10 Minutes With Tipton: Porterville College’s Roger Perez
10 Minutes with Tipton originated in January 2022 on the Education Page. Students in the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program at Tipton Elementary School take time to Zoom with individuals in the community to ask them questions about their jobs, lives and strategies they can use in their own lives to help them become college and career ready.
Roger Perez, Director of Communications and Community Relations, Porterville College What is your job title/ role in our community?
“I am responsible for communicating with students, faculty, and staff at the college about things that are happening on campus and with upcoming programs and classes. I also communicate with the community about the college - what it is that we do, why it’s a good idea to come to Porterville College, and why it’s a good idea to work towards a higher education in general.”
Please tell us a little bit about yourself — Your background, where you grew up, your family.
“I am originally from Brooklyn, New York. I was born and raised and spent the majority of my childhood in Brooklyn, then Staten Island, and then I went to the University of Pittsburgh (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). I have a sister who works for Amazon web services in video production, so she’s got kind of a cool job, too. She’s my little sister and through the years I’ve even had her as an intern. We’ve always done the same thing for a career.
I am of Puerto Rican descent and have a big extended family. When I was younger, we gathered every weekend. Sometimes we had 70 to 80 people at those gatherings and we always had a great time. What I miss most about New York is seeing my family. Recently, Puerto Rico lost power for a long time due to the hurricane. We were worried about the family at first, but it turns out that everybody’s good and everything’s OK.”
What do you love about your career?
“I love that I get to do things that I’ve always loved to do. I think in a lot of professions, you’re sort of stuck to one thing. You train to do something and only do that your entire career. I get to do a little bit of everything in the creative world — video, social media, design, writing. I get to talk to big groups of people, I talk to small groups of people, and I get to represent a FANTASTIC school. There isn’t a lot I don’t like about my career and job.”
When did you begin your career? Can you provide us with a career history?
“My career started in the mid 1980s. I’ve been doing this for quite a while. I started at WTAE-TV, in Pittsburgh, as a television production assistant. In that job, you’re basically a glorified intern. You do get to learn a lot and pick up some valuable skills.
Then, I worked at Mcgraw Hill publishing company, which owns several TV stations as well. I actually worked on the first CD-ROMS ever. For those who don’t know, CDROMS were interactive textbooks that were on plastic discs.
I returned to working in television after that in the Television Division of Mcgraw Hill and moved to Bakersfield where I was a commercial producer for TV shows and news for KERO-TV, which was first a CBS affiliate and is now an affiliate of ABC. I also worked at KGTV in San Diego, splitting four days in Bakersfield, then three days in San Diego, which was not a lot of fun, because of the amount of travel. A year after that I was promoted to director of advertising and public affairs for KERO-TV in Bakersfield.
After KERO, I became the director of marketing and public relations for the extended university division at California State University, Bakersfield. From there, I opened my own production company for awhile where I made commercials, short films, and documentaries because I really wanted to get back into video production full time. I worked as a communications director North of the River in the Park District where I got to share the fun things people were doing in the parks of North Bakersfield.
In 2012, I became the director of the Kern County Museum, which is a history museum in Bakersfield. It was a neat way to branch out into something new. I was still able to do the things I love to do - production, multimedia production — things with groups that involved videos, social media, and web design.
I then served as the public information officer at Kern County Mental Health, where I worked toward removing the stigma surrounding mental health issues. I really did enjoy that job, but then an opportunity came along at PC that I couldn’t pass up. I’ve been with the college for four years now, and I plan to be here for many more years to come.”
What do you dislike about your career?
“The only thing I don’t like is that I don’t have more hours in the day to work on projects. It would be nice to have more time to devote to highlighting the amazing people and programs at PC.”
Would you encourage others to pursue your career?
“My sister followed in my footsteps in that respect. I really tried to get her to do internships with me, or friends in TV, specifically. I’m on the boards for both the Porterville Unified School District and Burton School District multimedia academies. I feel it is really important to teach skills that come with multimedia production -skills like problemsolving and organization. Everyone should learn how to solve a problem and how to tackle things with the tools available around them. Skills like these can be applicable to any career or industry.”
What is something that might surprise members of the public (either about you, or your career)?
“I was a cheerleader in college and the mascot at the University of Pittsburgh (The Panthers). My now wife was my partner in college and we actually placed in Partner Stunt Nationals (almost 30 years ago).
Another interesting thing is that my wife and I got married in Disneyland. We had one of the first weddings at Disneyland. They had been doing them at Disney World for a long time but they didn’t have a system set up at the time at Disneyland. Our wedding was held in the alley behind the Pirates of the Caribbean. They didn’t really have characters at the weddings at the time, but through my work in television, I knew many of the people who wore the character outfits. A lot of them showed up to see us at the ceremony. They put us in the crystal coach for a parade afterwards, so there are a lot of pictures of us floating around the world.”
What advice do you have for young people who might be pursuing your line of work?
“Ask a lot of questions.
One thing I see a lot of that I’d like to change is that sometimes people are really interested in something but they’re afraid to ask about it. Seek out people like myself. I am always ready to answer questions for people. I love what I do and I want other people to love what I do.
When I was young they didn’t have anything like Pathways in High School. We just had to figure it out. I went into TV because that was one way to get into video production at the time. There was no social media and web sites were very far and few in between. My particular set of skills can be used anywhere as my long and varied list of career path choices shows. I did essentially the same thing in every one of those jobs, but in unique ways. In reading that list, there’s no way you’d think that. Videography, editing, writing, web management and design was involved in every one of those jobs.”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
“I’m starting to get close to the end of my career and retirement. I look forward to continuing to help drive enrollment and improve communication at Porterville College until that time. We have some amazing programs and there are great things on the horizon that I can’t wait to share with you all.”
Anything else you would like to add? (Maybe a current, or past project you’re proud of?)
“The thing that I’m really proud of right now at PC is the fact that we’ve returned to our pre-pandemic enrollment numbers. We have a growing student population again. The pandemic was tough for everybody, but now we seem to be out of the worst of it. We’re ‘back to normal’ and that shows in the number of students we see back on campus, going to class and taking part in student life.
We just restarted our soccer program after almost 20 years and our volleyball team is having a great season. Jamison Stadium is back open. We are excited to be back for our students and community.
Can you provide us with some of your school’s statistics and services?
Number of students — 4,445 students; Number of degrees/certificates offered — 34 Associate Degree and Degree for Transfer Programs and 33 Certificate and Job Skills programs
Services — “We offer financial aid programs, grants, and scholarships to help students pay for school. We also have many student programs to provide student support for books, food, and other needs.”