Words of encouragement and inspiration were shared on May 9 at 12 p.m. during the special Presidents hour with Dr. Fierro and Alex Boylan, the season two winner of The Amazing Race series.

Alex Boylan, a producer of the Amazon Prime series The College Tour, will be featuring an episode with our own students for their upcoming season.

Luckily enough, we were able to get some behind-the-scenes scoops with the host himself, the executive producer, Lisa Hennessey and one of the ten students being featured on the episode, David Contreras.

Boylan informed attendees that it takes about nine weeks of pre-production, starting from the beginning of trying to find the right students. They were allowed to cast 10 students, with each student getting about two minutes to tell their story.

Working like an entertainment co-production, week after week, our teams were working with their teams questioning the storylines and how they can bring them to life.

There’s no better way to see the universe.

Hennessey also informed us that once they have gathered all their clips, it will take another two months until the episodes are done getting edited.

Once they’re completely finished, the episodes will be airing this upcoming Fall and dates are to be discussed.

“One side of it right now is to tell the story of Cerritos College but on a macro level we are really celebrating higher education and the importance of it,” Boylan said.

“When there’s a million different paths to go down and it looks different for everyone,…next gen needs to know what’s available, we want to show that there is a path.”

David Contreras, 33 years old, told us a little about his story growing up with a stigma that was placed on him by society.

Ever since he was in high school, he was always trying to prove to others that he also had ambitions. However, whenever he shared them he was always brought down by his teachers and fellow peers due to trouble he had been involved with in the past.

Going through a series of traumatic events, led him down a path of confusion and into court trials to fight for his freedom. After those trials, he knew he wanted to change.

Inspired by the Latino judge, he thought to himself ‘If he can do it, why can’t somebody like me do it?’ and placed himself back into school to study law.

“I don’t want people thinking you have to go right out of high school. You can be like ten years later and you could change your life, you can change somebody else’s life with your actions and your words.”

“I just want people to know, don’t ever give up on yourself, just try. You’ll be surprised how much a little trying effort can go.”

Inspired by his surrounding environment, Contreras continues to do anything in his power to make his community a better place.

He has gotten the opportunity to help with community outreach as far as helping the homeless and helping others with food scarcity.

The main goal will forever be to encourage the following generations to take a leap of faith and trust that with education, they’ll be able to succeed beyond their capacity.

Be sure to keep tabs on The College Tour for when they release dates for our special episode this fall.