"Addressing Highest Level of Education Attained"
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| Carrie E. Johnson RCC Status of SAP Here Black American Paralegal Student |
Carrie E. Johnson began her undergraduate studies at Riverside City College, back in
June 2008. With a declared major in paralegal studies, Riverside City College
paralegal program consisted of 37.5 units to complete as well as complete the
general education requirements towards an associate degree. One of Carrie’s
primary objectives at RCC was to graduate with her associate degree within the
shortest amount of time possible and with the least amount of student loan
debt. It is safe to say that while attending RCC, Carrie has never taken out
student loans and received a scholarship through a written essay. The first
level of required paralegal courses at RCC consisted of the following: (BUS-18A)
Business Law 1, (PAL-10) Introduction to paralegal studies, (PAL-64) Legal
Research & Computer Applications, (PAL-65) law office technology and (PAL-68)
civil litigation procedure 1. Of those courses, the first level lacked in
diversity which reflected two black female instructors, one white male
instructor and one black male instructor that was spread out over the course of
5 years of attendance.
Leading the Riverside City College paralegal program is a black female instructor and is someone that Carrie
vaguely remembers. Since Carrie took possibly three courses with Professor Judon, Carrie received passing grades in Business Law 1 & 2 (BUS-18B). The
quality of teaching received by Professor Judon, as described by Carrie, was
standard and somewhat burdensome. Meaning, the paralegal instructors at RCC
taught from the required paralegal textbooks and power point slides that do not
require any modification to the slides from law publishers like Cengage or
Aspen unless there was a change in law. Therefore, Carrie can only attest to
her experience with Professor Judon as a paralegal instructor within an
academic setting. Although RCC offers college courses fully online, hybrid or
on-campus, the paralegal program does not distribute the required courses
evenly to accommodate various demographics for the fall and spring semester
major terms in diverse formats mentioned above. As for the required 9 units in
electives, Carrie took 3 electives in the order in which the courses were
offered on summer or winter intersessions and not because she had a genuine
interest in learning about the paralegal electives that she took.
(PAL-10) Introduction to paralegal
studies was being taught by a local family law attorney at the early stages of
Carrie’s paralegal education and he would be the first white male
representation of her paralegal education as well. Legal research and computer
applications was taught by an older black female that Carrie would see in the
early stages of her paralegal education as well as towards the end of her
paralegal courses completed in the fall of 2023. The (PAL-64) Legal research
& computer applications, (PAL-65), (PAL-70) and (PAL-72) black female
instructors’ spouse would be the first black male representation at RCC for the
(PAL-68) civil litigation and procedure 1 course, before going onto the level
two paralegal classes. It was a requirement towards the associate degree to
take (CIS-80) Word Processing, while the legal research & computer
applications course barely touched the surface on software applications used in
either a law office or ordinary business. Carrie would not be introduced to the
National Society for Legal Technology fully online training simulations, until
the fall of 2023 through the (PAL-65) Law Office Technology course.
Kicking off the level two required
paralegal courses is the RCC Lead/Dept. Head, Professor Judon with the fully
online Business Law 2 course. Carrie’s (PAL-14) legal ethics requirement was
taught by a paralegal instructor at an aba-approved paralegal program on the
east coast and it would be the first representation of a Hispanic or Latino
female attorney for on-campus/in-person instruction. (PAL-70) Law Office
Policies, Procedures & Ethics and (PAL-72) Legal Analysis & Writing
would be the returning older black female representation from Carrie’s level 1
paralegal courses. A combination of legal procedure 1 and legal procedure 2,
being taught by two older white male practicing attorneys in Orange County, California would fulfill RCC’s (PAL-78) Civil Litigation and Procedure 2 course
requirement. Coastline’s aba-approved paralegal program dept. head, Professor
Barnes taught legal procedure 1 through in-person/on-campus instruction.
