hello my name is Bill Scroggins I'm the
president and  CEO of Mt San Antonio
College and I was a first generation
college student. Neither my mother nor my
father went to college. My parents grew
up in the Great Depression and I grew up
in the Midwest and came to California
which was the golden country to get jobs.
My dad, on the GI Bill, went into a new
industry called television. He was a TV repairman
and as a kid I carried around the
satchel with vacuum tubes and helped
help him repair TVs. So, I had parents
that were of a generation that valued
education but didn't have opportunities,
and so they wanted to be sure that I had
the opportunity, and that I was motivated
to go to college. When I was in high school I
started working myself saving money for
college. I was fortunate enough to get
into UCLA in 1965. It was 80 dollars a
semester. I had saved 2,500 dollars from
working from the time I was 16 and then
I continued to work from for my mother's
company, Dun & Bradstreet. In the
summers I rode that RTD bus from La
Puente to LA with my mother and she
taught me accounting on the bus. So I
started working as an accountant - all the way through college. I
worked and saved money to get through
UCLA. It was a struggle at first adjusting
to college. I was on probation at the end
of my second year because I was
experiencing the growth problems that many high school transition to college did.
But college is not something you can do
all on your own. So, the end of the second
year I finally went to see a counselor,
and I finally asked for help, and I got back
in line and had a 3.6 GPA the rest of
the time, and graduated in four years by
going to summer school a lot for making
up what I had screwed up. To not have a
parent who gives you advice about 'well
when I was in college I did this' -  that
was a real challenge. And that's why I
didn't do too well in the first two
years. And I see that among the students
we have. First-year college student,  you're
going to have periods of time of
uncertainty and doubt. Don't be
afraid of that. It's not that you have to
retreat back to someplace that's safe.
that's not the way to do it.
The way to get through those periods
of doubt and uncertainty is to take the
risks, to make improvements, and if it
doesn't work, don't give up, just
keep trying and ask for help. That's the
key. If there's something that you're
doing that doesn't work for you and you
don't know what else to do,
go ask for help. That's what took me a
long time to figure out. And what works
for me
-being able to work in a study group
and explain to others to learn - that's
not going to be the way you learn
probably,  but there is a way that you
will learn. And find it and grow within
that level of understanding of your own
ability to take advantage of the
educational opportunities that are here
at Mt. SAC.
 
