Let’s be real. Community college doesn’t always have the best reputation. Especially with Fullerton College just across the street, some FUHS students see attending FCC more like enrolling in 13th grade rather than going to college. I know I thought that way. For me, a four-year college was the only type of real college. That is until last year when I had a chance to talk to FUHS alum Edward Oropeza.

Edward graduated in 2016. He told me that his senior year was just about securing his football legacy. He didn’t apply to four-year colleges in November of senior year, and got just good enough grades to play sports.

“I didn’t really put too much effort into school,” Oropeza said. “I needed to get a certain GPA to play. The amount of focus it took was really pretty effortless.” 

 But then something clicked. In spring of his senior year, Edward found his passion studying science, specifically DNA modification. But since it was too late to apply to a four-year university, he went to Fullerton Community College. It turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made. 

At FCC, Edward was able to develop lab skills by working with DNA. He told me a lot of things about the extraction and maneuver of DNA specs, so much so that I honestly could not explain it to you. All you need to know is that he progressed closer and closer to his goal. During the four years he spent at FCC, he took advantage of as many internships as possible, including ones from USC, UC Irvine and Johns Hopkins.

Since Edward is not the type to brag, I’ll brag for him. His first internship at UCI led him to winning the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists in 2018. Wow. Just wow. The bottom line is that Edward’s four years at Fullerton College acted as a gateway to something bigger.

Edward transferred to UCI and immediately started working with his professor, Dr. Jose Ranz and another mentor from Russia. He told me he spoke about CRISPR technology so passionately that his professor jokingly asked why he had to be so annoyingly enthusiastic. Before we move on, what is CRISPR you may ask? To explain without AI giving me a more complex definition, CRISPR is basically scissors for DNA. Anyways, because of his ambition, not only did he receive the opportunity to mix, match, and separate fruit fly DNA, he helped organize a lab for other students, including high school students, to share his interest. 

Fortunately, I was one of those students to benefit from his lab. Along with others who took AP Biology last year, I had the opportunity to go on a field trip to UCI. There, we became scientists. We had all the fancy clothes, goggles, gloves, everything you can think of when you imagine scientists. I’ve also never seen so many fruit flies in my life nor met a pet spider that eats runaway flies. 

The last time I had the opportunity to talk to Edward, he was still indeed a CRISPR technology fanatic. It was amazing to see him take pride in his lab studies, completely ignoring the parts of stress from studying, or maybe he was never stressed but always content. Edward is the epitome of grit as he is living proof no dream should be undermined because of timing.

Community college can be the right choice for people like Edward who find their passions at a later time—or for someone who has the passion but not the cash for a four-year school right after high school.

My recent research has shown that if you want to do something specialized and unique such as cosmetology or wielding, Fullerton College has so many great opportunities. I talked to FUHS College and Career Center Guidance Tech Alexis Varillas and he was extremely passionate about Fullerton College, too.

“If I had a chance to do college again, I would start at community college because I didn’t know what I was doing at first [at a four-year school],” Varillas said. “Fullerton College has welding, fashion design, photography, and a bunch of other things and a lot of the time it’s free.” 

As of January 2025, I have to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what Edward’s doing with his research right now. No, it’s not because I’m a lazy journalist. We’ve scheduled a few follow-up interviews, but the lab keeps pulling him in and away from our talk. He’s still devoted to spending extra time with his fruit fly friends.

And you know what? I’m okay with being ignored. I only hope that one day I become so involved with my work that it feels like fun.

As I near the last part of my senior year, it’s a relief to know that I don’t have to have all the details of my life worked out. And if you don’t have all the answers right now, you just might find the right questions to ask just a few feet away…on the other side of Lemon Street.