“Laney works for me” is the slogan that can be seen on the back of the forest green shirts of Laney student workers.
Is there truth in this statement? Does Laney work for the students? Profiling accounting instructor Linda Chi’s trajectory from student worker to present day, the answer would be a resounding yes.
Time at Laney has taught Chi what she tries to emphasize to her own students — find a path, do what you love, and pursue it utilizing relationships and opportunities you make at Laney college.
The popular accounting teacher has taken a memorable journey from China to Laney and her successful transition into the role as a Laney College instructor.
In 2002,Chi came to America from China with a BA in English education. She wanted to continue her education but she needed to choose a major, her friends and family offered advice that was “one part telling her to be realistic because you don’t want to spend four years and after no job” and the other part was to choose to study what interested her. So with these suggestions she took classes at Laney because of its proximity to her home in San Leandro, and the wide array of classes that were offered.
Chi’s first classes were intro to business and accounting and she explains that “the business department teachers were really knowledgeable” and gave her a lot of information facilitating her success.
She liked the teachers and accounting was never boring because instructors Ron Jones and Anna Beavers “opened a different world and supplied a lot of practical cases.” So after just two classes, Chi decided to major in accounting.
At the same time as she began the journey toward her A.A., she became a Laney student worker, and study group leader for fellow business and accounting students and eventually transferred to Golden Gate University to complete her MBA and obtain her C.P.A.
Those very same instructors, Jones and Beavers, who had first introduced her to business and accounting, assisted Chi’s journey back to Laney and becoming part of the teaching faculty.
The instructors brought to Chi’s attention a program called the Peralta Diversity Internship program, which helps students who are half way through their masters program to eventually teach within the Peralta community college system. With the help of her mentor, Jones, she became an intern teacher in 2008, and graduated from the program in 2009 and in 2010 became adjunct professor at Laney.
Linda Chi’s story, which she modestly labels as “successful,” is an example to current Laney students that it is never to late to begin to study an educational field that is new and that being a student worker will help obtain these goals because of the relationships and experience gained.
Chi has continued Laney College’s great reputation as a helpful and knowledgeable faculty by being a mentor to former students who are now part time business teachers, which exemplifies the Mantra of the Laney student worker “Laney Works for you” proving that it is not only a positive slogan but has real world examples and applications to back the claim.