Category Archives: Featured Faculty

Raymond Mirzabegian: One Person, Making a Change and Making a Difference

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Life is full of teachable moments. Three years ago, optician Raymond Mirzabegian, an optical dispensing instructor at American Career College’s Los Angeles campus, mentioned to his class that he had an epileptic child.

It was just an aside in a lesson on eye muscles and seizures, but after class, student after student came up to tell him about some instance of epilepsy in their family. Those conversations gave Mirzabegian—who has been involved in epilepsy awareness since the birth of Emily, his 9-year-old daughter—an idea that has turned into an annual classroom seminar.

“Every March 26, which is Epilepsy Awareness Day, I set aside a half-hour,” says Mirzabegian. “I ask students, ‘Suppose the person next to you were to have a seizure? What would you do?’”

Most people, he says, are unaware that the best First Aid is to roll the person onto their side, cushion their head, make sure they can breathe—and then time them. “Seizures often look very scary, but they’re not that bad if they’re less than five minutes, and often the person will get back up and continue with that they were doing,” he says.

That information and more was presented last month to some four dozen faculty and students on ACC’s Los Angeles campus, where Mirzabegian’s Etalk has become an annual observance: “We all wore purple in honor of Epilepsy Awareness Day,” says Kari Cheevers, ACC program director for optical dispensing. “It was phenomenal.”

“Obviously, this is a medically oriented college, and any First Aid awareness is good,” says Mirzabegian. But, he added, so is awareness of a neurological disorder that, according to the Epilepsy Foundation, affects some 2.2 million Americans and is more prevalent than autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease put together.

“Every time I do the session, students come up to tell me their personal stories,” he says. “It’s a very common condition, but rarely spoken about.”

Wayne A. Walls: One Person, Making a Change and Making a Difference​

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It started three years ago with a call for assistance. Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center was doing a free cardiac screening, and needed help.

“A local football player had died at the end of a game because of an underlying heart condition,” recalls Wayne A. Walls, director of clinical education in the respiratory therapy program at American Career College’s Orange County campus. “It was tragic, and the hospital was reaching out to the high school. George Garcia, the hospital’s regional director of cardiopulmonary, asked me to send some of our students to help do EKGs and gather patient information. It was so successful that it became an annual event.”

Walls says that outreach, in response to the 2009 death of 17-year-old Kevin Telles, inspired both him and his students, and left him wondering: What if volunteerism could be built into the curriculum?

“That sense of community service is a value we try to instill in students as being part of a noble profession,” Walls says. “Also the job market is very competitive—employers tell me that when they see community service on an application, they pull those students to the top of the deck.”

Since that first event, he says, he has started each 10-week term by circulating a list of a half-dozen or more volunteer opportunities in health care. Students can use them, he says, to earn extra credit or augment clinical hours.

“We’ve gone out with the mobile health van at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach, and to health fairs at the Westminster Community Center, we do activities with the American Association of Respiratory Care and the California Association of Respiratory Care.” Most recently, Walls’ students volunteered at the American Lung Association Fight for Air Climb in Los Angeles and rallied support for legislation curbing secondhand smoke in apartment buildings.

“Ultimately, it’s all about the patients—it’s a great feeling to help someone who has difficulty breathing,” he says.​

Anissa Perez: One Person, Making a Change and Making a Difference

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It began simply enough. As Christmas approached, Anissa Perez, Director of Vocational Nursing at American Career College’s Los Angeles campus, suggested organizing a food drive to help those in need. Before she could say deck the halls, the effort had morphed into a spirited, compassion-driven competition, with students and entire classrooms throughout the campus jockeying to see who could collect the most food.

“I was simply amazed by their generosity,” says Anissa, who has worked for ACC for six years. “Our students carry very heavy workloads, and even during the holiday season they made time in their busy schedules to help the less fortunate in our community. The success of the food drive says a lot about the quality of students ACC attracts, and it reflects the culture of kindness and concern for others the school has created.”

The food was delivered to the LA Food Bank a few days before Christmas. “I had originally hoped that we’d be able to collect around 1,400 cans,” Anissa says, smiling. “We exceeded that in just a few days, and when the drive ended on December 21, we had a mountain of more than 5,400 cans.”

One Person, Making a Change and Making a Difference

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Talk about leading by example.  Patrisha Elbeck, an optical instructor at American Career College’s Ontario campus, believes that while acquiring technical skills is an integral part of her students’ education, it isn’t the only part.  “I feel very strongly that, as instructors, we have a duty to inspire our students to reach their highest potential, and to give back to their communities not only through volunteer work, but to lead by example with integrity and generosity.”

And that is exactly what Patrisha has done throughout her 15-years-and-counting career as an optician.  After relocating to the Inland Empire from the San Francisco Bay two years ago, she began volunteering with Lions Club International’s Friends in Sight program, which provides eye-care services to those in need.  Among other community service work, Patrisha taught an Ophthalmic Tech program with Goodwill Industries in San Jose that was created for Employment Development Department (EDD) recipients returning to the workforce.

“My core beliefs are teambuilding, mentoring and inspiring leadership,” says Patrisha, who has been an ACC instructor since 2010.  “These are very important to me and act as an underlying structure within my classroom environment. ACC strongly supports this comprehensive, student-centered approach to learning.  Seeing how it positively impacts our students and their professional careers is a big part of what makes my job at American Career College so fulfilling.”

Melissa Pouey: One Person, Making a Change and Making a Difference

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In her spare time, Melissa Pouey, Assistant Director of Admissions at American Career College’s Orange County campus, volunteers as an advocate for special needs children, helping family and friends structure learning paths that enable their children to succeed.

“It’s so inspiring to help a child who is trying their hardest to learn and overcome obstacles,” says Melissa, whose own daughter struggled with severe learning disabilities growing up and now teaches autistic children. “I believe that if you give people the tools and the support and the encouragement they need, everyone can succeed.”

Melissa says she enjoys her job at ACC so much because the college’s philosophy toward students mirrors her own. “I believe that ‘can’t’ is not a word, and ACC shares that philosophy through its outstanding hands-on approach to learning, combined with a wonderful culture of caring and support for our students, who are working so hard in many cases to reinvent themselves and improve their lives.”