During the Summer of June and August 2012 for the first time I did research.  I had applied to a very competitive program that..

 "...brings science and engineering community college undergraduates to the UC Santa Barbara campus for a summer research experience. Interns gain first-hand experience in scientific investigation in a dynamic, collaborative research environment. They are matched individually with UCSB faculty and graduate student lab mentors who provide training and support. Interns attend weekly meetings, special seminars, and have the opportunity to develop their presentation skills throughout the summer."

I believe there were over 1000 applications and I was one out of the 40 chosen. I was paired up with my mentor, Yinghui Wu,and facitly advisor, Xifeng Yan. We all worked on Building A Server-Client Framework: Visualizing Social Graphs And Querying Human Patterns. After this 8 week program was complete we presented to facility and other people on our research. A YouTube video is below of my research.  

I had a great honor to be presented with The Outstanding Student of the Year Award in Engineering at Santa Barbara City College. This came to much surprise to me. It had been a difficult year for me since I had prioritized my education over other matters and was President of the SHPE Student Chapter at SBCC. I guess hard work does pay off and you never know who is watching to congratulate you on your success. Many Thanks to all my family, Dr. Nick Arnold, Virginia Estrella, Marilynn Spaventa and the SHPE Student Chapter at SBCC. 

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While I was President of the SBCC SHPE Student Chapter are main event was a Professional Mixer. This event was for high school students in the Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, and Goleta area and clubs on the SBCC campus such as Leaders in Science. SACNAS, WISE and our own SHPE Chapter.  This event happened on April 13, 2012. The event was divided in several sections. Students would arrive into a reception area then were guided into a physics workshop. While the professionals arrived and set-up there booth the high school students arrived to take part in our mini career fair. After an hour or so they were all moved into an auditorium. A keynote presentation was going to be given by Dr. Alejandro Para, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The SBCC SHPE Chapter organized the event with great success. 

After being laid off from TrueVision Systems that same day I received an offer to manage and direct the California Connects Program at Santa Barbara City College. Its true that when one door closes another one opens. This was an perfect opportunity because all along I had worked doing technical work. Now I would gain experience in managing a program and dealing with people. California Connects is a program that looked for students as tutors to help older people who were illiterate in technology. I was in charge of seeking these students and distributing laptops. Each student would need t complete certain house of tutoring. At the end I was to submit all the hours to the State. 

Once you put yourself out there you never know what might happen and that is what I did. I was at the Regional Leadership Development Conference hosted by Los Ingenerios of the University of California, Santa Barbara going through their career fair when I saw the CEO of SHPE.  I presented myself as an entrepreneur, owning at the time OneTechTip.com. She got excited and told me a must be on the entrepreneur panel that will be held with the SHPE National Conference. At first I was going to say that I was not too sure when I said yes. 

At the SHPE National Conference in Anaheim I was so nervous. I was going to be on a panel for the very first time. I was going to share my experiences to my own peers. I finally went through with it and met so many amazing people.  People that were on the panel and peers who later came up to me to talk and ask for my opinions. I would definitely do that again. 

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When I was at Santa Barbara City College I was the founding Vice-President in 2009. I saw the chapter develop and grow. Finally in 2011 I was ready to run for president.  I had been busy with school but knew it was the right time.  My great friend Neff Aguilar had been president the year before and had left a high bar to meet but I was ready.  I finally was voted in as president for the  2011 - 2012 SHPE Student Chapter.

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It was year 2 of the SHPE SBCC Chapter. SHPE had gained momentum and demonstrated that it was ready for something big. Our whole board was focused on the goal, get club of the year. We were all working together and at the end of the 2010 school year SHPE Ingenium received Club of the year. 

Fransisco Dorame was the Director of the Transfer Achievement program (TAP) at SBCC. He had understood the power of technology and didn't hide from it. He tasked me to up-grade the TAP website so it would attract more students to the program and would provide more information.  We succeed. Later that year Fransisco was a finalist in Examples of Excelencia at the Associate Level. from Excelencia in Education, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization.

06/2010 –06/2011

I remember sitting in the MESA center waiting for my class to start when a student walked in. I had never seen him before in the center. His name was Salvador Vasquez. At first I held of and then introduced myself. He was a computer science student, same as me, and had a job already in industry, at Truevision Systems. I was impressed. I asked him about what he did at his job, how long he had been there, and some other questions until I asked him if he knew if they were hiring. Sal answered no but if they ever did he would let me know. Time went by and I had forgotten I had asked him. Until one day he told me they were hiring for the summer. I immediately applied. The job really interested me. Truevision built hardware and software for surgeons that guided them through surgery. Their hardware also captured the surgery in 3D and then played it to the surgeons who also saw the video in 3D.  I was happy to get the job which turned from a summer internship to a part-time job. 

