Transcript- Episode 157: From Crisis Response to Workforce Readiness: Lessons in Regional Renewal from the Future of Work Conference with Mayor Victor Gordo

Victor Gordo [00:00:00]: Our ultimate goal is to prepare people for the workforce of the future. And the workforce of the future is mixed. It's not just, you know, formal degrees in education. It's like I said, it's people who can work with their hands, who can be a part of the construction industry, the landscaping, you name it.  Christina Barsi [00:00:24]: The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future? Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, vice president of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast. And I'm Christina Barci, producer and co host of this podcast. And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships and pcc. Students in the workforce.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:01:16]: We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole. We believe change happens when we work together. And it all starts with having a conversation. I'm Christina Barci. And I'm Salvatrice Cummo. And this is the future of Work.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:01:48]: Thank you for joining us this morning. Mayor Gordo, you have been absolute champion and leader and have been the most extraordinary partner to this institution. And we are incredibly grateful, not just for this particular subject matter, but in all capacities at Pasadena City College. And when we look back a little bit of where we were in the beginning of the year, I want to kind of explore a little bit of what you feel makes this partnership between PCC and the city so unique and why it's important.  Victor Gordo [00:02:24]: You know, first, thank you for having me. It's amazing that on January 1st, we were celebrating and this was literally the theme for this year's new year celebration, the best day ever. Little did we know that six days later, on the 7th, we would be looking at the worst day ever. And for, frankly, I do hope it's the worst day ever. I hope we never have to see anything like that, and certainly not something worse. And the partnerships that were forged, including, and especially the partnership with PCC as A result of that disaster, I think, reminds us all that our futures are interwoven not just as institutions, but as people. In Pasadena and Altadena, the student population, teachers, professors, elected officials. You know, our future is interwoven together.  Victor Gordo [00:03:23]: And what we saw was a response that reflects a community that recognizes that.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:03:29]: Thank you. And when I think back, I think of the beautiful coordination that happens so quickly, effortlessly, with zero planning. It just all came together. Was there anything that struck out to you the most during that time?  Victor Gordo [00:03:44]: Well, I. I do think, you know, what stood out to me the most is people's desire to be a part of one. The crisis as it was developing. People's willingness to not only support their neighbors and their family, but come out and support the broader community. When PCC moved immediately, the convention center in the city moved immediately to open up disaster centers. People showed up. People showed up with donations, people showed up. Some people didn't have donations to give, so they just gave their time.  Victor Gordo [00:04:21]: And so that willingness to be a part of the solution is what stood out to me the most. And, you know, it wasn't. I mean, we say effortlessly, but it's really the result of good planning by all of our institutions. In Pasadena, we had the emergency operations center open within 40 minutes of the fire striking. Within 90 minutes, we had the evacuation center open and staffed. I know PCC moved swiftly to ensure that it was doing its part to help people, and within hours and had its efforts moving to contribute. So we're all grateful for that. And that's all the result of thinking ahead, planning, understanding that we do live in a disaster area and that we will be relying upon each other in an emergency.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:05:12]: Thank you for sharing that, because I think from a community's perspective, it was just beautifully well coordinated and put together. As an outsider, we don't know that there's years of planning, there's committees that are put together, there are countless meetings, and planning when in the event of fill in the blank, this is how we operationalize. And so that's a testament not only to our planning as committees, but also for me, it felt that their community can trust us in doing inactivating.  Victor Gordo [00:05:46]: I think it was Winston Churchill who once said, you know, no plan meets first contact with reality. And what I believe he meant by that was, we can plan for the inevitable, we can plan for crisis, but we have to understand that it's just a plan. And the minute we go to execute the plan, something is going to be wrong, and we have to be prepared to shift gears and adjust. I Would say to you that this plan was very well thought out, very well conceived, but we also had the nimbleness, in the spirit of Churchill's statement, to adjust. You know, we prepared for a windstorm, for example, and had to quickly shift and adjust to a fire and a windstorm. And then we had to shift and be nimble and provide temporary housing and help people with things like food, insecurity, rent, finding their loved ones, finding their pets. And so we not only had a plan in place, but we had the ability, because good planning leaves room for the ability to be nimble as conditions change. So I congratulate all of you for being a part of that.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:06:58]: Yeah, thank you. I also wonder, too, in this process, and it's not the process, but in this experience, we know very well how local government and education work together. But wondering if you discovered or. Or have a better understanding now on how critical that partnership is and your view now, the partnership between local government and education, has that changed? Is it better? Did you learn new discoveries?  