Jessica Rapoza, kinesiology instructor and head softball coach

Q: Why did you choose EC?

A: “I felt like the leadership here was very supportive of academics and athletics, and I felt the area was somewhere I could be successful.”

Q: How has EC been to you so far?

A: “It’s great. I miss my colleagues at Santa Ana, and I miss my team; but, I love everyone here, and I really really love my new team as well.”

Q: What is your focus when it comes to teaching?

A: “I try to engage with the students and make them feel cared for. It’s nice if someone can memorize, but that will just leave their brain the second they finish a test. If I can engage with them on a more personal level, it will be something they remember, and it can be something that will help them in life.”

Jane Sandor, English instructor

Q: After teaching at Mount St. Mary’s College and Glendale Community College, why was EC the next school you chose to teach at?

A: “I heard wonderful things about (the) people who taught here and who loved the student body. I did not know much about the school, because I live up in Northeast Los Angeles. I just kept hearing great things, and there was an opening. So, I decided to apply.”

Q: How is the transition and how is EC so far?

A: “I drive farther, but it has been nice to really invest in this school and focus more on the student body.”

Q: What message do you try to pass on to your students?

A: “I’d like them to know they can do it. I like to think of it as life meets the academy; academics is not something foreign just because you had a bad experience in the past. I like to instill confidence in the students.”

Victoria Robertson, respiratory care instructor

Q: What was it like teaching and working at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles?

A: “I taught for 10 years then took some time off for my son who has special needs. Then I decided I needed to change careers based on what he needed. I came here and did the respiratory program. I got a job at the hospital and then went back to school to get my master’s degree. Now, I’m back here.”

Q: What is something that stands out at the hospital?

A: “We deal with traumas, deaths, various syndromes that children are born with, and a lot of their prognoses are not good prognoses. So, that means we witness a lot of deterioration in patients.”

Q: From your personal experiences, what do you try to share with the patients and parents?

A: “My son has autism, and my last semester as a student here my mother had a stroke right in front of me. I kept going and then two months into working at the hospital I got a call that my mother had died. I still kept going. You hit these roadblocks, but that’s all they are. You have to find your (way) around them. I share my personal experience, because truthfully if I can do it, they can do it.”