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Machine Technology Student Davis Phan Wins International Competition

In September 2003, CNC Software Inc., producers of MasterCam software, chose City College student Davis Phan as the winner in their MasterCam International Programming competition. Mr. Phan built a working scale model of the Titanic using CAD/CAM modeling and 5-axis CNC machining. As an award Mr. Phan received a fully licensed copy of MasterCam software and a computer valued at $18,000. Since then, Mr. Phan has started his own company Frontier CNC which specializes in CAD/CAM design and machining of specialized prototype parts.

Diana DeLugan Law degree caps comeback for woman down but never out
By Nina Garin
STAFF WRITER
Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
April 20, 2003
Diana DeLugan was only half joking when she said it.
Driving down I-5 with her husband, James DeLugan, she pointed at California Western School of Law and said, "That's going to be my school one day."
The idea of law school was like a cloudy daydream. The mother of three didn't even have her high school diploma back then. She dropped out in 10th grade after she found out she was pregnant with her daughter. Besides, no one in Diana's family had ever gone to college or cared much about school.Continued

Michelle Washington has just been awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the California Association on Post-Secondary Education and Disability (CAPED). Michelle will be presented her scholarship at the annual CAPED conference held in San Francisco on October 16th. Other great news---Michelle just received her acceptance letter to San Diego State University, where she will pursue her Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice Administration.

Thank you City
College and
thank you
Candice Lopez.

I like that:

"California goes to work..."

Yes, we sure do.

Linda Heida...
To whom it may concern:
This morning on the way to work I heard an ad on the radio. It started, "California goes to work..." Yes, I was in my car merging onto the freeway and experienced a swell of pride to be part of a work force that gets up early, works hard, comes home late... I felt acknowledged for all this effort. As I continued to listen I realized this was an ad for the California Community Colleges. Again, I felt proud. I am 53 years old and graduated from San Diego City College in 1997. I owe so much to San Diego City College, more specifically, to Candice Lopez, head of the Graphic Design Department. She cheered me on, believed in me and motivated me to be my best. Since then I have worked for four years at what I like to call my first "real" job. I make a decent salary. I have bought a house. My life is working now. I feel tremendously blessed because of the opportunities that became available to me with my AA degree. I feel very grateful and am proud to be a graduate of SDCC. It has made my life possible in a beautiful way.

Linda Heida, Graphic Artist,
Graphics Department Supervisor, RF Industries
Click on Linda for a close up~

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Complete Story - Diana DeLugan Law degree caps comeback for woman down but never out By Nina Garin STAFF WRITER Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. April 20, 2003
But as she raised her children, that missing diploma burned a hole in her heart. She saw her own kids following in her footsteps – her daughter was a teenage mom, her oldest son was getting in trouble with the law. Diana had to do something. She needed to set an example. So in 1996, Diana and James packed up their lives in Phoenix and headed to San Diego, where she enrolled in a high-school equivalency program through San Diego City College. On April 28, Diana, 45, will receive her law degree from the very place she saw from the freeway. "There are so many emotions I'm feeling," she says, wiping away tears from behind her blue-tinted sunglasses. "I always wanted to make my mom and dad proud. I feel like I'm a role model to my kids and grandkids. When I speak to my oldest grandchild, he's 10-years-old, he says, 'Nana, when I go to college . . . .' College is now part of their vocabulary. I did all this for them." It wasn't easy for Diana to take control of her life. She grew up with an abusive father and decided to leave home when she got pregnant at 16. She went to live with her godfather, but he molested her, and she ran away. She had no friends, no money and nowhere to go. The only place she could think to find solace was her church. It was late, and the doors were locked. Diana slept on the church steps in the rain. A couple, seeming like guardian angels, drove by and offered her a comfortable place to sleep for the night.	Diana woke up with a gun to her head. She was being raped. The man went back to sleep, and Diana ran away. She went to live with the father of her baby. But life didn't get better. Diana was constantly being battered. She eventually left him and ended up in the arms of another man, who, it turns out, was also a batterer. She ended up leaving him, too. Diana didn't talk about these things back in Phoenix. She thought she deserved it. She didn't know anything else. But being in school has helped her open up about her turbulent past. "I've realized that I can take the bad and turn it into something positive," she says. "I use my story to share with young people and students to let them know that the pain isn't a waste, it isn't worthless. It's motivated me to go out and try to help people." Diana whizzed through school, receiving a bachelor of arts degree from SDSU in 2000. When she got the acceptance letter for Cal Western, there was nothing but a silent buzzing in her head. Her goal had become a reality. These days, instead of a fuzzy daydream, Diana's future is bright. She hopes to be a public defender so she can help disenfranchised and underprivileged people, like her family. "My father was an immigrant; he was rented out to a blind man to go out and beg in the street," she says. "That life is all he knew. Before he died, we had a heart-to-heart, and he said he always wished for one of his children to be a doctor or a lawyer. And now I will be."
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