Thanks to Los Angeles City College, I earned an education that enabled me to start a wonderful new career as a Legal Secretary Trainee at Latham and Watkins in downtown Los Angeles. My story begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I had been professionally bartending for 15 years. I reached a point in my life where I wanted to explore new things, and California seemed like a great place to start. I also decided to go back to school and obtain an education that would be valuable to me as a person, as well as for my future. I found Los Angeles City College over the internet and enrolled in the paralegal program.

On August 21, 2000, I landed in Los Angeles with nothing except my two suitcases. I arrived in Los Angeles on a Saturday, moved into a new apartment that Monday, started a new job Monday night, and on Tuesday found myself in class at Los Angeles City College!!! While attending LACC, I started taking CAOT classes and found out that I really love word processing and computers.

During the end of my paralegal program, I started looking for employment. It is really hard to get a job in the law profession without any experience as paralegal or a legal secretary. I had been working part-time as a file clerk for a law firm in Glendale, but that was only good enough to get myself a job as a file clerk!! Finally Latham & Watkins phoned me for an interview as a Legal Secretary Trainee. I had to go through three interviews. The first interview was a three hour test of my word processing and computer skills. If I had not taken classes through the CAOT Department, I never would have gotten the job!!

So thanks to Los Angeles City College I now have a paralegal certificate as well as the skills I needed to gain a new career that has enriched my life in so many ways.