“This was the best experience of my life,” said Bryan Vandenberg, law major.

Students from the Disable Student Programs and Services joined hundreds of other disabled students from across the country for Disability Mentoring Day on Oct. 15.

Locally, the event was hosted by Loyola Law School on the campus of Loyola Marymount University.

Students that attended the event were paired up with mentors from each of their chosen fields.

Ten students from Cerritos College attended the event with three teachers also going.

This was the first year that Cerritos participated in the event according to Aurora Segura, specialist at DSP&S.

The students were able to trail their mentors for the entire day learning what types of duties that were performed in their chosen professions.

The students also were treated to lunch and attended workshops.

One student that attended the event was Pearl Netrayana, she said that she is study in the child development field but really is still undecided.

She suffers from cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy affects muscle movement and coordination.

According to www.about-cerebal-palsy.org, it is caused by an injury to the brain before, during or shortly after birth and is either a failure of the brain to develop properly or neurological damage to the child’s developing brain.

Two in every thousand born in the United States have some type of cerebral palsy and that is more than any other developmental disability.

Netrayana went to Los Angeles World Airport and was able to visit both the account and human resources departments.

“It was good because I am still undecided in what career I want to explore,” she said. “So it opened my eyes to things I didn’t think I would be interested in.”

She wished that one thing would be changed in how the Mentoring Day was ran.

“I wish we were able to get hands on experience,” she said.

Vandenberg was also a participate and was able to trail a lawyer.

He was involved in a motorcycle accident and had the back of his skull crushed.

He said the doctors told him that it was a miracle that he was still alive.

He learned what types of things lawyers do and watch as he mentor prepared for a case.

“I learned about the logical things that happened in the case my mentor was working on and it was a great experience to see him get ready for a big case,” Vandenberg said.

Even though Netrayana was born with a handicap, she doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her.

“I embrace my handicap and I am not ashamed or sad because of it,” she said.