Autotech: staying gender neutral Female auto student nds her calling at Pierce College

Nestled in the corner of campus, under the shade of a dozen pine trees, sounds of air compression drills and the clanking of wrenches sent echoes into the air.

Building 3600 is what many students of Pierce College’s Automotive Technology program consider their second home. The long garage doubling as a hands-on lab area is the only classroom on campus you can drive a car into.

Occupying the last outdoor station on the left stood a six-foot-tall, slender, female. Her bangs pinned neatly to the side and sporting a single lip piercing, 26-year-old Isabel Alvarez of Van Nuys busily applied the finishing touches to her 1969 Ford Mustang’s front end suspension.

Almost complete with her first year as an Automotive Technology major, Alvarez tends to stand out in this male dominated program. She is one of only a handful of girls at Pierce College pursuing her dream of becoming an auto technician.

Her chipped manicured hands gripped a wrench tightly as she reminisced about how her love for cars began.

She fell in love with the 1969 Mustang model when she was just 9-years-old, Alvarez recalls. Finally able to purchase one at the age of 20, she made a decision that she would be the only one allowed to service the vehicle.

“I didn’t want anyone else touching it,” she laughed. “I came in here hoping to learn how to fix it and ended up falling in love with the program more than I thought I would.”

Her fondness for the vehicle came clear in her expression. She smiled coolly while mentioning what her plans were for her far from complete “baby.”

“[I’m going to paint it] midnight blue. My uncle’s 1971 Mustang Boss 302 was midnight blue,” she said. “I’ve always been a muscle car girl.

My uncle’s the reason I started loving [Mustangs].”

The youngest of four didn’t always dream of being elbow deep in car engines and electrical wires. Alvarez once had aspirations of becoming a fashion designer. Before settling down at Pierce, she was eyeing California State Long Beach to jump start her fashion journey.

“I couldn’t risk a $40,000 dollar degree and not be guaranteed work,” Alvarez stated. “[Car repairs] are in demand no matter what, but I know that being a woman, it’s going to be hard.”

[See Mustang on page 5] of helping students and faculty in the program to communicate.

Students would fill out information on the site, including student I.D. numbers, job location and their personal assessment of the job site in which they are working.

When the site was shut down by Pierce administration, students were unable to complete their assignments.

The site was taken down to be updated, Burke-Kelly said.

“The site has been up since the late 80s,” Burke-Kelly said. “After we had taken it down, we realized that the site was collecting information that violated the Right to Privacy Act.”

The Family Educational Right to Privacy Act refers to the “Conditions for availability of funds to educational agencies or institutions.”

“All the information that the instructor needed was given to him,” Burke-Kelly said.

But Smetzer maintains that the site is well within legal parameters.

“Richard had the website evaluated though a program created by Microsoft, and it came back 92 percent compliant, whereas our own Pierce College website was in the low 80 percent,” Smetzer said.

The website was taken down right before spring break. Smetzer met with vice president of student services Joy McCaslin during the break.

During this meeting, Smetzer said he informed McCaslin of the rating the website received.

McCaslin responded that there were different ways to measure ratings, Smetzer said.

[See Co Op Ed on page 4]