Trade-Tech, the oldest of the nine public two-year colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, had a poignant post on its Facebook wall Sunday. “LATTC joins the world in mourning the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and the others who perished in the helicopter crash. Our condolences to the families. Our thoughts are with you,” the post read.
Bryant played his entire 20-season career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He entered the NBA directly from high school and won five NBA championships. Nearly half of all students at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College work more than 30 hours per week and about this same percentage indicates that they are attending the college for job preparation.
LA Times Sports columnist Bill Plaschke wrote that a “huge hole has been cut out of Los Angeles’ heart.”
“Kobe was your childhood hero. He was your adult icon,” Plaschke said. “For 20 years he was on posters in your bedroom, on the television in your living room, in the lunch talk in your school cafeteria, in the smack talk at your office water cooler, and ultimately riding on a truck down Figueroa Street while you cheered and bragged and bathed in his greatness.”
On January 10, Los Angeles Community College District Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez announced the appointment of Dr. Katrina VanderWoude as president of the Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Her official start date is Monday, February 24.
“Los Angeles Trade-Tech is one of the oldest and most unique community colleges in the nation with a proud history and a bright future,” VanderWoude said in a statement.
VanderWoude received her doctorate of education and master’s degree, both in educational leadership, from Eastern Michigan University, and a bachelor’s in social science from Michigan State University. She has more than 20 years of executive and administrative experience, the last six years in California, providing strategic leadership and academic instruction in the community college, university and K-12 environments. Most recently, she was President at Contra Costa College, a designated Hispanic Serving Institution, in the San Francisco Bay community of San
Pablo, Calif.
Prior to Contra Costa College, she served as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Grossmont College from 2013 to 2018 and was Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Strategic Initiatives from 2011 to 2013 at Rochester College in Michigan. She has also worked on several regional or statewide committees and organizations benefitting higher education in California, including the California Community College Chief Instructional Officers Executive Board and as a liaison to the California Community College Association for Occupational Education.
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