WOMAN MAKES MARK IN MACHINIST COURSE.Byline: - Joseph Giordono Ana Cruz never thought she would be a mechanic. Nor did the 21-year- old Van Nuys resident think she'd make history as the first female graduate of the Valley College Machinist Training Program. Tonight, Cruz will celebrate her accomplishment in a graduation Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. ceremony at the Odyssey Odyssey (ŏd`ĭsē): see Homer. Odyssey Homer’s long, narrative poem centered on Odysseus. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey] See : Epic Odyssey Restaurant. Now a state-certified journeyman machinist, she embarked on her career after making a somewhat whimsical whim·si·cal adj. 1. Determined by, arising from, or marked by whim or caprice. See Synonyms at arbitrary. 2. Erratic in behavior or degree of unpredictability: a whimsical personality. decision in high school. ``When I was in 11th grade, Van Nuys High started a machine shop academy, and I was one of about nine girls that decided to try it,'' Cruz said. ``By the end of the year, there were three of us left. One didn't go to college, and the other decided to quit, so I'm the only one who finished.'' Throughout the four-year program, Cruz has worked as an apprentice A person who agrees to work for a specified time in order to learn a trade, craft, or profession in which the employer, traditionally called the master, assents to instruct him or her. at machine shops, logging the 8,000 hours of training work required to earn a journeyman's machinist certificate from the state. Every so often, her mother would ask whether she knew what she was doing. ``She asked if I really liked it, and I can say that I do,'' Ana Cruz said. ``It's not a job that I wake up every morning saying, 'I have to go to work today.' '' Most of her time in the program has been spent at RepairTech International, a Van Nuys firm that mainly repairs airplane airplane, aeroplane, or aircraft, heavier-than-air vehicle, mechanically driven and fitted with fixed wings that support it in flight through the dynamic action of the air. parts. In addition to her training work, Cruz completed eight specialized spe·cial·ize v. spe·cial·ized, spe·cial·iz·ing, spe·cial·iz·es v.intr. 1. To pursue a special activity, occupation, or field of study. 2. classes at Valley College, ranging from blueprint blueprint, white-on-blue photographic print, commonly of a working drawing used during building or manufacturing. The plan is first drawn to scale on a special paper or tracing cloth through which light can penetrate. reading to computer numerical control Computer numerical control The method of controlling machines by the application of digital electronic computers and circuitry. Machine movements that are controlled by cams, gears, levers, or screws in conventional machines are directed by computers and instruction. ``We have seen quite a change in her over the four years,'' said Bill Lavoie, a Valley College engineering professor who oversees the training program. ``She has gotten more serious about school. She didn't really know when she started out what she wanted to do, but this has given her direction and purpose. It gave her a reason to graduate.'' Under the program, machine shops employ promising high school students as apprentices, providing funds for training and salary. Started 20 years ago, the program slipped into decline but is making a comeback, Lavoie said. Also graduating from the machinist training program are Huy Doan, Rod Faust and Chuong To. Cruz is modest when trying to explain why she became the first female graduate of the program, saying other women could just as easily have done the same. ``I guess we all had a different kind of thinking,'' Cruz said. ``Some of the other girls wanted to work in the offices, but I don't mind getting dirty.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Ana Cruz becomes the first female graduate of the Valley College Machinist Training Program today. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer |
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