Victor Gordo [00:07:27]: You know, I did. I learned quite a bit more than I ever wanted to. But now we know, we have this experience, shared experience. You often think of public safety and emergency response as the job of the city, the county, its police department, its fire department, maybe the state, the National Guard. You don't often think of the response in an emergency also coming from institutions like the Rose Bowl. You know, the Rose bowl suddenly was moved into action as a staging area for first responders. We had over 4,000 people there at the Rose bowl, shifting in and out, essentially living there, providing fire rescue services, all sorts of services. And then you think about institutions like Pasadena City College, again, don't often think about an educational institution.  Victor Gordo [00:08:21]: Everybody thinks, well, fires happened. Kids, you know, students get the day off, and teachers and professors and administrators get to go home. I think we learned in this experience that that's not what happens. You know, PCC and other institutions, educational institutions, including our school district, quickly reached out and mobilized and became a part of the public safety network that was needed to have a response that helped people.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:08:50]: There's no doubt about there's a level of trust in mobilizing and operationalizing these plans. And this is really our first time on this side of town, really on this side of the state, where we've had to do that very swiftly. And to your point, that level of trust that is between the institutions and local government is incredibly important, especially during times like this. Is there any advice that you would give to other cities that are in this planning process being proactive about emergency response. Any advice that you would give other cities on how they can be better partners to institutions?  Victor Gordo [00:09:29]: I think the key word there is partners. It's really difficult to establish a partnership in the midst of a crisis because everyone is reacting and moving to execute. And so we have been very fortunate in Pasadena that through the leadership of Dr. Gomez, Dr. Cuomo and others, we've built a partnership over time. I wasn't calling the reception desk at PCC asking for the president. I was texting Dr. Gomez saying, Jose, you know, let's work together.  Victor Gordo [00:10:02]: And he was texting me. And so we have that relationship established before the crisis, and we were able to respond, get our respective institutions to coordinate together, to work together. But that's because the work was done in advance to build that partnership, that trust and the shared commitment to this community.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:10:24]: Is there a level of community investments that you're seeing kind of shift based on this experience that we've had here, or are you comfortable with the way things are now?  Victor Gordo [00:10:33]: Well, one of the things that I'm buoyed by is, sure, there's a level of community investment that's needed for our built infrastructure, parks, streets, people's homes, business community. But I think we're also appropriately focused on the human infrastructure and human capital. Were focused on people. We went from plans and people to people and plans. And what I mean by that is now we're focused on, you know, how do we help people remain in this community, how do we help people prepare to be part of the workforce that rebuilds this community so that they can remain in this community. That's an important pivot point psychologically for us, individually and as a community. And I think it'll pay dividends for this community. You know, I think in the future, our success coming out of this crisis will be measured by our ability and success at helping people transition from a crisis, be a part of the solution, and maybe even attain new skills to help rebuild this community.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:11:45]: Thank you. What do you think that's going to take from our local government side and from institutions for that shift?  Victor Gordo [00:11:52]: It's going to take building on that partnership. You know, the city of Pasadena, you know, our primary mission is not education. Our primary mission is ensuring streets are safe, ensuring that our parks, our libraries are safe and clean. But we're also in the people business, and PCC's primary mission is to educate. And so I think we've got to marry those two goals. You know, our interest is in preparing the city and the community of the future, physically, emotionally, Your business is to prepare people to participate in that by providing the skills and the education needed to do that. And so I think we have a shared and common goal and improving this community. And we each have a separate, but again, interwoven mission.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:12:43]: Yeah, I think I saw that beautifully represented pre and post. Unfortunately, this disaster is that we all have our respective talents and our domain expertise and our assets, and we can do greater together. We can expand services together better when we are collective, we can scale programming, we can provide resources. And I think that there's this spirit and this trust in this partnership that together we can do more. And there's no need to worry about duplication of efforts because we have our own respective domain talents and resources.  