Humans of Chaffey

Right now the Admissions and Records office at Chaffey College's Chino Campus would be packed with students waiting to ask a specific question; unfortunately, due to COVID-19 they cannot. Instead, students have to speak to Admissions and Records on Zoom. I had the opportunity to talk to Jason Cranmer who works in Admissions and Records as an Educational Services Generalists.

I asked Jason what his job entails:

"My job entails assisting students with applying to Chaffey, helping them with their residency status if they are coming in from another college that is out of state, processing tuition payments, transcripts, and registration requests. Lately these functions have been taking place online. The Zoom chat room has become the place where we conduct most of our business now”.

He has not always worked at Chaffey. Jason says:

“Before Chaffey, I worked and went to school at Pasadena City College. My first job was as an Instructional Assistant in the Disabled Student Program at PCC and my favorite memory while working there was when two guide dogs got in a fight; the fight was between a black Lab and a Golden Retriever, Captain Hook and Leo were their names."

He says even though he graduated from PCC in 1997, he stayed there a few more years, because he really liked his job at the time. He also added that he has worked at a junior college nearly his entire career. After Jason was done working at PCC, he went on to go to school at Cal Poly Pomona, where he received his bachelor's degree in sociology. He said majoring in sociology was an easy choice as a major because he liked to help people.

I asked Jason how the pandemic affected him work wise and if he was able to easily access everything from home that he would if he was working in the office:

“The pandemic has caused us to change the way we work. We communicate with students through a Zoom room that has been set up. Also, many of our Admissions and Records forms have been moved online to a Formstack. This has made it much easier for the students to submit paperwork to us. We were provided with a laptop from the Chaffey district that has allowed us to connect to our files that are on our computer at the college. Our IT department was very helpful in assisting me with getting my district issued laptop set up. It has allowed me to access important file and functions at home."

He added that the pandemic also affected his work because they are working from home now, and he prefers keeping those two lives separate. Meaning doing work at work and having home being a place you go to relax, and just forget about the day.

I found out that he is quite the collector and funny guy. He has an extensive collection of DVD’s and hockey cards as well. I asked him what his hobbies are outside of Chaffey which included walking, watching TV, and rollerblading. When he is not working at Chaffey, you can sometimes find him at a hockey game or in Las Vegas at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club. He also goes to Big Bear when he wants to escape the warmer weather. He is quite the animal lover as he will go to the park just to feed the pigeons. He has two cats at home that keep him entertained and busy. Their names are Morris and Scratchy:

“Sometimes, when I am helping a student one of the cats will come up on me to get my attention, Students think that is so funny when that happens."

Jason told me that he used to coach basketball. He coached while he was at Pasadena City College. He started his day working there and then drove out to coach every afternoon after work and school were done. He coached for 12 years overall. Every once in a while he will see one of his former players roaming around the campus, and they will reminisce about the good times they had when Jason was their coach.

I asked Jason where he grew up. He grew up in two cities: Monrovia and La Verne. Finally, I asked Jason what had been his best moment or favorite memory since he started working at Chaffey College. He paused, and thinking about his 13 years at Chaffey for awhile: He had to think long and hard about that one, because after all:

“My favorite moment has to be when I started working at the Chino Campus in August of 2008.”

HoC: Jason Cranmer

Humans of Chaffey