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Local students experience wow factor
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| Glendale Community College students look over a Lamborghini with custom wheels designed and created at the college. (Roger Wilson/Glendale News-Press) |
Glendale Community College hosts Tech Expo as youngsters ponder their future.
By Angela Hokanson
The sleek 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo parked on the edge of Plaza Vaquero at Glendale Community College on Wednesday attracted crowds of admirers as students passed by it between classes.
They stopped to admire the pristine, $250,000 sports car, but before they could walk away, Aram Ohanis, who teaches machine technology courses at the college, directed their attention to the vehicle’s wheels.
Students can learn to make those kind of wheels here at the college, he said, pointing to the stylized aluminum centerpieces in the wheels.
In most cases, the students had no idea that kind of skill was taught on campus.
“I was surprised. I didn’t know that,” said 20-year-old Mike Sahakyan, a student who had stopped to check out the automobile.
“They look good. I would buy them,” he said.
The car and its specialized rims were one of the draws at the college’s Tech Expo, an event that was designed to promote the college’s technology classes and degree programs to existing students and the larger community, said Tom Ferguson, who teaches engineering.
Instructors were there from the school’s architecture, electronics, engineering and welding programs, chatting up passersby and answering questions on careers in the technology sector.
Ohanis brought the car — it was on loan from a local wheel design company — to showcase some of the handy work done in the college’s computer-aided manufacturing class. In that course, students learn to operate computers that then craft products like wheels and motorcycle parts, Ohanis said. Displaying a large, finished product like the wheels is a way to convey just what the technology behind computer-aided manufacturing can do, he said.
“The students, especially the younger ones, are more interested in something that is tangible to them,” he said.
The computer-aided manufacturing class has a relationship with the wheel design company Forgiato, and sometimes students will work on crafting wheel prototypes for the company to review, Ohanis said.
Computer-aided manufacturing is one of the certificate programs offered at the college.
Bob Andrews, a teacher at Wilson High School in Los Angeles, had taken a group of students who are interested in technology to the fair.
The students checked out each of the booths, stopping at one point to learn about the college’s welding program from Darren Azarian, who graduated from Glendale College with a certificate in welding and who went on to study civil engineering at the USC.
Exposing students to career/technical education options like the technology-oriented certificate programs is important, because sometimes students, in their single-minded pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, don’t notice the other education options they have.
“They’re not pausing to see what we have available,” Ohanis said.
ANGELA HOKANSON covers education. She may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at angelahokanson@latimes.com.
They stopped to admire the pristine, $250,000 sports car, but before they could walk away, Aram Ohanis, who teaches machine technology courses at the college, directed their attention to the vehicle’s wheels.
Students can learn to make those kind of wheels here at the college, he said, pointing to the stylized aluminum centerpieces in the wheels.
In most cases, the students had no idea that kind of skill was taught on campus.
“I was surprised. I didn’t know that,” said 20-year-old Mike Sahakyan, a student who had stopped to check out the automobile.
“They look good. I would buy them,” he said.
The car and its specialized rims were one of the draws at the college’s Tech Expo, an event that was designed to promote the college’s technology classes and degree programs to existing students and the larger community, said Tom Ferguson, who teaches engineering.
Instructors were there from the school’s architecture, electronics, engineering and welding programs, chatting up passersby and answering questions on careers in the technology sector.
Ohanis brought the car — it was on loan from a local wheel design company — to showcase some of the handy work done in the college’s computer-aided manufacturing class. In that course, students learn to operate computers that then craft products like wheels and motorcycle parts, Ohanis said. Displaying a large, finished product like the wheels is a way to convey just what the technology behind computer-aided manufacturing can do, he said.
“The students, especially the younger ones, are more interested in something that is tangible to them,” he said.
The computer-aided manufacturing class has a relationship with the wheel design company Forgiato, and sometimes students will work on crafting wheel prototypes for the company to review, Ohanis said.
Computer-aided manufacturing is one of the certificate programs offered at the college.
Bob Andrews, a teacher at Wilson High School in Los Angeles, had taken a group of students who are interested in technology to the fair.
The students checked out each of the booths, stopping at one point to learn about the college’s welding program from Darren Azarian, who graduated from Glendale College with a certificate in welding and who went on to study civil engineering at the USC.
Exposing students to career/technical education options like the technology-oriented certificate programs is important, because sometimes students, in their single-minded pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, don’t notice the other education options they have.
“They’re not pausing to see what we have available,” Ohanis said.
ANGELA HOKANSON covers education. She may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at angelahokanson@latimes.com.
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