Victor Gordo [00:13:21]: Absolutely. And that goes back to the partnership, understanding the city, understanding what PCC can bring to bear in terms of effort, resources, and PCC and other institutions, understanding not just what the cities can do, but where the city's limitations are in terms of. We were focused on the fire itself, public safety, as others backfilled some of the other needs, others, like Pasna, City College, understanding that our mission was first and foremost the physical safety of the community. And so, you know, goes back to partnership, having that understanding of one another's strengths and I won't say weaknesses, but limitations in terms of resources, in terms of what, you know, jurisdictions, and then having the trust that, you know, we're going to focus on our mission, use our resources as best we can, and then we have that reciprocal trust that Pasadena City College becomes because we've built that partnership will fulfill its mission within its jurisdiction and with the available resources. So that trust, that understanding and that partnership, again, is important in advance of the crisis.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:14:35]: Sure. I think the one thing that keeps me up at night, when I think about our role as an institution in this recovery process and shifting gears just a little bit and leaning in towards recovery, what keeps me up at night is the balance. How do we balance all the needs all at the same time? How do we balance the needs of our workforce, our workforce here at pcc? How do we balance the needs of our students? How do we balance the needs of our business community? How do we balance the needs of our residents? And so for us, we think about, when we think about our programming, we take all of that into consideration and how we respond, both from an educational, programmatic perspective or also business technical assistance with some of our, you know, our SBDC and our WBC that responds to our business community. So I wonder through your lens, how are you seeing balancing that infrastructure when we're supporting all our constituents, our businesses, and in a way that, that is productive and not chaotic.  Victor Gordo [00:15:35]: Yeah, hard to do.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:15:36]: I know, I know.  Victor Gordo [00:15:37]: Well, I, I think, you know, one of, one of the things that that's special about our institutions is a lot of our institutions are populated both on the staff side as well as on the people who are being educated here, or in the city's case, rely on services. They're populated by people who know this community well, people who have been a part of this community. So the first answer I would have is, you know, we focus on helping people, recognizing that many of the people overwhelmingly are also part of our institutions, including pcc. Now, having said that, you know, you still have the mission and goal of education in the midst of everything that's happening. And so that's, I think, where the balance has to be struck between your core primary mission of continuing education and to educate people as you also contribute to the community component. And I think PCC did that exceedingly well. I think all of our institutions did that exceedingly well. Now, could we do things better? Absolutely.  Victor Gordo [00:16:46]: And those are conversations that, you know, are ongoing. You know, what would we do differently? What would we not repeat at all.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:16:58]: Here to share any of those, what we did and more than welcome to.  Victor Gordo [00:17:03]: Yeah, and what would we say, hey, let's do. We should have done this more. Those are all the questions that we should ask ourselves as a city, college, as a city, as a community, because there are going to be a lot of things in each of those categories that we need to recognize.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:17:20]: You know, part of that formula of recovery is also paying hyper close attention to workforce development. Right. We, you mentioned it earlier. We have great partners like the Foothill Workforce Investment Board, our local agencies, county agencies, ourselves in this effort and equation of workforce development for the city of Pasadena. What does that look like for the city? What is your wish or what is your primary focus? I should say, when we think about recovery in the arena of workforce development.  Victor Gordo [00:17:56]: You know, in the arena of workforce development, I mean, I go back to our interwoven future and again, our success as a community. To be able to respond post fire and post crisis to the needs of this community is interwoven with our ability to prepare the workforce that's needed for that, you know, and again, one of the measures of our success will be did we do the work to prepare people, not just young people, but people across the spectrum to be a part of the needed workforce. Without that workforce, it's going to be very difficult to rebuild Pasadena And Altadena, you know, as we think about that, preparing them with the skills and the education necessary. And I say both because, you know, some require an aa, a ba, an ma, a doctorate degree, even a law degree, but others require the skills that people like me don't have. You know, I'm a lawyer. You don't want to see me with a hammer in my hand because it's not going to look pretty or be pretty. But we need people with skill sets to work with their hands. As we prepare people to rebuild.  Victor Gordo [00:19:11]: We should also keep in mind that in the past, when we've done that, we've not made these careers, you know, and we have to demand fair wages, benefits, all of the things that we know contribute to a healthy, successful family unit. If we don't do that, then we will have missed an opportunity to help people not just be a part of the recovery, but thrive in the recovery.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:19:39]: Thank you for mentioning that. The skills trades. I personally know the support that the city of Pasadena, specifically you, have given PCC around building our career pathway programs in apprenticeships, in other skilled trade programs. What advice would you give other cities on how to lead these efforts with their respective institutions?  