Blog / Alumni April 22, 2018
April 22, 2018
It was a big weekend for Jesus Matilla.
On Friday, Matilla turned 50. On Saturday, he and nearly 1,000 graduates from American Career College celebrated the beginning of new health care careers at the 2018 Spring Graduation.
Photos: Spring 2018 Graduation
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Matilla said going back to school was a big decision for him. He already had a lot of experience in the retail industry and decided to join the optical technician program at ACC-Los Angeles after seeing it aligned well with his skill set.
“I learned a lot,” Matilla said, who was also his program’s valedictorian. “The school's tremendous, very supportive and at the same time very good in teaching me a lot of the skills that I need to know in order to be successful in this industry.”
Amanda Perez, the dental assisting valedictorian graduate from ACC-Ontario, decided to go back to school while he husband was deployed with the US Army. Pregnant during the program, Perez said graduation day was even more special for her because her whole family were in the Ontario Citizens Bank Arena stands to cheer for her — including her newborn son.
“I wanted to do it for my family, mostly for my son, for him to know that even though I was pregnant during this whole thing, I wanted to push through it even more for him to be proud of his mom, and then for my husband to be proud of his wife, and for my parents to see that their daughter went to college and got a degree to do something that she loves,” Perez said.
Ontario Campus: Voted Best Career College in the 2024 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Readers Choice Awards.
LA Campus: Voted Best Career College in the 2024 LA Daily News Readers Choice Awards.
OC Campus: Voted Best Career College in the 2024 San Gabriel Valley Tribune Readers Choice Awards.