Melinda Kaneaster

December 2019: After having a family and researching options for a new career in graphic design, Melinda Kaneaster returned to college and earned her LSC-CyFair Associate of Applied Science in Visual Communication in 2008. Thanks to her LSC relationships, her design career began with an internship at Baker Hughes, followed with a position at Integrity Graphics.

Melinda’s decade of experience includes positions such as director of graphic design at Oilfield Nameplates as well as designer for Ladybug Natural Gardener, a national brand for garden products and Plant for All Seasons, a local retail garden center. She currently works at SEI Seismic Exchange, a small company where she wears many hats.

The depth of her design skills is still highly utilized on various special projects (marketing publication ads, invitations, reports, interoffice communications and presentations) that allow her to explore all the facets of being a designer.

"We see the world through a different lens. Our knowledge and understanding of proper layout, how the eye and mind work together to translate and interpret information, psychology of color, type contrasts, and how elements work together (or not) makes us highly unique and valuable in any organization."

This fall, Melinda returned to LSC as an adjunct instructor at LSC-Westway Park Technology Center. "The instructors at LSC were truly invested in my academic success. I want to be that inspiration to others searching for a career in this field."

Jimmy Nguyen

November 2019: Back in 2004 when LSC-CyFair was known as Cy-Fair College, Jimmy Nguyen learned to play tennis as a Fighting Duck under then Coach Tim Sebesta. In 2018, with encouragement from his former coach, Jimmy returned to lead the now Falcons team.

"Getting a chance to coach the team I used to play for is amazing," said Jimmy, a University of Houston financial analyst. "The tennis program's success is all dependent on the students. My goals for them are to have fun, make lifelong friends as I have and improve their tennis skills. But outside of tennis, it's for them to graduate and succeed as they move on to the next chapter of their lives." 

By his second year as a Fighting Duck, Jimmy was team captain. He fondly recalls participating in the United States Tennis Association (USTA) state championship tournament, going to nationals twice and becoming certified as a Special Olympics coach. Even after he transferred to University of Houston-Downtown, where he earned a Bachelor's in Accounting, Jimmy continued taking classes at LSC-CyFair and earned an EMT-Basic certification in 2008. A decade later, he has helped the Falcons rise again.

"Jimmy rejuvenated the Tennis Club, which now averages 20+ members. In his first year, the team won the Lone Star Sport Club Conference Fall 2018 championship (runner-up in Spring 2019.) They advanced to nationals after being recognized as USTA's Tennis On Campus Texas Team of the Year (due in large part to the team's 395 community service hours) and their team captain Ena Cusi being named Texas Leader of the Year," said Tiffany Lane, Manager of Recreational Sports. "I attribute all of this to Jimmy's passion for tennis and specifically this program."

Alyssa Thompson

October 2019: Alyssa Thompson is currently making a difference as Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, having earned her Associate of Applied Science degree in Echocardiography in December 2018.

Becoming a doctor was Alyssa’s career goal until she was diagnosed with a heart condition. After taking medical leave from college twice due to related sickness, Alyssa, who underwent echo scans, became interested in helping other heart patients.

She’s heard from several doctors at area facilities that LSC-CyFair has an outstanding reputation for equipping students with the knowledge and skills needed for such allied health careers.

In LSC-CyFair’s Echocardiography Program, she learned everything from the physics of the machine and how to use it to the total anatomy of the heart as well as all of the different pathologies and how other illnesses affect the heart.

“LSC-CyFair’s program was extremely strict and by far the most difficult thing I have been through,” she said. “In the long run, it was totally worth it. Once I graduated, I felt beyond prepared to start my job.”

Cathy Goldsmith

September 2019: Cathy Goldsmith’s Lone Star College-CyFair experience has come full circle from a 2007 Medical Radiologic Technology program graduate to an adjunct lab coordinator since January 2017.

With an interest in health care and helping people, Cathy’s research showed Radiologic Technologists was a growing field and a good career choice for her as was LSC-CyFair’s MRT program in which she made many friends and career acquaintances.