Victor Gordo [00:20:04]: Back to the guess the word of the day, Partnership. You have to build partnerships and you have to understand who's best positioned to achieve a part of your goal that ultimately, you know, brings together multiple institutions to achieve the ultimate goal. In this case, our ultimate goal is to prepare people for the workforce of the future. And the workforce of the future is mixed. It's not just, you know, formal degrees in education. It's like I said, it's people who can work with their hands, who can be a part of the construction industry, the landscaping, you name it. So I say to communities, get together with those institutions that can certify programs like Pasadena City College. And that's what we've done here.  Victor Gordo [00:20:56]: And those who can provide the training, and that's the trades. And the trades will also provide the pathway to decent working conditions. And so I think we have to be thoughtful and deliberative on how we do things. The city can provide jobs, as can other large institutions. We can provide training opportunities, but the trades and PCC are in a better position to teach and train that workforce. And so in Pasadena, with Pasadena City College, we're bringing those efforts together then together with large employers like Huntington Hospital, who has a tremendous need for bedside assistants, nurses. So it's not just trades, it's not just formal education. It's also lab technicians for some of the med Tech companies that are coming to town.  Victor Gordo [00:21:53]: It's also nurses, bedside assistants. That's the ultimate goal, to have all of that live here at pcc so that there's an identified place for our community to come and find their skill, the skill that they're interested in and develop it.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:22:08]: Yeah, thank you for mentioning healthcare. You know, PCC is making great strides and efforts in expanding our healthcare, clean energy, advanced manufacturing programs, all of which are just equally as important as our skilled trades. As you mentioned, how are our efforts in expanding those programs in alignment with the city's economic priorities?  Victor Gordo [00:22:32]: The city's economic priorities? I mean, look, we've had, in the last year and a half alone, We've had over 300 companies in the medical technology field, essentially research and development. People like Prodemer who are committed, funded by edai Lilly, are committed to solving diabetes right here in Pasadena. Companies like the GM Design center, who design the vehicles for gm. All the vehicles. So we have a combination of innovation like gm, but we have a high concentration of medtech all around the corridor around Fair Oaks, closer to the Rose Bowl. You have Doheny Eye Institute, you have the Keck Institute. Just moved in. When I Talk to the CEOs and leadership of those institutions, the first thing that they say to me is when I ask them, what can we do to be supportive? They say, help us find the workforce to sustain ourselves here.  Victor Gordo [00:23:38]: Help us find the. The people who we need. I remember one of them said to me, we have 25,000 square feet here, and we're going to have five scientists who are going to essentially lead our research efforts here. Five scientists. They said, don't worry about those. We'll find those. But the staff support needed to staff those five scientists was over 300 people. 300 people who need to know their way around a lab, who need to know, you know, all the things that I failed to learn in science class.  Victor Gordo [00:24:14]: Same, which is why I became a lawyer. So, you know, but we need those people to support those scientists, to support those companies who have made tremendous investment, because that's a big part of the city's economic development goals. You know, our job is to serve as a magnet for the best and the brightest. This is what I say to the city staff. Our job is to build on the magnet that PCC is, that Caltech is, that Art Center, College of Design is Carnegie Observatories, all these great institutions, they all attract tremendous talent. So our job is to build on that and build a city that they want to not just come and make A tour of duty while they worked at Huntington or Caltech or studied there for four or five years. Our job is to make them want to stay here and live here, because that makes ultimately the most interesting city. And that's what's distinguished us from other cities.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:25:15]: What I heard was when we invest in our workforce, we naturally invest in everything else. And so we naturally pour back into the communities that we work in and we live in. Thinking about the business community and the role that they play in sustaining these kind of high road partnerships. How can we make sure that those investments reach the residents who need them?  Victor Gordo [00:25:37]: You know, I talk about building on the magnets that our great institutions are. I think concurrent with that, we have to also find a path for the people who are already here to stay here by being a part of those institutions, whether it's as an educator, a staffer, or a student themselves. We have lots of people. And that's getting back to the CTE and the effort here at pcc. That's what that's about is finding people in this community, training them to, you know, so we can go to Dr. Lori Morgan at Huntington and say, hey, we've set up a pipeline for you for nursing assistants, bedside assistants, nurses. Now we'd like you to use that pipeline and hire them and put them to work here. And so it's a combination of attracting people, but also lifting people up who are already here by providing them the tools and the training that they need to be a part of our shared and collective effort to be a successful community.