Hancock graduate excels in new science program

Posted: Jun 4, 2010 9:31 PM by Monica Quintero
Updated: Oct 28, 2011 4:12 PM

Hancock graduates excels in new science competition.

Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria is holding its 89th commencement ceremony on Friday. Around 680 students are graduating, they've completed requirements for more than 930 associate in arts or associate in science degrees. In addition, about 2,000 people are expected to join the graduates at the ceremony.

Among the graduates Elsa Ruiz. It took the 21-year-old three years to complete her studies. She said, "My dad is really inspirational. He says God first, your studies and then your family." The Nipomo resident is graduating with an Associates of Arts in Liberal Studies, Biology and Transfer Studies. Her dream is to become a reconstructive surgeon. Ruiz said, "I want to give someone a feeling that I'm here and I can help them."

She's involved in a unique program at Allan Hancock. The college partnered with Cal Poly and it's meant to promote careers in science. It's called the Bridges to the Baccalaureate and just started last year.

Len Miyahara, Program's Co-Director, said, "We want to get these students from the community college who may be first generation students, nobody in their family has ever gone to college, to actually bridge from here to a four year university." In fact, Ruiz is only the second in her family to get a college degree. Miyahara said, "They wanted to increase the number of under represented minorities in these fields." Ruiz said, "I feel like I'm just letting other ladies know that you can do it."
Miyahara said, "I saw this woman just blossom and the doors are flying wide open for her, the skies the limit. " The hope is students such as Ruiz will one day go into biomedical or behavorial health fields and conduct significant research.

Because of the unique program elsa was involved in, she got to go to a conference in Seattle and present the research she had done. This is interesting, she said that research was testing to find a protein in a phython snake.

As for what's next, she received an academic scholarship to Cal Poly and it's a full ride. She wants to get her Bachelors in Science of Biology. After that, she says she'll apply to either med school or get her master's.