Cathy’s health career began as an Interventional Rad Tech for a division of DaVita Medical Group, included a couple years for the University of Texas Medical group in The Woodlands and more than 10 years now at HCA North Cypress Medical Center.

“LSC-CyFair had a huge impact on my success as almost everywhere I have worked, I have run into someone I met through my school process.  It gave me a base pool of people in the industry to draw on for questions and support throughout my career so far.”

Her learning continues as part of LSC-CyFair’s MRT program team. Being lab coordinator is an exciting next phase of her career as she works with, and for, some terrific educators.

“It is very rewarding helping students learn, grow and meet their own personal goals as I help prepare the future generations of caregivers in my own small way.”

Elizabeth "Beth" Orea

August 2019: Elizabeth "Beth" Orea started LSC-CyFair in 2007 with no intent of obtaining a degree, but rather taking core classes and transferring to a four-year university. She said LSC-CyFair prepared her for such a transfer and was a positive transition that allowed her time to figure out the next steps to take in terms of education and career goals.

In addition to classes, she served in the inaugural Student Ambassadors program and was a work study student in the College Relations department. Her history professor and a mentor inspired Beth to study history at St. Edward's University in Austin with a goal to become a history professor. However, Beth's path took a different direction.

She has spent 10 years in the recruitment industry and is thankful for the road traveled to get where she is now. Beth just celebrated her fifth anniversary at Houston's Murray Resources, a highly successful recruiting firm where she is a Senior Search Director.

"I truly believe that without the lessons, mentorship and encouragement I had received at LSC-CyFair, I would not be where I am today."

Alexandria Martin

July 2019: Eight years ago, Alexandria Martin sat in an organic chemistry summer class at LSC-CyFair as a student and this summer she stands in front of the class as an adjunct instructor.  When she was attending Nicholls State University in Louisiana, the summer classes she took at LSC-CyFair in 2011 and 2012 allowed her to graduate college in three years and go on to be successful in graduate school.

Plans to become a doctor began changing thanks to her “amazing and accommodating” LSC-CyFair organic chemistry professor Dr. Houston Brown, whose class led her to later earn a master’s in chemistry at Prairie View A&M University. Then while working as a teaching assistant in graduate school, Alexandria discovered how much she loved teaching and enrolled in an alternative certification program for teaching. She said the rest is history.

Her new teaching career began in 2016 at Cy-Creek High School, where she partners with LSC-CyFair as a Dual Credit instructor. Having enjoyed her teaching experience in graduate school, she wanted to work with college students again. Now, with her own classroom of learners at LSC-CyFair, Alexandria will continue to be a student herself as she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in organic chemistry

Ganesh Sundaresan

June 2019: Ganesh Sundaresan, who is pursuing his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance at Texas A&M, recently accepted a summer venture capital internship with JUMP Investors in Los Angeles. Wanting to gain a deep knowledge of accounting, the language of business, he chose to focus on finance because it stretches him analytically and is always changing.

However it was his time at LSC-CyFair that allowed him to start at Texas A&M running. He started at LSC-CyFair taking Dual Credit courses as a high school sophomore. Later on through his accounting coursework here, Ganesh built a solid foundation to tackle future courses when he transferred. 

It was in his summer accounting course with Professor Shawn Miller that he learned to use QuickBooks, the number one accounting software for small businesses. He was encouraged to explore financial statements on company websites like Walmart to apply newly learned information.

Ganesh said this class opened his mind to consider a path of perhaps owning my own business one day. Having this goal made him want to do better in class and continue taking advantage of opportunities that came his way to build on the foundation laid at LSC-CyFair. The venture capital internship will show him what it takes to run a startup company.

Samantha Lopez

May 2019: With a love for writing and communicating with people, Samantha Lopez paired speech communication with journalism to earn her Associate of Arts in Speech Communication in May 2017 at LSC-CyFair and transfer to the University of Houston to study broadcast journalism. 

During her time at LSC-CyFair, she realized that she not only wanted to use words on paper to communicate, but to use her voice. Choosing to be interactive with that new-found passion, she displayed her poetry through voice in a poetry slam and participated in a PechaKucha speech competition. Holding on to her roots, she joined the Creative Writing Club and the campus literary journal, The Barker's Voice. 

