{"id":45065,"date":"2017-12-13T14:03:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T14:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=45065"},"modified":"2017-12-13T14:03:41","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T14:03:41","slug":"lumina-focus-jose-cancino-once-a-dropout-now-a-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/12\/13\/lumina-focus-jose-cancino-once-a-dropout-now-a-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"Lumina Focus: Jos\u00e9 Cancino | Once a Dropout, Now a Scholar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lumina Focus:\u00a0Jos\u00e9\u00a0Cancino | Once a Dropout, Now a Scholar<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"ONCE A DROPOUT, NOW A SCHOLAR<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Sometimes it just takes a change of scene to change a life. Just ask Jos\u00e9 Cancino.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, Cancino was a high school dropout doing\u00a0<\/span>odd jobs in carpentry and landscaping in suburban Chicago<\/span>\u00a0when his mother got a new job in Austin, Texas. Now, 18 months later, he\u2019s preparing to earn an associate degree at Austin Community College and advance to the engineering program at Texas A&M University in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be pursuing an engineering degree. My family can\u2019t believe it either,\u201d Cancino said. \u201cMy family back in Chicago can\u2019t believe it either. Everyone is pretty excited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cancino works on the ACC campus with Shana Shaw, an associate professor in Texas A&M\u2019s engineering school. As a student in the Texas A&M Chevron Technology Academy, Cancino is on track to earn a guaranteed spot in the engineering program at A&M.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now 26, Cancino left Waukegan High School in suburban Chicago without finishing. His parents made it clear that if he wasn\u2019t going to school, he needed to work. So Cancino spent six years working in restaurant kitchens and taking carpentry and landscaping jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a teen-ager back then. I knew everything,\u201d he said, remembering his first years out of high school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it was rebellion or whatever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also admits he \u201cwasn\u2019t hanging out with a good crowd.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t happy, but I was complacent,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I had stayed in Chicago, I wouldn\u2019t be doing what I\u2019m\u00a0<\/span>doing today. It (the move) got me away from everybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He had started classes at College of Lake County in the fall of 2015 \u2014 just before his mother got a job as a systems analyst at a firm near Austin and the family decided to move south. Once in Texas, Cancino began to re-evaluate his priorities, particularly in light of his experience as a landscape worker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I moved here, I took a look at my life and said, \u2018Do I want to work at jobs like this until I\u2019m 40?\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cTexas is pretty hot, so I sure didn\u2019t want to work in the sun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He learned about Austin Community College and enrolled in courses to complete his GED, which he finished in 2016. He then started working toward an associate degree, going slowly at first because he had to pay out-of-state tuition. He took a job at a grocery, and the pay stubs he saved over a year of work helped him prove his Texas residency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

David Fonken, dean of mathematics and science at Austin Community College, has high hopes for Cancino \u2013 and plenty of confidence in him. \u201cHe\u2019s on track now,\u201d Fonken says. \u201cAll he needs to do now is do the work, and he\u2019ll be the engineer he wants to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With in-state tuition, the cost of each class dropped from $1,200 to $360, which he covers with the help of a\u00a0<\/span>Pell grant, an Austin Community College scholarship and<\/span>\u00a0another scholarship he received because he proceeded straight to college after earning his GED.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, he learned about a program new to Austin Community College. Starting this fall, the Austin college has joined other schools in the Texas A&M Chevron Technology Academy. Students accepted into the program at the community college level work toward their associate degrees while also taking introductory engineering courses taught by Texas A&M faculty. If they finish the program in good standing, they are guaranteed a spot in the A&M engineering program at the College Station campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

The program thus offers students a clear path to A&M and a way to save thousands of dollars by getting their first two years of training at a community college, said David Fonken, dean of mathematics and science at Austin Community College.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s on track now,\u201d Fonken said of Cancino. \u201cAll he needs to do now is do the work, and he\u2019ll be the engineer he wants to be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Cancino remains surprised by his good fortune. The admissions process for the program was competitive, he said. And at the time he applied, he had only four credit courses on his transcript. In addition to filling out the basic application and submitting his transcript, he had to write three essays \u2014 one on why he chose the program, another on his career and life goals, and a third to explain his interest in engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just told them I wanted to be the best individual I could be,\u201d he said. \u201cI also told them I want to change the automobile industry\u201d by making vehicles more environmentally friendly and improving self-driving technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cancino is taking 13 credit hours, including the A&M\u00a0<\/span>engineering course, while working up to 20 hours a week<\/span>\u00a0at a grocery. His goal is to finish the ACC program in 2018 and begin studying at Texas A&M in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

He knows it\u2019ll take hard work and likely some financial assistance for him to make the grade at A&M. But he\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>committed to giving his best effort, and he said the people<\/span>\u00a0at Austin Community College are committed to seeing him<\/span>\u00a0and his 67 colleagues in the engineering program succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hanging in there,\u201d Cancino said. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult taking a full schedule of classes, and this engineering course is kicking my butt.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe people here are very friendly, and they work with you,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want people to get a certificate or degree or transfer to another institution. But it\u2019s up to the individual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lumina Focus:\u00a0Jos\u00e9\u00a0Cancino | Once a Dropout, Now a Scholar ONCE A DROPOUT, NOW A SCHOLAR AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Sometimes it just takes a change of scene to change a life. Just ask Jos\u00e9 Cancino. In … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3556,"featured_media":45066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1793,1772,273,1770,1790,1794,1792],"class_list":["post-45065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc-in-the-news","tag-david-fonken","tag-dwight-look-college-of-engineering","tag-engineering","tag-jose-cancino","tag-lumina-focus","tag-shana-shaw","tag-texas-am-university"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}