Mounties Among Us: Employees who have also been students bring a unique perspective
Few Mounties wear only one hat at Mt. SAC. There are many roles working together to make the College tick, and many people find themselves as professor/donors, student/athletes, and employee/alumni. Indeed, for some, the seeds of the Mountie spirit were planted or strengthened when they were Mt. SAC students, giving them the unique perspective of experiencing two sides of a campus that has so many facets. Assistant Athletic Director and Foundation Board Member Marc Ruh is one such alumnus who now finds himself making his career at Mt. SAC.
For Ruh, Mt. SAC has always felt like home. He grew up right across the street from the campus and had a front row seat to its evolution from the early 1960s. Both of his parents (Don and Sandi Ruh, who are generous Mt. SAC donors) worked there. He learned to swim in the school’s original pool when he was just three years old. While he was a student, he practiced and competed in the school’s new pool, built in 1972. At Mt. SAC, he played two sports and studied general education with the intent to transfer to play water polo at a school in the UC system. At UC-Santa Barbara, he did just that, and got degrees in biology, biopsychology, and art. As an athlete, Ruh was always involved in coaching as well as playing, but he never connected the dots that he could make a career out of it until he was working at a local high school and got a call about a job at Mt. SAC. Being able to support his family doing something that doesn’t feel like work at all was a dream come true.
Twenty-eight years later, Ruh is now the assistant athletic director at Mt. SAC, and his wife is an alumna-turned-faculty too. As his career advanced at Mt. SAC, Ruh found himself involved in all aspects of the athletics department, even designing mascots, logos, and branding materials. One of the most rewarding parts of his job has been being part of planning new facilities to give Mounties more and more opportunities to succeed. He is excited to know that he will finish his career with a new aquatics center, meaning he will have been part of all three incarnations of the Mt. SAC pool.
“Mt. SAC has been my home, from a young child, to being a student athlete, and now being able to have a long career as a faculty member and coach. Mt. SAC changed my life, every step of the way. What a blessing to be amongst so many great educators who continue to challenge one another to be the absolute best at our professions every single day!” - Marc Ruh
Like Ruh, Chaz Perea was surprised (in a good way) to learn he could make a living at Mt. SAC. But of course his path was his own. He was already working in the landscaping industry when he came to Mt. SAC to get degrees in ornamental horticulture and pest management. After he left Mt. SAC, Perea went on to earn a BS at Penn State and then advanced degrees at the University of Illinois and California Coast University. In what felt like an out-of-the-blue scenario, his old professors from the Mt. SAC horticulture department asked him to teach a class for them. Perea had never seen himself as a teacher, but he gave it a shot because it isn’t in his personality to turn down a challenge or a chance to make some money. Teaching turned out to be a good fit. All Perea had to do was draw on his experience being a student. He checks in with his students often, especially now, and is encouraged by their positive reviews. That close relationship with his students made him a natural choice to coach the turf team, which he competed on when he was a student. The team has had repeated success, often winning national competitions. These days, in addition to coaching the turf team, Perea is a full time horticulture faculty member and the full time landscape manager of Dodger Stadium. (Yes, that’s two full time jobs.) He is also working on his PhD, taking advantage of the “downtime” since the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily eliminated his commute. Perea was an early adopter of online teaching, and he was ready to help take the whole horticulture program online.
“They asked me to teach, and I thought they were out of their minds. I taught one course and it went really well! Because I had been a student, I knew what students needed.” - Chaz Perea
Ruben Flores
One of Perea’s former students, Ruben Flores, came to Mt. SAC as a horticulture student in 2008 and never left. Flores was active in Future Farmers of America and working on the farm at his high school. In order to nurture that interest, his high school mentor took him to Mt. SAC to show him around the farm and plant nursery there. He fell in love. A lot of people say they live and breathe Mt. SAC but few can say they’ve actually lived at Mt. SAC. Flores is one. In addition to a few opportunities for farm students to live in trailers on the farm, there is one position for a nursery worker to live in a trailer at the nursery. Flores took it and lived there for six years, working during the day and taking horticulture classes at night. These days, he is married (his Mt. SAC horticulture mentor was his best man) and lives off campus, but he has never really left Mt. SAC. His current position is the lead for the grounds crew, which means he manages the team that keeps the campus looking fresh. What Flores loves about the Mt. SAC campus is that it serves as a lab; he’s always trying out plants to see how they function within the ecosystem and trace their growth. When he notices an area that looks sparse, he’ll design landscaping and order plants for it. Knowing that he is introducing students from all departments to new plants is fulfilling for Flores.
“They’re going to have to wheel me out of here. It’s an awesome place. My mentor retired three times. People keep coming back.” - Ruben Flores
Maribel Gonzales
Like Flores, Maribel Gonzales worked at Mt. SAC while she was a student starting out her academic career there. She was an EOPS (Extended Opportunity Programs and Services) work-study student, and after transferring to Cal State Fullerton to get her BA in human services and MA in counseling, she was thrilled to eventually make her way back to Mt. SAC, this time as an employee. Now Gonzales is proudly serving the ESL Mountie community as a full time, tenure track counselor (another opportunity that makes Mt. SAC special, as many institutions do not offer tenure track positions to counselors). In this capacity, she helps non-credit students transition into taking courses for credit, and she also teaches a career and life-planning course for ESL students. That particular student population is where Gonzales’s passion lies, and she feels fortunate to be making her career there.
“Mt. SAC is a second home to me. I was a student there and a lot of people there helped me. I wanted to do the same for students. They’re all like family to me. I plan on retiring from Mt. SAC. I love it. Mt. SAC takes care of you. I can’t see myself being anywhere else.” - Maribel Gonzales
Nearly everyone associated with Mt. SAC describes it as a family, and Dean Grace Hanson is no different. As the Dean of Access and Wellness, she oversees accessibility resources, student physical health and mental health services (all of which are telehealth services right now), and she also serves as part of the behavioral and wellness team, which is an interdisciplinary task force that works with other campus departments. Hanson came to Mt. SAC in 1988 after working in the private sector. Her first position at Mt. SAC was in services for students with disabilities, and her mentor there groomed Hanson to take follow in her footsteps. Hanson kept moving up the ranks until she was reclassified as a dean in 2013 with her current title coming in 2017. Throughout her career at Mt. SAC, Hanson has been embraced at every turn. Her family members took classes at the College, and Hanson herself explored her hobbies through the College’s wide variety of courses. She took ceramics and pilates, where she got close to being a certified instructor. The demands of her professional life got in the way, but Hanson will be back to get that certification once she retires. Mt. SAC is, after all, hard to stay away from.
Grace Hanson and her family
“There’s a heartwarming, feel good situation when you work for a great college with a great reputation. What has kept me there is the feeling of needing to repay everything Mt. SAC has done for me and my family. I have three children who are wildly successful as a result of Mt. SAC.” - Grace Hanson
At Mt. SAC, the alumni net is wide. Whether you got a certificate, attended a training, earned a degree, or took a single class, you’re alumni. The richness of that pool is what makes Mt. SAC exceptional. Are you a “Mountie Among Us”? Reach out and share your story!