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:26:38]: I would be remiss if I didn't ask this question. And we as institutions, we as local government, we are always in this state of constant improvement. It's a theme within our own division. We're always looking at how can we be better, how can we do better, how can we serve better? You have a unique lens and perspective because you receive intel and stories from your constituents, from businesses, from, you name it. As an institution for us to strive to be better all institutions, not just us. If you had a magic wand, what would be one thing that you would say? Salvatores? If institutions can do this, this would be impactful. How do we become better through your lens, in listening to all of your constituents. That's a heavy question.  Victor Gordo [00:27:27]: I'm sorry, that's a heavy question. But I think it applies to all of us, you know, as institutions. And I think we're doing it. And I think the fire reminded us of the importance and Covid reminded us of the importance of doing it. And as Large institutions. Sometimes we forget to listen to the people that we serve, and then we get stuck in bureaucratic process and procedure. And look, a lot of it is called on by law or our own policies and procedures. But I think what I would challenge us all with, including the city, and I put this challenge to the city staff regularly, is, you know, let's remember to listen.  Victor Gordo [00:28:12]: I do think we're doing that better as a result of COVID and the fire. Listening to the people and not being prescriptive about what we believe people need, but listening to the people that we're looking to serve and adjusting our efforts and resources accordingly and then moving swiftly, recognizing that, yes, we have policies and procedures, but let's not have a combination of group think where we're all, you know, walking in one direction aimlessly, and also a bureaucratic process stop us from actually doing what we know we need to do. I would challenge all of us to be better by looking at those policies and procedures. Procedures now while we're out of crisis and saying, what were the impediments for us to be as responsive as we wanted to be? What could we adjust to be better?  Salvatrice Cummo [00:29:04]: I like that. I like that a lot, actually. We do. We do. We're all guilty of it because we move so fast. It's not that we to have the intentions of not listening. It's just that it takes intentionality to pause and to listen. The will is there.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:29:18]: We just get stuck in this hamster wheel of doing things really quickly because we're activated and we're all overachievers in this space. I know for sure. Mayor Gordo, what is one takeaway that you would like? Our audience, our listener who is listening live stream. What would you like them to take away from this conversation?  Victor Gordo [00:29:41]: I think we should all walk away from this knowing that, you know, we've together as a community, face some really difficult times. Again, I just see it. I'm not taking credit for any of this, but I get elected Covid hits, then we go into, you know, other issues and then the fire. And I learned a lot from that. And I think as a community, we all learned a lot from that as individuals, as residents, as professionals, we learned a lot from that. And so I think we should harness the good, bad, and the ugly from that experience and understand that it really will make us better because. And more resilient as a community. You know, I tell people, we prove we're a resilient community, and I think this effort will make us all the more resilient if we harness that experience.  Victor Gordo [00:30:34]: So, you know, even in the midst of crisis, we should walk away knowing that given the hand we were dealt, we did a pretty good job as a community in responding in the face of tremendous adversity. And we would be kidding ourselves if we thought, this is the last of it. We're going to face more adversity in the future. And so let's harness that experience, learn from it, and be better for it. We all expected and prepared for the big one. Right? We all thought, the big one is coming. It's inevitable. Well, the big one came.  Victor Gordo [00:31:11]: It just came in a different form and came in the form of a disastrous historic fire. But because we had that mindset of preparing, we were better for it. And so I would suggest to all of us, let's keep preparing. Let's learn from this terrible experience and be better prepared for whatever comes our way in the future, because it will.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:31:35]: Yeah, it will. Thank you. And. And I firmly believe that we learn from this experience, and we're going to always constantly be growing from it, but I firmly believe that we did a really great job. Of course there's going to be gaps. Of course it's. It's natural. We're human, we're not machines.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:31:53]: But the way this community came together was absolutely amazing. And maybe this is actually a good example or blueprint for other institutions and other local government and educational institutions combined on how to best prepare, how to best activate, how to best respond, and then moving forward, how we come together. Because it's not just enough now, it's about after. It's about post and what are we doing? Because it's going to take quite some time.  Victor Gordo [00:32:22]: Absolutely. I mean, when, you know, as you're talking, I'm thinking about us coming together, and I immediately reflected on, you know, the Dina right now. That's part of our jargon in Pasadena. Well, it always has been, but I think we've, over the years, somehow let that go by the side, you know, and it became, oh, Altadena is doing this. And, you know, I'm from Altadena. I'm from Pasadena. Well, this fire reminded us that, you know, we're one community. And now people in Pasadena and Altadena say with a renewed pride, I live in the Dina.  