Santa Rosa Junior College student taps AI’s potential to help fellow immigrants overcome barriers to employment
Adriana Hernandez is studying how to incorporate AI into graphic design and photography at Santa Rosa Junior College, and also applying the technology’s potential to help English language learners. Photo by Owen Kahn
Adriana Hernandez was just three years old when her family moved from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to “a little bitty town in the middle of nowhere” in Idaho to work on potato farms.
“I was an extreme minority,” she recalls from early childhood memories. “And I realized immediately how different I was from everyone else.”
Hernandez says she grew up inspired to speak English well after “watching my parents face discrimination because of their lack of proper grammar or polished language skills, even though they were incredibly skilled individuals.”
Ultimately, her parents thrived, as her dad moved from jobs as a ranch hand and logger to a cattle industry career in Colorado, where he earned renown as an expert in “AI”—artificial insemination—for his work with dairy cows. His daughter grew up driving farm truck loaders and tractors and, ultimately, helped with her father’s business by doing computer accounting to track dairy cattle health, vaccinations and dietary intake.
Years later, Hernandez, now 43, has found herself mastering a different form of AI—artificial intelligence. A student at Santa Rosa Junior College, she is combining studies in graphic design and photography with a curriculum focused on using AI for business. She also sees the technology as a way to give English language learners a fair shake when searching for employment.
“I’ve learned that first impressions can be filled with biases. Understanding this has motivated me to help others.”
Adriana Hernandez, Santa Rosa Junior College AI Student
Inspired by her parents’ struggles with English and her own experiences as a second-language learner, she helps fellow immigrant students use AI tools to refine resumes, cover letters and marketing materials for career development.
Hernandez—a former sales rep, graphic designer and teacher’s assistant for students with special needs—notably helped a human resources professional from Cambodia who had a master’s degree in business administration but feared he would have to start his career all over again.
Ron Wenzel, a Santa Rosa Junior College professor who teaches courses in AI for business, says Hernandez guided the fellow student “to refine his cover letters and better polish his marketing materials.”
Hernandez says AI provides numerous tools to help second-language learners market their professional skills through clearer, more effective communication. “I’ve learned that first impressions can be filled with biases,” she notes. “Understanding this has motivated me to help others.”
The AI curriculum at Santa Rosa Junior College represents one of many features of the California Community Colleges Vision 2030 program, which aims to incorporate new technologies, help non-traditional and disadvantaged students succeed in the modern economy and improve equity and access for students from all backgrounds.
Wenzel says his AI for business course covers using the technology to enhance communications for career outreach such as resumes and cover letters, human resource management and “giving people an extra boost if they are second-language learners.” The program also includes instruction on using AI to generate videos and images for marketing materials.
“We are discussing how we can keep our degrees pertinent to the communities around us,” he says. “This year, we have been told that AI is going to be a preferred qualification for most jobs. If we want to continue providing opportunity, we need to give our students the opportunity to use it.”
Hernandez, whose design skills include creating computer-cut graphics such as vehicle wrap advertisements for cars and trucks, says she wants to create a photography and graphic design arts collaborative. She says she hopes it will be “a space where creative minds can come together to innovate and inspire.”
“I’m passionate about finding ways to destigmatize AI,” she adds, “so that more dreamers can embrace its potential.”
To learn more about AI education and other opportunities at Santa Rosa Junior College, visit www.santarosa.edu. For more information about Vision 2030, go to https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Vision-2030.
Written by Peter Hecht
| Regions | Classes & Topics |
|---|---|
| Bay Area California | Artificial Intelligence |
