The journey from student to staff.

By Tyler Brock

Jonathan Polidano is not only an instructor here at Chaffey College; he is also the coordinator of Chaffey's Automotive Department. Professor Polidano’s journey started at Chaffey as a student in the automotive department where he received an associate's degree.

“I had cars that I liked as a younger person, but my family wasn’t a ‘car guy’ family or a car family in general. My dad didn’t work on any of his own vehicles, I didn’t grow up in that hot rod atmosphere.”

When Polidano was in high school, he took an automotive shop class and would tinker with his friends' cars; however, at the time it was more about frugality than passion. Throughout his early twenties, he would continue working on his own vehicles, spending just as much time making mistakes as he would spend actually fixing them. This is what spurred him to continue his education.

He says, “That was part of the light bulb going off and saying if you’re going to be working on a vehicle you really need to learn the right way of doing it.”

Initially, he was looking into a trade school, specifically Universal Technical Institute (UTI). $40,000, however, is a hard pill to swallow, especially when he would have had to take out a student loan. Polidano’s then-girlfriend and now-wife pointed out that Chaffey had an automotive program. So, he began taking courses here at the college.

During his second semester, in 2008, Polidano and other students got together and rebooted the Chaffey College Car Club where he served as the vice president for a time. After graduation, he remained heavily involved with car club events and maintained a close relationship with his professor, Sherm Taylor.

In 2014 the professor who taught some of the Friday and Saturday courses resigned and there were no faculty members looking to fill the gap. Polidano had recently started a new career in the automotive aftermarket with suspension and bushing manufacturer Whiteline Performance. Professor Taylor reached out to Polidano and asked if he would be interested in filling in, and Polidano’s recent career change left him with enough time to fill the role. Polidano states,

“I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I have [and that I would] make this another career. The more time I spent teaching part-time at Chaffey, the more I grew to appreciate the atmosphere here.”

Polidano grew fond of teaching and in 2017 a full-time teaching position was offered in the automotive department, he applied and got the position. He would continue to work closely with Professor Taylor, who was the coordinator at the time. In 2020 Taylor fell ill and Polidano took the coordinator role part-time. Taylor passed away in 2021 and Polidano applied and ultimately got the position. When asked why he stuck it out here at Chaffey, Polidano said, “It sounds corny, I guess I really felt like Chaffey really made me the person I am today. And I think that’s a lot of the reason why I kept holding out for a position to come up over here.”

When asked about specific advice to offer incoming automotive students, Polidano spoke of his struggles with college at a young age, and he explained how being older afforded him the discipline and maturity to better succeed. He also offered some words that really should resonate with students from all walks of life regardless of what they are pursuing. He says,

“For me, there’s always been a lot of outside pressure and influences to do things a certain way and it wasn’t until I stepped away from that and started doing things my own way that it all started to click. It’s really up to everyone to find out what’s going to work for them and sometimes that’s not a quick process, but it’s usually going to end up being the most fulfilling.”

Humans of Chaffey: Jonathan Polidano