Roberta Vasquez

Student

“I dropped out of college for one semester. I started working, and ten years went by like that. Life gets in the way.”

You mean haven’t heard of those great films, Women on Wheels or Picasso Trigger or Do or Die? Well, that wouldn’t surprise Roberta Vasquez, who has a healthy sense of humor about her past employment. “I was an actress doing a lot of basically ‘bimbo’ movies,” she says with a chuckle. “It all came to a point where I thought ‘I’m not gonna get rich, I’m not saving for retirement, and I’m sure not going to win an Academy Award!’ And I was pushing 30, so I thought it was really time to do something.” And that ‘something’ was SMC.

“It took me a little time to make the transition here because I hadn’t been in school for such a long time,” says Roberta. “So first I took a single class, then a few classes, and now I’ve figured out how to study and manage a full load. And a house. And hold a job. And have a baby. But it’s perfect with the baby because I’ve got it all worked out: it comes right between semesters!” she says with enthusiasm. Roberta is obviously having way too much fun at SMC. But that fun has come through some remarkable experiences—such as in biology—that she never expected to have.

“I want to get my education under my belt and maybe go back into film, working in production design,” says Roberta. “And I’d heard about the new Academy of Entertainment and Technology at SMC. So my counselor told me to get my core classes out of the way, because those are the hardest for me. And I’m studying biology with a really amazing teacher named Cassie Carter, who has made it so much fun,” says Roberta. “I can take the other fun stuff later. But I mean, if I can pass biology, I can pass any art class. Honestly,” she says, “I never thought I’d get this worked up about amoebas!”

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