Victor Gordo [00:33:02]: The Dina is a word that people over decades have used to describe Pasadena and Altadena. You know, Dina. And so when you talk about disaster and the opportunities, particularly the opportunity to come together, that's an example we should all be proud of.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:33:20]: Yeah. Thank you. That was beautiful. And we are, we are one community. And that said, I'm going to open up to the audience for just a couple questions.  Victor Gordo [00:33:30]: What would you say to the young people in high school that are considering going to community college, to university, to graduate schools? We're in the midst of a disaster right now and we need to meet those trade tech needs. We need to meet the professional needs for RNs and similar professionals. But what kind of advice would you give your children? What kind of advice would you give our children who are still in high school? And I will add to that a huge number of the very bright children that are in the school that I teach at, you know, they're going to community college because the cost of a regular university is just prohibitive. And being able to be close to home, I mean, there's a lot of things that the community colleges do for our kids beyond the trade tech and the AS level, you know, professionals. What would you say to the kids who have more ambition but want to start in a community college? Because that's part of our system these days. I say, you know, first find your path. You know, don't let the way things have been done in the past, you know, there used to be a time where, you know, and I think we're paying the price for it now. For example, you know, in one point in this country we, we said that and it was, I think in the late 80s, I recall when it was said all kids need to go to college to be successful.  Victor Gordo [00:34:59]: And you know, the inverse message there was, if you don't want to go to college, you want to go to a trade school, then, you know, you were stigmatized, you're not successful, you're one of them. And I think that was a mistake. And so when I looked at the data, as I thought about this, it's never been the case that all kids need to go to college or have gone to college to be successful. When I looked at the data, 39.6%, and this is a couple of years ago, so it may have changed. I doubt it. Only 39.6% of all people in the history of this country ever went to a college, a university and received some sort of certification. What that tells me is over 60% found a way to be successful. And I think the challenge, challenge, and I would say to kids, the challenge for public education is to be able to provide those pathways to success, whether it's through cte, whether it's, you know, through formal education, if that's what individual wants, or whether it's some Sort of certification, whatever it may be.  Victor Gordo [00:36:11]: I think the challenge is for our education institutions to recognize that we have some work to do and everyone deserves an opportunity to find their pathway, an opportunity to be a successful and contributed member of our community. So I would say to these kids and all people, you know, look for your pathway at your local community college or at university, whatever is your choice, because it's going to be there. I do believe that PCC doing that and leading the charge and being the example for other community colleges. And so find that pathway and ask to get on it. You know, ask for help when you need it and give it when asked is what I tell them. And so ask them to help you get on that pathway. And get on that pathway. That's what I would say to them.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:37:04]: I would echo and take that also as an opportunity to share that it is our duty as institutions to demonstrate to our students what is possible. And so we all, me included, we all need to do better at that. Right? Because there's so much possibility. But how do we demonstrate that in a way that resonates to the student? That's really the question. Right? And I think that's what you're asking is how do we do that in a way that resonates? And just as I share with my children, I share. We are here to serve. Our duty is to serve the community that serves us. And if you could find that little piece of connectivity, whatever it is that we're curious about, lean into that and serve the community.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:37:51]: The community will serve you back tenfold. But I do want to stress that we as institutions, as agencies, we all need to do better at demonstrating what those possibilities are. And I'm going to say that without looking at our chancellor's office. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. We're going to do this together because there is a lot. There's a lot to share.  Victor Gordo [00:38:11]: No, it's true. I mean, you know, peaking students, inquisitive and curiosity is what's important. You know, I came to PCC after high school for a number of years, more than I will admit, but it was a great experience. You know, I was working two jobs, trying to find my way, took some history classes that I wanted to be a history teacher. And then I took a business law class, if I still remember the number business 12A. And I took this business law class at PCC. And I thought, oh, wow, this is. This is interesting.  Victor Gordo [00:38:48]: It's, you know, understanding the law is really reading short stories. It's reading cases and then. And these stories are interesting. And so that's when I decided I'm going to pursue law in law school. PCC piqued my interest at first, exposed me to it, gave me the opportunity to be in that class, and then piqued my interest.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:39:12]: Thank you. Please give Mayor Gordo a round of applause. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the show Notes to collaborate, partner, or just chat about all things Future of Work. We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College.  Salvatrice Cummo [00:39:44]: Wish you safety and wellness.