Father of 3 Fights Odds for College Diploma

Wearing a broad smile and the blue cord of a magna cum laude graduate, 38-year-old Fred A. Flores received his diploma Thursday from Mission College after completing a two-year degree while working full time and raising a family.

“I never imagined walking out of there with the chancellor’s honors,” said the father of three, whose story of achievement despite adversity mirrored those of many of the 352 graduates awarded diplomas or certificates at Mission.

Flores and his classmates were among 2,138 black-robed graduates who received their two-year degrees Thursday in ceremonies at Mission and at Valley College in Valley Glen and Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

The commencement speaker at Mission, Dr. Yvonne Chan, principal of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima and a driving force behind public school reforms, noted the achievements of several graduates despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

She challenged students to use the skills they have learned to become community, business and family leaders. “What’s difficult, you have to do today,” Chan said. “What’s impossible . . . that will take a little longer.”

More than 1,500 family supporters and friends, many carrying colorful balloons and bouquets of flowers, sat in a grassy quad at Mission as Chan urged graduates “to create a ripple of success.”

Flores, who worked as a community youth counselor after 10 years in the Marines, said he decided to set his own example two years ago, when he found he could not answer his daughter’s questions about college because he lacked the experience. “I felt very inadequate,” Flores said. “Here’s my child coming to me for guidance, but I couldn’t give her advice because I hadn’t gone through it.”

Flores, who has worked for the past eight years as director of communications and community relations for Rep. Howard Berman, (D-Mission Hills), said he decided then that he would continue his own education, even sharing some classes in his last semester with his 20-year-old daughter, Gina.

Flores said his next step will be to master communications studies at UCLA. Flores won the spot by “demonstrating that he has the ability and the desire to compete and to complete,” said Carlos Nava, vice president of student services at Mission College. “He has been recognized as having extra special talent.”

The number of graduates Thursday at the three community colleges in the San Fernando Valley represents an 11% decline from a year ago, but officials at several campuses predict enrollments would increase with the start of summer sessions next week.

Pierce College, where declines had continued until $22 million in capitol improvement projects were initiated last year, expects an 8% increase in its summer program, the first year the 50-year-old campus will be fully air-conditioned, said spokesman Mike Cornner.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) was the scheduled commencement speaker at Pierce ceremonies, held in Swisher Park on campus.