06/2010 - 11/2011

Through Jan 1, 2010 to July 31, 2012 I hosted my own technology tip website, OneTechTip.com. I provided tips and tricks to the common people on how they could use technology to their advantage. It is an interesting story how it started. It all began when I used to give rides to my friend Luis Garfias to school everyday. We would always talk about our lives and he would occasionally asked for recommendations on phones, browsers and other software.  One day I got an idea to actually write down the recommendations and tricks I gave Luis.  Other friends would also ask so it would kill two birds with one stone. I could just send people links to my site. From that point it took off. I was everyday writing tips on technology everyday. I also initially received help from a couple friends; Hugo Guerrero, Angel Montero, Garvan Kuskey, and Max Ramirez  They all wrote tips and helped maintain the site. I hosted with Dreamhost and use the free Wordpress software. I learned a lot on my own. How domains worked, websites, and basic HTML and graphic design. Unfortunately, it got to the point were I was too busy to maintain and post daily. I also wanted to focus. I knew it was for the best and I learned a lot while it lasted. I moved all the Onetechtip.com content to my site: www.JuanZepeda.com/onetechtip. Please feel free to browse my old posts. 

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My very first SHPE Conference was thanks to Virginia Estrella, the MESA director at SBCC. One day she said she would sponsor me to travel to Washington D.C. and attend the conference. I told myself it was an opportunity that I could not wait. I attended the conference, submitted my resume, and  was there absorbing what SHPE had to offer. That Saturday at the conference was at the career fair. I was not expecting much until I got an unexpected call from the FBI. I was shocked! It was my first time in D.C. and I already I was in trouble. I was not though. The agent told me that he had seen my resume I had submitted and was impressed. He had told be to stop by at their career fair booth. Later that I day I did. We talked over my resume and time went by. When he was wrapping up  he finished by offering an offer that was irresistible. I would be working for them every summer in D.C. and if they liked my work could be offered an full time position once I graduated.  What an offer. Now I will not say what happened next. For that you will have to contact me, after all I still believe in traditional face to face communication. 

Computer in our Future was a place were a got my real first job. I had a job the Danish Mill Bakery for about 4 years and I knew it was time to get a real first job in technology. I was lucky to find a job that could work around my school and be so close to school. Here I was a computer tutor and led workshops in Spanish and English. I loved this job because I was prepared by all the podcast I had heard. 

2008 - 2009

I was part of the IDEAS club which stands for improving dreams equality access success.  In the club I became an Information and Technology Officer were i managed to all the websites and publications. Are main goal was to help AB-540 students who wanted to succeed through education. 

Emmaus is a weekend retreat where they teach you how to have self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, and self-development.  These are all necessary to succeed in all parts of life. One key thing I learned is that in this world only 3% of the people are truly happy. They are just enjoying life. My goal is to be one of that 3%.

2008- 2010

I was born playing soccer. I loved the sport. My parents had enrolled in my in all years when A.Y.S.O was running.  As I grew up I had skill went to All-Stars one year then i guess everyone just caught up and beat me. I no longer was good nor had the confidence. I still played but observed the coaches and started to know that I wanted to be a Soccer Coach.  I took on two years of coaching with my cousin Hugo Guerrero. We took on a boys U-7 and U-8 team in different years. Even though they were not keep track of who was taking the league at that division we had won every game both years. Unfortunately, I got bust and moved to finish my schooling but I know I will be back to continue coaching. 

2008-2010

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Unfortunately, i was not able to attend the photo shoot for both these years. 

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The MESA Center at Santa Barbara City College

The Math Engineering Science Attachment (MESA) Program is near and dear to my heart. Because of this program I can say that I have been guided and pushed to learn more and develop my professional and academic skill. I was refereed by Ceci Reyes who had joined the program early on and was benefiting from it.  In the MESA program I have also met some of my best friends who have gone through the same backgrounds and struggles. Some have been demoralized or just discriminate for being a minority. This program supports us to purse all the STEM careers and show the world that we can do it. 

06/2008 - 06/2012

I started to repairing computers for myself then my family. At the same time I was taking a computer repair class which was and hour and a half long. To be honest half the time I was staring at  PowerPoint and the other half of the class I was playing Counter Strike, Empire Earth and other games. I do regret not actually paying attention and learning the material. 

After high school I had to commute about 45 minutes everyday there are back to go to Santa Barbara City College. It was a long drive so one day I discovered the podcast  This it were I hit the gold. I discovered a podcast network that talked about tech from open source to the cloud. Here is were my brain "sponged" up all the information and actually started to understand computers.  I made some business cards and started to market myself as a computer technician. 

06/2008 - 07/2012

I have ran 2 half marathons so far. I love running. Your in control and at the same time your mind is testing you to see how week you are. It does not get better than that. Both races were in the Santa Ynez Valley. 

Santa Ynez Wine Country Half Marathon 2009 Time: 1:44:35.7

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Santa Ynez Wine Country Half Marathon 2008 Time: 1:37.34.2

My entrepreneur dreams started back in high school. I had/was taking computer repair and a software applications classes when I started to read and gain knowledge of the technology space. I was intrigued and wanted to start a small company and have it be successful. I thought of creating a website called 805Dances. Here, I would call and find out where all the dances were happening the in 805 area code.  I started it too keep it up-to-date and but at age 17 I realized it took a lot of gut and commitment. My idea did not work out to well. 805Dances just vanished into my Google website account where It was hosted.

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