For the required 9 units in
paralegal electives, Carrie fulfilled the (SPE-1) public speaking course at the
early stages of her paralegal education as part of the general education core requirements towards an associate degree. Public Speaking is an essential
requirement to a paralegal’s job that was later added to RCC’s list of
paralegal electives and was being taught by another female of a diverse racial
demographic still unknown to Carrie. The summer of 2009, Carrie took (PAL-85) Family
Law with a University of Laverne graduate that might have been an English
major. This PAL-85 instructor would be the first and last Italian male
representation in Carrie’s paralegal courses that she would barely speak to in
class and never spoke to outside of the Riverside City College campus. Despite
failing the state bar exam twice, (PAL-83) Estate Planning & Probate
Procedures was being taught by an older white female that graduated from
Trinity Law School and would make a casual suggestion for Carrie to apply to
Trinity Law School in class one day that she would eventually take the
suggestion at that time. Trinity Law School, located in Santa Ana, California
is one of two accredited law schools in California that accepted associates
degrees along with Pacific Coast Law School that is closed but near the Inland
Empire, where she once lived with both her daughter and biological mother.
Prior to Carrie’s paralegal education and training, she acquired industry exposure through professional
development courses taught at Redlands East Valley High School under the
Regional Occupation Program. The courses listed on Carrie’s high school
transcripts may be perceived by some as workforce readiness courses that was
intended to help her prepare for the job market, upon completion of graduating
with her high school diploma. The culinary arts 1 course eventually led to her
first civilian job at Black Angus Steakhouse, located in San Bernardino,
California. She accepted a reading tutor position at Riverside City College,
before job placements at private for-profit or private nonprofit career/technical training schools that came from Carrie’s previous experience as a
non-paid/student worker at Redlands East Valley High School as a teacher’s assistant and office assistant to the principal’s office. ROP Fashion Merchandising led to gainful employment at Wet Seal, forever 21, KMART Corporation and Mervyn’s, as a retail store associate in her adult life. Some
of Carrie’s past employers would start a new virtual enterprise venture that
expanded upon existing online shopping or online order & delivery platforms
like Panera Bread or Black Angus Steakhouse online websites. Local companies
like The Firestone Art Studio & Café in Manchester, Connecticut are living
proof of both design arts and ceramics opening doors for creative small
business owners locally from her electives taken in high school.
As for what does not reflect on
Carrie’s high school transcripts, but on the Regional Occupational Program transcripts
has held record of Small Business Ownership & Management as the title of
the combined courses of ROP Fashion Merchandising and Virtual Enterprise that
was taken during her senior year of high school. While the last name Vonpingel sounds
familiar, it would be the instructor teaching the law enforcement occupations
course in January 2002 that would be a course that Carrie forgot she took since
it was noticeably removed from her high school transcripts. Carrie would enlist
in the California National Guard one month prior to the start of the law enforcement occupations course being taught by instructor Vonpingel on December
17, 2001. A decision Carrie would later regret in her adult life; she would not
complete her enlistment contract with either the California or Missouri
National Guard and the Army Reserves from 2004 or 2006. Job applications would
follow in the early 2000’s as part of the welfare-to-work/Cal-Works recipient program,
Carrie was required to apply to any employer that included government jobs,
such as local law enforcement positions as a police officer or public safety
dispatcher in Riverside County, despite nothing in her education or previous
work experience deemed her qualified or even interested in law enforcement occupations outside of one class taken in high school. With Torrance Police
Department being the only police department interviewing Carrie without an exam
upon her return to California in 2007, she was not offered the job due to
certain items being in her credit report. Carrie would be eligible to enroll in
a tuition-free local community college to improve her personal household finances
to support herself and her daughter and never heard back on any of those job applications
submitted.
On June 11, 2003, Carrie graduated
with her high school diploma from Redlands East Valley High school with her
mother in attendance for her graduation, making it her highest level of
education completed thus far. From June 2008 to Fall 2011, Carrie remained
eligible to attend Riverside City College with a declared major in paralegal studies, based on her income as an independent student through the California BOG-waiver now called the California Promise Grant. Life’s unexpected events put
a dent in her personal finances at times, proving to be a challenge to continue
with her education that would include 6 colleges in attendance for her
undergraduate studies, but Carrie would return to Riverside City College
paralegal program in the fall of 2023. Still holding program catalog rights
from previous years at RCC, Carrie will be finishing up one final general education course requirement this fall of 2025, leaving one math course at RCC to
complete by May 2026 graduation commencement to receive her associate degree in
paralegal studies. The associate degree in paralegal studies will be Carrie’s
first college degree attained, and her highest level of education completed
thus far with plans of attending a fully online law school in the future.
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