With the encouragement of professors, Samantha learned a lot about herself. If she wanted be a writer or a speaker, she had to actually do something about it. That meant write when she didn’t feel like it or find the closest bathroom stall to “power-pose” herself into feeling confident before public speaking.

Samantha is currently an intern for the Houston Chronicle where she writes for chron.com, edits videos for their multi-platform, and had a story go onto the premium website under "Gray Matters." Open to exploring other types of journalism, she would also like to intern at a radio or news station before graduating with her bachelor’s degree in Fall 2019.

Rey Laurencio

April 2019: Rey Laurencio grew up as a native Spanish speaker, struggling to adopt the English language, when his family won a visa lottery and emigrated to the United States from Cuba. In high school, he was more focused on sports than academics. However, he became an Honors College student at LSC-CyFair and held officer positions in the Business Savvy Club, Student Government Association and Phi Theta Kappa. Rey graduated in 2016 with an associate of arts in business with highest honors in research and a prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Scholarship recipient (the second in LSC-CyFair history.)

Rey went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Texas at Austin in May 2018. In addition, he received a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship and is currently attending the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University with plans to become an immigration lawyer. Rey’s advice is to “Never limit yourself, surround yourself with the right people who genuinely care, put in the work and always believe!”

Samantha Ceballos

March 2019: With a passion for literature and writing, Samantha Ceballos plans to become a professor to help others see the power of literature and not fear reading and writing. She was an honors student graduate first at LSC-CyFair in 2016 and then at UTSA where she earned her BA in English with concentrations in Creative Writing and Professional Writing.

While at LSC-CyFair, she won third-place in two Poetry Slams, conquered stage fright through Pecha Kucha contest and Honors College conferences and learned to have pride in her work. She was one of the student editors for LSC-CyFair’s annual literary publication "The Barker's Voice: A Journal of Arts and Letters" and later the main editor for UTSA's "Paisano Plus."

She also had the opportunity to interview author Sandra Cisneros as a sophomore in college, which she said was background information that helped push her undergraduate thesis to a new level.

Samantha, who would also like to continue to be an editor for a journal or magazine, is now pursuing her MA and MFA at Our Lady of the Lake.

Elizabeth Hale

February 2019: Elizabeth Hale, who is a mother, wife, singer, actor, and small business co-owner, said it's a little surreal having come full circle from being a Lone Star College-CyFair student in 2008 to returning 10 years later as a vendor creating a customized cake for the January opening of LSC-Westway Park Technology Center. 
 
She first shared her vocal and acting talent on stage in operas such as "The Mikado" (Katisha) and "The Marriage of Fiagro" (Marcellina) and productions including  The Wizard of Oz (Cowardly Lion) and Beauty and the Beast (the Wardrobe). Now as co-owner of "Cake. Fine Pastry" with her husband, Jerry, she's impressing the college and Cy-Fair communities with her creative culinary talent. In addition, they had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete on the Food Network's "Winner Cake All" which will air March 11.   
 
Attending LSC-CyFair may become a family affair as she hopes to return to continue her own music education and have her two children, now at Langham Creek, start their college career here. She says the faculty and staff were great and the music and arts program went beyond her expectations.

Matthew Lawson

January 2019: Currently a full-time father to one son and resident of Indiana, Matthew Lawson plans to be a federal defender in Indiana and one day to run for public office.

When he began at LSC-CyFair in 2009, he wasn't really "college ready" nor did he have any professional skills, some of which he learned working in the Financial Aid office.  However, he said small classroom sizes allowed professors - who were helpful, encouraging and accessible - to get to know and understand their students.

It was during Professor Heidi Jo Green's Introduction to Political Science that he developed a love for the American political system and made the decision to pursue a law career.

This 2011 LSC-CyFair grad transferred to Indiana University earning a bachelor's in Political Science and minoring in pre-law in 2015. And this past May, he graduated from (Robert H.) McKinney School of Law at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis and in July passed his Bar Exam.

"LSC-CyFair put me in a position to attain my current successes and it will always hold a special place in my life!"