VALLEJO – Last Friday, the 25th, and Saturday, the 26th, both the Vallejo Center and the Automotive Technology Center were holding different events: an automotive teachers conference at the Auto Tech Center on Saturday and a Biotech expo down the street at the Vallejo Center a day earlier on Friday. With both locations often being overlooked, these events served as opportunities to do some outreach and highlight themselves.
The first event that took place was the Biotechnology Expo held at the Vallejo Center right off the freeway on Columbus Parkway on Friday, the 25th. The Vallejo Center was able to hold this expo with support from the Workforce Development Board of Solano County and the non-profit organization, Lady Echelon Project Inc.
With this being the first annual expo held, the people who hold leadership positions in these organizations have a sense of optimism about the future of these events. Ada Brown, CEO of Lady Echelon Project Inc., stated that this was just “one of many”.
When attending, I noticed the majority of people who were there were in high school. Ada Brown confirmed that there were 5 different high schools also in attendance, which included Vallejo High, John W. Finney High, Jesse Bethel High, Dixon High, and Winters High.
“One of the reasons we wanted to put this event on is to bring awareness. We want to bring awareness to high schoolers not only just here in Vallejo but across Solano County,” Brown explained.
The awareness she and her organization were hoping to bring to these students would come in the form of having experts in the biotechnology field, such as professors and scientists, speak on their panel while also highlighting Solano Community College’s biotech program, which is well known for its biomanufacturing curriculum, while also offering a Bachelor’s degree in the respective field.
Although the biotechnology program mainly resides at the Vacaville Center, since the California Biomanufacturing Center is located down the road, they were able to provide some supplies to the Vallejo Center for the expo.
Brandon Carrera, the supervisor of the Vallejo Center, told me, “Vacaville was nice enough to share their resources…we need that exposure.”
He then added, “We have the Bay Area diversity to hold an event like this.”
Vallejo’s Northern Bay area placement plays a big part in what Solano Community College’s biotech program has to offer, with the city only being half an hour from the technology hub of the country.
“We are the center of biotech…it’s all about location, location, location,” Carrera explained.
According to Carrera, the biggest challenge facing the Vallejo Center is Vallejo’s reputation.
“There’s a lot of pre-date stigma that comes with Vallejo…that stigma no longer has to be there,” he remarked.
Carrera pointed to Vallejo’s growing hospitality market and arts scene with musicians such as LaRussell, rebuilding Vallejo’s stained record.
“We have a lot going for ourselves, and the fact that Vallejo still has that negative stigma amongst some people, I think that’s going to change in generations over time…don’t sleep on Vallejo,” Carrera stated.
This generational difference in outlook on the city is prevalent in our own Governing board.
During a governing board meeting on March 19th, Solano Community College Governing Board president, Dennis Honeychurch, referred to Vallejo as a “crime-ridden city”.
In relation to this comment, Carrera stated that “people just need different perspectives, especially from those who live in Vallejo…it’s not what people think,”
When faced with the same question on Honeychurch’s statement, Solano CC’s Automotive Technology program director and professor, Andrew McGee, didn’t quite agree with his assessment.
“We don’t see that over at the Auto Tech center. We were in a temporary facility in a section that may have been described as perhaps not the best, but that didn’t matter to our students,” he explained.
Regardless of the state of crime in Vallejo, companionship is still at the forefront of the students who attend the Auto-Tech center’s relationship to one another.
“Before and after class, you’ll see students in the parking lot looking at each other’s cars,” he told me.
McGee’s program held its conference on Saturday at the Auto Tech Center. The California Automotive Teachers Conference is held twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. As this is only the second year Solano Community College has hosted the event, McGee & the auto tech program hoped to bring themselves into the limelight in regards to Automotive Technology, and their hopes were fulfilled.
“After hosting the conference this year, there was some interest in perhaps hosting a national-level teachers conference for Automotive instructors,” he exclaimed.
“I think that would be an awesome way for Vallejo to showcase what we have going on… I think we can change the mold of automotive training,” he furthered.
Both the Biotechnology expo and the Automotive teacher’s conference accomplished what they set out to do: to shine some light on these campuses and programs, especially the people who keep them afloat, people like Brandon Carrera and Andrew McGee. As Vallejo’s campuses continue to carve out their place in Solano County’s educational landscape, events like these prove that with collaboration, vision, and a bit of hometown pride, the city’s potential is far greater than its past.
