INSTRUCTOR 1: All right, stand by.
INSTRUCTOR 2: OK, guys.
So you've got all these locks on the table
and you have to unlock all of them in five minutes.
Ready, set, go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's problem solving.
MIKHAIL: [LAUGHS]
JAMES: Well that was...
MIKHAIL: I thought I was going to be a salesman.
JAMES: I wanted to be a professional fisherman.
I wanted to have my own TV fishing show.
JAMES: I played in the bushes.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
MIKHAIL: You were fishing, I was hunting.
JAMES: Then I went through the phase
I wanted to be a LEGO engineer.
I had a really big connection with LEGOs
until I was awkwardly old. MIKHAIL: I remember that.
Playing with LEGOs, yeah.
My name is James Gannage.
MIKHAIL: Mikhail Gannage.
James works with computers and stuff.
JAMES: [LAUGHS]
JAMES: He's wearing a couple hats at least.
He's a general contractor, as well as a design engineer
for custom work.
INSTRUCTOR 1: Figure it out?
JAMES: I got one!
MIKHAIL: Yeah, yeah.
JAMES: Bazinga!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MIKHAIL: Lead the way, Chris.
None of this existed.
They put the clock there.
JAMES: I can't imagine almost twice as many students
being on this campus as when we were here.
I was 14 when I passed the high school proficiency exam that
allowed me to go to college.
I was basically looking for what to do next.
I remember my mom came home from work
and she says I met the Dean of Technology at Cuesta,
and they're doing a brand new program--
a pilot program, and I think it's a great idea.
MIKHAIL: I was long past the LEGOs at that point.
I was a father and a husband.
I was pretty directionless.
I wanted to go somewhere else in my life,
but I didn't know where it was.
My mom says, hey, why don't you go with your brother
and check this program out?
MOM: As a parent, you watch your children
and see what their skills are, what their interests are,
and this just seemed like a fit for them.
They're both creative, inquisitive,
always searching out things.
CHRIS: The really neat thing was to see you guys grow,
especially James.
He was like, so young.
MIKHAIL: The program itself was conducive to taking someone,
preparing them with fundamental technical communication,
technical skills, opportunity to explore, to find out
if this is something you love.
CHRIS: The idea was how to revive electronics programs.
ALAN: And that is a big part of what NSF ATE gave
us to develop curriculum to coordinate
the development of curriculum.
MIKHAIL: There's taxpayer dollars that go to the NSF.
Those taxpayer dollars are distributed
to the Advanced Technology Education program and funds
this kind of a program. ALAN: And promotes the partnership
between local technology industry and the community
college.
CHRIS: We're basically a tool for innovation.
MIKHAIL: I run my business very differently
than a typical contractor.
What's that one do?
Work is definitely only a part of my life.
It's there to serve the rest of my life.
Not the other way around.
MIKHAIL: My day will start out with my daughter.
In the morning, we'll go take care of our animals, goats,
chickens, and stuff like that.
JAMES: Well, my typical weekday is very similar to his
besides the filthy animals.
Try to pack my morning tight with work.
I'll hit the road, going to a client.
CLIENT 1: Notice that when we go here on to Chrome
that it's not giving us any kind of screen.
JAMES: Oh, no.
CLIENT 1: Go on to
JAMES: Any websites.
CLIENT 1: Any websites.
We're not able to access any of the software,
any--
JAMES: Property management software, anything.
OK.
All right.
No problem.
I will get into it.
You go through the program.
Now you become a prime candidate for a career that could
very well launch you forward.
CLIENT 2: All right, thanks James.
Thanks for coming in.
JAMES: I appreciate everything.
CLIENT 2: Say hi to the wife and the daughter.
JAMES: I will.
You, too.
Bye-bye.
MIKHAIL: Here we are, like 20 some years later,
and Chris, huge, huge thanks to you.
The dedication and devotion that you had--
it was inspiring.
CHRIS: You guys were an inspiration to me, definitely,
and at that point, I really felt like maybe it's
making a difference.
JAMES: I remember I was literally right out of Cuesta.
The chief engineer came and gave me a little test.
Oh, thanks.
You're hired.
He hired me on the spot.
MIKHAIL: It like we were actually ahead of the curve.
We'd had hands-on experience beyond most of the engineers
who were interviewing.
JAMES: The tools that I learned, I apply them
cognitively in the way I think and the way I
address issues, problems.
MIKHAIL: Regardless of where you end up
at the end of the program, you end up with definitely
the potential to use everything you have.
WOMAN: A separate detail for that?
MIKHAIL: No, you don't need a separate detail.
When we draw in the switching, we'll
have it switched separately.
I have applied those skills and tools to a completely different
industry.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
But I wouldn't be where I am now if it wasn't
for those tools I was given.
And then press on it.
Aha!
Good job.
See?
CHRIS: One of the most heartwarming things
that an instructor can feel is that the students
are reaching their potential.
And it just seems that that's what you guys have done.
And not only that, giving back.
Now you're hiring our students.
JAMES: So they got their own scripting process, which is--
JAMES: Now that I have one of your former students,
I feel like I'm taking the baton from you
and training him in an industry.
MIKHAIL: It's not just learning the field
but learning about yourself and where you belong in all of it.
I guess I would recommend listening to your mom.