News
Octavian Bridges
Chronicle Reporter
This year the college center decided to host a virtual career panel where five individuals with different careers and experiences could share advice on how to tackle college and what they do for a living.
One of the career panelists was Gonzalo Vasquez, a manufacturing engineer at SpaceX graduated from San Diego State University with a major in mechanical engineering. Gonzalo’s job is to supervise the manufacturing process for tools and give advice on material selection that suits a customer’s needs. If you’re planning on pursuing a career in SpaceX Vasquez suggests keeping at least a grade point average of 3.4-3.5 as getting a job practically anywhere as an engineer is very competitive. What Gonzalo enjoyed most about college was attending his senior classes and being able to make “viable products and see it come to life.”
Ed Annunziata is a video game producer who has worked on developing software for people of all ages and backgrounds such as video games, educational games, and computer games. Annunziata has over 20 years of experience as a game producer and created his own original game known as “Ecco the Dolphin” and has worked with big companies like Sony, Sega,LeapFrog, and Nokia. Annunziata is currently working as an executive producer who oversees project and development teams that work on creating video games. His favorite part of college was being able to interact and meet new people on campus. He didn’t get a degree but was still able to make a name for himself off of his pure talent. Annunziata’s advice on college is to not be intimated by not having a plan when you first enter college as he stated “ You can’t push a rope” which means you must find what motivates you to exert the right energy to pull that rope.
Miranda Rogers, is a pediatric nurse who is currently working in Texas, got her Bachelor of Science and Nursing at the University of Oklahoma and later got her Masters of Science in Nursing. Rogers worked as an RN in both Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care units for children and worked with Stem Cell transplant patients she is currently working in urgent care. Her favorite part about college was being able to work with a small group of people while attending nursing school and building relationships. Miranda personally enjoys working as a nurse because she can talk to people, teach people things and change career pathsmore easily if needed. If you’re planning on becoming a nurse you can get a nursing degree according to Miranda in one of two ways by either attending a community college gaining an associate degree and becoming a registered nurse or taking extra prerequisite courses and attending a 4-year college and obtaining a bachelor of science in nursing degree (also known as a BSN). Many major hospitals require a registered nurse to have a BSN degree to be employed by them.
Austin Denman has been working for SpaceX for 2 and a half years in the supply chain where he supports other engineers. Austin graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s in supply chain management. Austin makes sure to find the correct materials for the best price from vendors and have them shipped to different engineers who might need certain tools or pieces for a rocket for example. What he enjoyed most about attending college was being able to test different career paths and narrowing it down to one career he could fully pursue. Denman suggested that students don’t stress over being unsure of what career they want to pursue when they first get to college because there are many classes and career paths you can explore.
Tyler Denman is an Internal Medicine Physician who completed his medical education at the University of Washington in Seattle and graduated with his Doctorate of Medicine. Denman originally went to a Polytech Institute in New York and got an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering. Now Denman is currently in residency where he’s doing a 3-7 year program to prepare him for a full-time job as a physician. What Denman enjoyed most about college was learning his initial benchtop research and attending gyms on campus. Tyler suggests that if you are trying to pursue a job as an Internal Medicine Physician that you must have good communication skills when speaking to patients or talking to other specialists about a patient’s needs etc. When you’re pursuing a Medicine physician degree, you must be mentally prepared to take years of college before you can be a full-time physician.