SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : A USER’S GUIDE : A HIGH SCHOOL GRAD AT JPL : PROOF THAT SUCCESS DOESN’T REQUIRE A COLLEGE DEGREE
Pedro Moreira is no ordinary high school graduate. A research technician specialist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Moreira, 22, is proof that, even today, it doesn’t always take a college degree to excel in a high-tech career.
In his job at JPL’s metals fabrication department, Moreira turns the theoretical visions of engineers into reality, working from detailed blueprints and employing the latest in computer-controlled machining technology to produce precision parts capable of withstanding the rigors of space.
During his almost four years on the job, Moreira, who graduated from high school in 1987, has fabricated parts for a variety of spacecraft, including the Galileo, Magellan and Ulysses space probes. Recently, he helped craft radio wave pickups for the Deep Space Network’s 32-meter antennas, which receive incoming signals from remote spacecraft.
To fashion his precision parts, Moreira often works with exotic metals and metal compounds, such as titanium, copper and beryllium. An intricate T-shaped computer chassis that he fabricated for the space shuttle’s on-board computer began as a block of aluminum.
“It started out weighing 100 pounds. Now it weighs about five pounds,” says Moreira, holding the finished chassis in one hand. “This involved more than 100 cuts. It took me a month to make. First, I rough-cut everything on the computer. Then I performed different cut patterns. It’s a custom part. It will be the only one in space.”
In fact, most of the work Moreira does is unique, as are the spacecraft it goes in. He regularly consults with engineers to see what they want and to suggest possible changes when a design turns out to be impractical.
“We don’t have a production line,” he says. “We’re always experimenting.”
Working for JPL is a big leap from Moreira’s old stomping grounds, Manual Arts High School in South-Central Los Angeles.
The transition was difficult at first, Moreira said. But the machine-shop whiz who missed only two days of class during three years of high school and who garnered statewide awards for his machining ability soon adapted to his strange new high-tech environs.
“My first week, I thought I wasn’t going to make it,” he says. “I felt like crawling underneath a rock, especially when I scrapped a part that was worth about $10,000. I felt like quitting then. But now I feel comfortable in the position I’m in.”
The speed with which the young technician caught on surprised his older colleagues.
“I caught up pretty fast,” Moreira admits. “Some of the guys I work with are in their 50s and 60s. A few are ready to retire. But they believe in me, and they’ve been a lot of help to me. I consider myself very lucky to be in this place.”
Moreira’s supervisor, Ben Sanders, says the young man from South-Central has pulled his own weight.
“Pedro’s worked out really well,” Sanders says. “We’re really happy with him. When you’re bringing a juvenile into a very serious adult world, they have to grow up very quickly. We’re very selective of the people we bring in that way. You have to progress very fast.”
Moreira says he interviewed with JPL during his senior year in high school at the prompting of his machine-tool technology instructor, Joseph Cervantes Jr.
Two other Manual Arts graduates, Oscar Avalos and Nelson Leiva, work at JPL with Moreira, Cervantes says.
“I’m very proud of my graduates. I keep in touch with them all,” Cervantes says. “The thing that’s surprising to a lot of people is how a school in South-Central Los Angeles, which has a reputation for being a hotbed of gang and drug activity, can produce students who can compete not only in contests, but also in the real world--and come out ahead.”
Only a week after graduating from Manual Arts, Moreira says he was hired by JPL on a three-month trial basis. At the end of the trial period, he applied for the company’s Skilled Training Employment Program (STEP), which places high school graduates on a three- to four-year career development path.
As part of the STEP program, which Moreira completed last September, Moreira says he was exposed to all the different operations in the metals fabrication department. He was also required to take at least one college class per semester in a technical subject related to his work.
Moreira, who attends both Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles Trade-Technical College as a night student, is only four classes away from receiving his associate of science degree. After that, he plans to transfer to UCLA or another local four-year university to study mechanical or manufacturing engineering.
“Right now, I’m in the process of deciding what I really want to go for,” Moreira says. “If I’m going to move, I want to move up into a higher bracket. That would be engineer. Hopefully, I will stay at JPL as an engineer.”
Things didn’t always look so rosy. Moreira says he was at first disillusioned by the trainee wages he was paid.
“In high school, I was involved in auto mechanics, fixing engines and doing a lot of body and fender work,” Moreira says. “It was more than just a hobby. I used to get pretty good money--$300 to $400 a week. I took a big cut coming to JPL.”
Moreira has nearly doubled what he used to make repairing cars and has laid the groundwork for a promising future.
“I always hope to improve myself, so I work hard at it,” he says. “Mr. Cervantes used to tell me that anything was possible. But you have to go after it. You need a lot of discipline. When you’re young, it’s hard to overcome that. But there’s a future for everybody. You just have to believe that you will succeed.”
