El Camino College — Local services in Alondra Park

I was a student here in the late 1980s-early 90s. I must point out one teacher: Judy Kasabian in the math department. She was an absolute nightmare,. Kasabian was rude, sarcastic and downright obnoxious. She taught Algebra in that huge auditorium. Kasabian and Mr Veroda were in charge of everything. I loved it when Mr Veroda taught the class, however, when Kasabian taught the class, it was horrible. At that time, her hair was black, just below her shoulders, kinky, and always pinned and clipped back. Her nail polish was always puce. Her grooming was good. She never smiled. Her mouth was always in a horizontal slit. Her eyes were icy and cold like a sociopath.She was approximately 45 years old, in 1991. She did not encourage students working together. Two students would be working together quietly in the back of the room, and she would stop the entire rotunda to reprimand, because people were "talking." She was more of a distraction than two students factoring out a polynomial. She snapped gum into the microphone. She absolutely chewed like a cow. Her manners were atrocious. She used to leave the class early to hit her afternoon classes at UCLA. A student made a complaint about this, and the classes at UCLA were suddenly not a priority. Until that point, she was going to leave early on a class for which we had paid. If a student had to leave early, it had to be approved and verified with the two young women who were responsible for taking attendance by the head count of who was in their assigned seats. If a preordained arrangement to leave early was not made, the entire class was stopped, and the student was put through an inquisition. One woman was quietly trying to leave, when Kasabian said in a loud, raised voice, "where are you going?" The woman replied, "I need to change my pad." Kasabian looked like a fool. I feel very strongly about this, because we were adults, we paid for the class, and we were there to learn, not be mocked. Kasabian even sat back and gloated when she told a student to leave the class for "talking." This was unnecessary. I can even remember a dress she wore at that time: 1991, during the Desert Storm War. The reason I remember the dress is because it was the only outfit she wore that made her look a bit on the feminine side. It was a two piece dress: orange skirt, orange and gray horizontally striped top. Therefore, with her chewing gum into the microphone like a cow, her cold demeanor, and her gloating and ego trips, I feel Kasabian is a teacher to avoid at El Camino. She ruined my experience there. Name Judy Kasabian Event Type Birth Event Date 28 Jul 1951 Event Place Los Angeles, California, United States Gender Female Mother's...

Most of the people won't try very hard to help if you're looking for information. The website can be better help, if it has current information. Sometimes its not updated even old!

CARE is a great program. If you're a single parent head of household on CalWorks they have a lot of help even a separate grant in fall and spring. CalWORKs helps fill out your hours paperwork and more. CalWORKs work- study program is separate from the work study program. They help pay your work study hours. They'll work hard to help you find a campus job.

EOPS was good, but I was told things that weren't true that I was depending on. They also have a separate grant in fall and spring. They provide a book and a supply voucher in fall and spring too. They have educational counseling and planning. They have their own tutoring you can make appointments for.

Basic needs was always very helpful. They have many ways to assist your financial situation while attending college there. Metro UPass, food, clothes, housing assistance (not sure what it offers).

The Financial aid office (whoever responds to emails) was not helpful, they know most students need help from them and they can get away with it. They reply to emails with short answers as if we should know all about everything. It became dreadful when I needed to contact them. I usually had simple questions. The people in the office where you go to submit paperwork are very kind and helpful. They aren't the ones answering emails. ❤️

The Library has some textbooks (if available) you can stay there for a few hours, if your books are too expensive or you cant find them. They rent out laptops and calculators with your student ID. There is tutoring available for many subjects there. There is a study center with computers to use on campus and areas with tables to study. There are quiet study areas too!

I was upset about receiving a scholarship I was told would transfer with me. Then ECC scholarship office said the donor (Rotary Club) changed their mind when El Camino scholarship office found out I was no longer going to a state university (I didn't like the campus) but another community college where I am supposed to be moving to. It was frustrating!

Will add...

No stars. I have a mental disability called dyscalculia which I have medical papers dating back from 2005 and diagnosed by the school. Ever since I graduated high school in 2016 and enrolled into El Camino, I’ve been declined by my disability and stated by one of the disability counselors that I look fine and if I were missing a limb then I can be in the disability program. Another counselor from the disability program who’s on a wheelchair told me just because I can’t pass the math subject due to my disability that “college is not for everyone”. I had a GPA of 4.0 and it lowered to a 3.3 because I had to repeat mathematics 2 more times without accommodations and dropped. I’m an excellent student and never in my life have I ever heard “college is not for everyone” from a counselor who’s suppose to help students not persuade them to leave their education. I had many more bad counselors here. I don’t know how many more students who are in my position have been told to leave and have left the school due to these worthless counselors who are there to sit on their asses and criticize students specially the ones who just graduated h.s. This piece of s**t of an event, has made me think of dropping out of college and it depressed me so much. That was until I found Otis, and considering that my major is art, this school works out great and they don’t need any math from me. Other than this b.s, I had good professors in many other subjects and I’m transferring this year, but I’ll never forget how this school treated me from...