We’re What’s Next--and we're coming back on campus for Fall!  We are excited about the possibilities for our students this fall as we return to learn.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN and it’s time to choose your classes for the 2021 Fall Session at Pierce. The Fall Schedule is posted at www.piercecollege/schedules and in your Student Information System (SIS) for continuing students.

FALL IS FLEXIBLE. It's expected that 30% of our classes will return to an in-person, face-to-face format this fall. Some classes will remain online or hybrid, because we want to offer you the most flexibility for your schedule and learning style.  You have choices this Fall at Pierce!

NEW:  You can now search for "in-person classes" in the Student Informaton System. Go to first link below, and after you select Fall 2021 Term and L.A. Pierce College in the drop down menus, go to Class Search, Class Search Type, "In Person Classes".  

Search for Open Classes without a login here:

https://mycollege-guest.laccd.edu/psc/classsearchguest/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/COMMUNITY_ACCESS.CLASS_SEARCH.GBL?Campus=LAPC&strm=2192

Continuing Students can find their registration appointments in their student.laccd.edu email or in (SIS) portal at

https://sso.laccd.edu/adfs/ls/idpinitiatedsignon.aspx?loginToRp=epprod.laccd.edu

NEW TO PIERCE?  New students are encouraged to apply now!  Go online: http://www.laccd.edu/Students/opencccapply/applylapc/Pages/default.aspx

Remember, you can view and choose classes in the SIS portal, or go to www.piercecollege.edu/schedules, click on Fall 2021, Online Searchable Schedule of Fall Classes.

There’s a whole world of opportunity waiting for you -- get started on pursing your dreams this fall on campus at Pierce College.

Hats off to Assistant Professor of Life Sciences Aron Kamajaya, Ph.D., for his role in procuring grant-funded partnerships for Pierce in two new student training and research-focused projects in the bioengineering and biotechnology fields.

Pierce College is a recipient of the subaward for the National Science Foundation-Advanced Technological Education (NFS-ATE) grant, Developing Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences in Antibody Bioengineering. Pierce is one of four community college partners in this grant and the only representative from Southern California. 

The aim is to build a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) program that can be implemented in a Biotech training program. The CURE program has been shown to increase student performance and retention.

“Ours will be the first CURE aimed at Biotech training courses,” Kamajaya said, adding that this grant will complement a half-million-dollar NSF-ATE grant, Training the Skilled Biomanufacturing Workforce Through Innovative Internships in Protein Biomanufacturing, also just awarded.

Pierce will partner with New York-based DNA Learning Center at world-class academic research institution Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to create training and internships in biomanufacturing, a process that uses cells to produce useful products such as proteins.

“We will establish the first in-house Biotech internship opportunity in Los Angeles county right here at Pierce College,” he said.

Kamajaya, who joined Pierce faculty in Fall 2018 teaching microbiology, has expertise in protein chemistry and engineering that led to receiving the award. Prior to coming to Pierce, he engineered a ketamine biosensor using a nicotine biosensor as a starting point (find his work at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6874132/).

“We chose antibody research as it is, arguably, the most important for biological products in the market, ranging from anti-cancer and anti-migraine therapies to the more recent anti-viral therapy for COVID-19,” said Kamajaya.

The formal announcements for each of these grants are found at

NSF Antibody Engineering Grant

NSF Biomanufacturing Grant