Meeting Students

Flashing his signature smile, Dr. Fierro drives around in a golf cart greeting students as they trudge in the morning heat to class.

“I’ve been trying to fit all of my meetings and at the same time be available to go out and meet students and meet instructors during the first day, walk around campus to make sure we’re doing okay,” Fierro expressed.

In 80-degree weather, the new president approached students all over campus and engaged in conversation that helped him better understand his community.

“It has been my practice that at least once a week or every other week I walk campus. When I go to the meetings I usually like to walk around and talk to people,” he said.

As he walked the vibrant grass hill, he approached a freshman-nursing student and notified her that his office was open whenever she needed assistance.

As he talked with automotive, cosmetology, nursing majors, etc., he asked with genuine interest how far along they were into their college career and offered assistance if needed.

Dr. Fierro expressed it is important to him for people to know that he is accessible, so they feel comfortable visiting his office when they need something.

The new president came in during the summer to better understand how the college worked, from policy and procedure to getting to know the people he would be working with.

The president said, “I have to be quite honest, I was actually looking forward to the first day of school. Having the students at the college really changed the dynamic and […] the feeling.”

First Day Surprise

“Coming during the summer really helped me to understand what was going to happen the first day, so there would be no big surprises,”

“With a college this size and this many students, there are always going to be surprises, but coming earlier and being prepared, I wasn’t really surprised during the first day with anything,” he concluded.

“[I] was up pretty early looking to make sure we were ready for the first day, which we were, but you know things happen […],” he expressed.

The first bump in the road for the fall semester kickoff came early in the morning when MyCerritos, an important online tool for students, was down for a couple of hours.

Fierro spent his morning answering e-mails, texts and social media mentions to make sure operations were working correctly and answered questions that were coming in from students and staff.

Quick to respond to student’s concerns, Dr. Fierro informed students that the IT department was working hard on finding a speedy solution to the connectivity issue.

Status update: Tech Savvy

To stay connected, weeks prior to the start of fall semester, Dr. Fierro launched a highly active twitter account.

“I’ve been able to engage with a few students [and] faculty, and actually community members, and I hope that grows,” he expressed.

He added, “Last week I had a meeting with Maya Walker, director of college relations and public affairs, and she was explaining to me that I probably need to get an Instagram account because apparently most of our students are on Instagram.”

“We will be launching an Instagram account probably later on this week and there are a few names going around, but apparently the name is very likely to be POCC, kind of like POTUS,” Dr. Fierro said, smiling.

POCC stands for President of Cerritos College, a play on the acronym that originated in the late 1800’s to refer to the President of the United States.

Maya Walker said, “Part of the social media strategy for the college was to expand to Instagram because we understood that that’s where the students wanted to get information.”

She added, “He mentioned when he got here that he wanted to be able to engage students more, so it seemed like Instagram would be one of the ways for him to be involved more with students.”

A Community Welcome

At the community event held in Dr. Fierro’s honor on Wednesday, Aug. 19, the campus president addressed a room full of community members.

“Today, was to welcome him to the campus and the community, we invited all of the community, partners and businesses to come out to meet and greet him,” Cheryl Thury, Dr. Fierro’s assistant, explained.

Board President Carmen Avalos said, “There’s a big connection there in terms of just moving students forward and being more supportive, hearing them out [and] having them be part of the solution.”

As he made the rounds shaking hands with supportive community members, Dr. Fierro expressed he had a 5:00 a.m. start and little room for lunch.

With a smile never leaving his face as if he were recounting a joyous anecdote, he revealed that if it weren’t for his assistants hand-delivering a sandwich, he wouldn’t have had anything to eat.

John Paul Drayer, Area 3 Trustee said, “It’s like a breath of fresh air.”