From Steve Scauzillo's Opinion Desk

The walls were filled with posters that you'd see in a 1970s record shop. You know what I mean, the one with Jimi Hendrix and his guitar in black and red ink.

But this wasn't the '70s and it wasn't a record shop. It was the inside of the Pasadena City College screen arts and printing lab.

As students worked the silk screening equipment, Professor Kris Pilon, of the engineering and technology division, explained the illusion of four-color art using a two-color screening process.

"(Students) learn exactly how to do it," she said, adjusting the print of a student-designed poster on the table. Pilon explained that printing is still a vibrant art -- and can be a lucrative business as well. And that was the point of the first ever Career and Technical Education Day Tuesday at PCC.

"Students today want to know not only how to do things, but how much money can I make doing it," said President Paulette J. Perfumo. "They want to know how much bling they'll make," she told me and Larry Wilson, our public editor, during a campus visit Tuesday.

Pilon said silk screening can be done on more than just paper and T-shirts. "We can print on any surface, on glass, on textiles, on wood ... even those temporary tatoos they give away at Dodger games are screen-printed products."

About 800 students from high schools in Arcadia, Temple City, El Monte, Pasadena, Alhambra, San Gabriel and San Marino visited the campus to get a first-hand look of PCC's vocational arts side.
We also visited the industrial arts/auto mechanics shop where students learn to work on cars and trucks for a living.

I left the campus impressed, wondering if they can work on my 2003 Volkswagen Jetta which is hesitating just a bit upon acceleration.

The new industrial arts building is under construction on the west end of campus, which will be its home in Spring '09.