May 21 at 11 am is the grand opening for the Automotive Partners Building.

“I’m excited, it’s a good thing linking our college to big corporations, Luis Bautista, Automotive major said.

“We can’t lose anything from the building, but gain popularity for the Automotive Program and Cerritos College.”

The Cerritos College Automotive Program, Northwood University, and The Southland Motor Car Dealer Association are housed in the 10,642 gross square feet building.

Cerritos College bond contributions and the Los Angeles and Orange County automobile dealers through the SMCDA who have also given donations funded this 5.1 million dollar project.

Automotive major Angel Gomez believes this new building will bring fourth career opportunities to the Automotive Department students.

“It’s going to link us to managers and dealerships to get jobs,” Gomez said.

President of Cerritos College Linda Lacy and many other important members to the Cerritos College staff will be on-site to introduce the grand opening Automotive Partners Building, Director of Physical Plant Robert Riffle mentioned.

The Automotive Partners Building has two classrooms that Cerritos College students will utilize during the day and Northwood University occupy the classrooms at night and on weekends.

The building will also be used for board meetings, functions, and classrooms can be altered into multipurpose rooms.

Student’s education will be enhanced and give them and a more hands on approach to the automotive business because of the building.

“It’s a partnership between the auto dealers and the Automotive Program which they enhance each other, Riffle said.

“The dealers will not only bring in the expertise from the auto dealers around the community, they’ll bring them in to assists in the training of the students.”