Riverside City College

We've got some more kind of specific stories.

Garrett, I think you've got one about RCC.

Yeah.

So RCC has announced their 2027 staff in the staff here.

It looks like they have a new ensemble specialist, Darren Van Der Proel.

I'm not saying that right.

Okay.

I missed that.

Um, I came home when I was 19, I think came home from, uh, working at a home-based store late late at night and my mom was awake i thought oh it's this late my mom's awake on like sunday night somebody did so i literally walked in the house i said and she's tearing up and i go oh man somebody did for sure and so i said i looked at her i said hey who died and she says nobody died why are you crying she told me well your uncle called your uncle that is living in texas now he wants you to talk to him about maybe you coming to learn how to do circuit board layout from him so i called him he told me yeah if you want to come out here for a week try it out if you like it i'll hire you if not no hard feelings my mom was crying because she knew i was gone before the conversation was even had she said he's out of here So sure enough, I went out there for a week, said, yeah, I'm going to do this.

And so I went from living at home, just assuming I'm going to go to Riverside Community College.

Within two weeks, I went from living at home, thinking that was the future, to living in Austin, Texas.

And so there was no runway for my parents to get ready for me to be gone.

Was that L.A. City College?

No, it was Riverside City College because we had moved to Riverside.

I guess I left that out.

Actually,

Let's talk about that.

Yes, and now I'm at RCC.

Yeah.

So when we came back to the Inland Empire, um, I was looking for an arts organization to work for-

Yeah

...

in the Inland Empire, and I'm really impressed with the opportunities That are here in the Inland Empire at places like RCC and Valley College-

Catholic Yeah

...

Riverside Community College, where we were doing musical theater together.

Gosh, what a dream.

And, um, a true joy-

I went I could do all the schools, but I graduated from Poly High School in 2005.

And then I went to Riverside Community College.

And from there, got a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Cal State San Bernardino.

And so my passion, when I first went to school, I wanted to be a doctor.

Like, since I was five years old, played football.

Went to junior college in California, Riverside City College, one of the hardest schools in the nation.

We went undefeated for the two years I was there.

Transferred to U of A. I tried to walk on and play football at U of A.

From guest-ready essentials to holiday decor you can trust, Wayfair delivers.

In your community, a sophomore at Riverside City College has just kicked herself into the collegiate record books.

Kia credit actually made history twice in a recent Tigers game.

The eight points she tallied were the most ever scored by a female player in a college football game.

They're D1 talent.

And so it kind of forces me to really lock in in practices.

Kia says she built her football skills through her lifelong love of soccer before enrolling at Riverside City College.

She played both sports at Santiago High School and Corona.