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The gleaming shaved heads and physical demeanor are reminiscent of their distant but familiar past. The tattoos and scars they reveal bear testimony to their street
credibility.Known most of their lives by a nom de guerre, Chau Tran and Hanh Do have transferred themselves from the streets to the academic arena.

Chau is the more reserved of the two, careful to know when to speak, while Hanh is the more articulate one and expresses
himself well. Although they both look professional and don the proper medical uniforms, one can still sense that they have witnessed and experienced the darker sides of humanity.

The two PCC students were once rival gang members at war with each other in the streets of the San Gabriel Valley.
They did everything one could imagine that gangsters do, but now they have turned over a new leaf.

Hanh and Chau are now studying to be X-ray techs (radiology technologists) in PCC’s Radiologic Technology program.

It is a two-year program with only 30 students accepted each year out of hundreds applying.

“They are exemplary, ideal, academically strong and clinically over-the-top,” said Leavon Spires, Radiologic Technology program director. “They both have excellent patient handling skills,” she added.

Last semester Chau received straight A’s in all of his exams and this semester both received A’s on their midterms with Chau receiving a better-than-perfect score. “They’re good kids, I’m so proud of them,” said Spires.

The two reformed gang members are very aware of their life-changing circumstances. “My family members were gang members, so I was exposed to this lifestyle when I was really young,” said Hanh. “If it weren’t for this program, I’d be sitting in [jail] staring out,” he added.

In the past, Hanh kept getting in trouble and was constantly sent to the emergency room because of a dislocated shoulder. As a patient, he often noticed the X-ray techs conducting the X-rays, indirectly catching his interest.

“The [tech] was talking about his job and I thought to myself ‘how cool is that?’, to X-ray people for a living,” said Hanh. After that, he picked up some brochures and began volunteering at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Since then, he has been in the radiologic technology program.

Chau enrolled in the program because of his older brother’s encouragement. His brother is an X-ray tech at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. “I was just hanging out with friends, getting in trouble. Not getting anywhere in life until my brother helped me out,” said Chau.

Now that Chau and Hanh lead different lives, they have more time for introspection.

“It’s funny that we were [gang] members, now we’re at the same place. The program has brought us together,” said Hanh.
Chau had the same sentiment. “This is my life now, this is who I hang out with now.”

Hanh added with a grin, “Its not bullets anymore, now we shoot photons.”

Spires is expected to retire this year after teaching for more than 16 years at PCC. Although Hanh and Chau are excelling in the program, they and other students are adamant about her staying and not retiring so soon.

They share an affinity with her and speak about her as a son would about their beloved mother.

“The purpose of us doing this is so she won’t retire,” said Chau. He added that she was always willing to give others the benefit of the doubt. “We know that she came from a hard life too, and that she didn’t judge us because of our background.”
Spires, in response to her student’s praise responded with a saying by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “If I have touched somebody, then I know my life has not been in vain.

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