Hancock Conversations

After working as a salon manager and stay-at-home mother, Veronica Van Horn decided to pursue her passion for cooking and baking, going back to school and enrolling in Hancock’s culinary program. After graduating from the program, she started her own baking business, V’s Sweet Treats.  

Heidi Mendiola is a 2020 Hancock graduate and former Class of 2020 AHC student trustee.  In this interview, she shares her journey as a Hancock student and talks about the challenges she and other 2020 graduates faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Hancock film professor Chris Hite joins us to talk about his new documentary, Firestorm '77. The film chronicles the true story of a deadly fire near Vandenberg Air Force Base that took place in 1977.  Learn more about the film at  firestormthedocume.wixsite.com.

As Hancock prepares for the graduation of its centennial class, we talked about the college's history with AHC class of 1954 alumna Marilyn Cronk. Cronk is an art curator and painter who served as the executive director of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art in Solvang before retiring at age 67. Three of her daughters also attended and graduated from Hancock, before transferring to four-year universities and moving on to successful careers.

2020 changed the world for everyone, including Hancock's students. In this episode, we spoke with Hancock 2020 alumnus and former Associated Student Body Government president Tyler Little about the challenges and triumphs of graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In this episode, we talk about Hancock's history with retired vice president of student services Roger Welt. Welt retired in 2009 after 17 years at Hancock. He is also a Vietnam veteran and holds degrees from Idaho State, Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and the University of San Francisco. As a college student, he served as a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park and later went on to serve as a college administrator in Micronesia and Tahoe.

Join us as we speak with Hancock alumnus Wally Ajanel. Ajanel is the founder and owner of Wally’s Bicycle Works in San Luis Obispo.  In this episode, he shares the story of leaving his home country of Guatemala in 1994, coming to Santa Maria, and how he worked toward his dream of owning a business by taking ESL classes at Hancock while working in the nearby strawberry fields. 

2020 was an unprecedented year for Hancock students as they learned to adjust to the "new normal" of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, we hear from AHC student ambassadors  Ana Rosas Pacheco, David Bautista,  and Francisco Avila, who shared their stories about they dealt with the challenges posed by the pandemic while serving their fellow students and the community.  

In this episode, we talk with Arturo "Cheech" Raygoza, a 2020 Hancock graduate and a co-founding member of the college's Beyond Incarceration Greater Education (BIGE) Club. Raygoza shares his journey as a formerly incarcerated student, and how his experience at Hancock inspired him to become a guide and mentor for other formerly incarcerated students.

Join us for a spirited interview with Hancock alumnus and Santa Maria Valley YMCA CEO  Shannon Seifert. Seifert, a fifth-generation Californian, shares the stories of her farming roots, her educational journey at Hancock, and her deep connection to the community she now serves.