew Cunningham

From MPC to MIT!

After several years gaining life experience in the workforce, I knew it was time to return to school for a higher education. Living in Monterey, I naturally enrolled at MPC given the proximity. At the time, I had no idea how fortunate I was to attend this stellar institution for my lower division courses. Looking back, the world-class education I received while a Lobo prepared me to succeed in internships, my transfer university, and the complex World in which we now live.

Small class sizes and accessible professors with a passion for helping students provided all the support I needed to get through challenging courses like Physics, Calculus, and Computer Programming. The broad liberal arts education I received serves me daily as I can critically think about difficult topics and consider them from multiple perspectives. Moreover, the abundant guidance the College provided about transferring to a university left me well-prepared to receive many offers to consider for my future. Finally, the individual support provided by the faculty enabled me to secure scholarships that made achieving my educational opportunities much more affordable.

The education I received at MPC prepared me to succeed at one of the toughest engineering schools in the state: Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. I was able to match the performance of my peers who had attended the school since their freshman year, and even excel in extracurricular activities that directly benefited my learning experience. The freedom of the MPC program had allowed me to partake in lengthy internships that afforded me an uncommonly high ability to apply the educational lessons from my classes to real-world application. The diverse student body of MPC gave me a multifaceted and inclusive perspective for the individuals in my primary extracurricular, Formula SAE, that helped me lead that team to its best finish in ten years. It was at the Formula SAE competition where I interviewed with Ford Motor Company for a role in their Performance group. Upon graduation, I left beautiful California for the winter warmth and silky-smooth roads of Detroit, Michigan.

Using the skills I honed at MPC in organization, preparation, communication, and other areas helped me to excel at Ford Performance. I got to play a significant role in developing exciting products including the F-150 Raptor, Mustang GT500, and the NASCAR Ford Mustang. This is exactly what I dreamed about doing for my career while at MPC, and the foundation provided by the College made it a reality. All good things must come to an end and I left my job Ford in motorsports aerodynamics to pursue a new chapter in my career working in additive manufacturing (industrial 3D-printing) at General Motors.

In my role as an additive manufacturing application engineer, I am charged with identifying and executing new 3D-printed products in motorsports and propulsion. Given the novelty of the technology, problems must constantly be solved to create successful products. Again, my MPC experience full of diversity, fundamentals, and real-world exposure gives me many tools to solve these problems and do great work. With encouragement from my manager and personally wanting to grow as a technical leader, I applied to an engineering master’s program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This had actually been my transfer school of choice while at MPC, though perhaps unfortunately, I was not one of the six transfer students granted admission that year. This was despite the engineering professor at MPC, Tom Rebold, who is an MIT alumnus, writing me a fantastic letter of recommendation. Now, ten years later, I was being presented with another opportunity to potentially attend my dream school. I reached back out to professor Rebold, with whom I had established lasting ties, and received another amazing letter of recommendation. With other letters of recommendation from those whom I had worked with and were impressed by the yield grown from a mustard seed planted at MPC, and a couple other key ingredients, I was offered admission to MIT and enthusiastically accepted. I will be attending in the Fall and cannot wait for the next chapter in this exciting journey.

Never give up. Work hard. Be a good person.

Annaliese Gutierrez

My teachers were awesome at preparing me for my upper division classes upon transfer. I feel confident in my classes with the background knowledge I carry. I have never discovered any gaps in vital information that I needed before taking the upper division classes.

Devin McKee 

The classes available at MPC under the STEM program allowed me to jump straight into my Junior Year at SJSU. This saved me so much money that I would have had to spend at a 4 year college! While at MPC, I had the privilege of learning from world-class, outstanding instructors, such as Tom Rebold, Rushia Turner, and Don Philly. The STEM program challenged me, pushed me, and provided me with the discipline to excel at SJSU and in my career. Tom Rebold is constantly looking for ways to improve the experience of the student, integrate technology into his lectures to ensure his classes are not only available, but engaging for in-person and distance-learning students, and raise money for the program. Tom Rebold is also constantly sending out emails notifying his students of internship and job opportunities. Two months before I graduated from SJSU, Tom Rebold sent out an email about a possible part-time engineering technician position for a company called Light and Motion in Marina. I applied for the position, called in for an interview, and a week later I was offered a full-time engineering position for the company, guaranteeing me a career in an industry related to my major before I even graduated. I would not be where I am now without the opportunities, mentorship, and guidance that I was provided under the STEM program at MPC.

Harin Jeong

Transfer was never my intention for attending Monterey Peninsula College. Tuition at 4 year institutions was costly; therefore, attending a community college and working alongside was the most viable option as someone who sought higher education. That said, transfer admission letters from four-year institutions were merely some of the rewards for being an Engineering student at MPC. The most valuable rewards were the education I received, the bonds I formed, and the memories I retained during my time at MPC. Despite the affordable tuition fee, my experiences at MPC were wonderful. Instructors were compassionate, counselors were knowledgeable, and opportunities were prevalent across the campus. That said, MPC had pretty much everything set up for students, as long as the students were willing to take advantage of those resources. As a STEM student, I could not discuss my experiences without mentioning the Physical Science department. There are so many phenomenal instructors in the Physical Science department that provide the right amount of everything: despair, encouragement, empathy, science puns .... etc for students' success. Then there is the Engineering department led by Tom — who taught me more than 6 Engineering courses. Tom has resolutely prepared me to endure the academic rigors of a 4 year institution, so much so that I am maintaining a high GPA at University of California, Berkeley. And Berkeley (especially the College of Engineering) is known for its academic rigor. Career-wise, my ultimate goal is to become an astronaut. The competition is astronomical, yet MPC has kickstarted me in the right direction, enough for me to keep up the momentum and aspire to achieve.

Luisa Dell

Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) has been a major part of my life ever since I enrolled as a freshman in high school. At first, I began to take classes that were of interest to me, then slowly became more and more part of the MPC community over the years. Now that I am transferring, I am extremely grateful for how supportive and influential the MPC STEM program has been in my academic growth and accomplishments. My ultimate educational goal is to obtain a Ph.D. so I can teach and pursue research. Due to the tremendous support from inspirational teachers at MPC, I found myself fascinated by the field of chemistry and the prospect of using my engineering background to solve problems that involve chemistry or biology. For this reason, I have decided to follow my interests and declare a major in chemical engineering. Most importantly, I hope that my education in chemical engineering will afford the opportunity to find a career that will allow me to use my creativity and passion for chemistry, biology and engineering to solve world problems. Last spring, I completed all courses at Monterey Peninsula College for chemical engineering. Additionally, with encouragement and support from MPC faculty, I was granted a National Science Foundation funded internship for the Summer 2020 at Princeton University. While I was accepted and intended to transfer to UC Berkeley in the fall of 2020, the pandemic modified my plans. I instead decided to use the year in ways I believed would be of more benefit to my health, my finances, and my overall undergraduate experience. I have used the year to complete three classes needed to obtain various Associates Degrees (I am eligible for 12 in total). I have also been accepted this summer for yet another National Science Foundation funded internship for biomedical research at Johns Hopkins University. In addition, the last year has allowed me to continue to be involved at MPC: I am a Teaching Assistant for ENGR 1A (Introduction to Engineering) and ENGR 4 (Engineering Materials); I am a tutor at STEM Cel; and I am an officer in the women in STEM club. MPC’s excellent instructors and coursework have prepared me well for the next step in my educational career, and I’m confident the transition to be smooth. My heartfelt thanks to MPC for setting me up for success!