Biography
The first question that usually is asked from
my students is, "Where did you ever get a name
like Fermin Irigoyen, and I would love to hear
what your middle name must be."
Well, with a name like Fermin Irigoyen I
don't have a middle name; officially my name is
Fermin Irigoyen II and was named after my
father. I have a celebrated name; every July in
Pamplona, Spain the festival of the running of
the bulls is in honor of San Fermìn, the
festival that earned a higher visibility through
Ernest Hemmingway's book The Sun Also
Rises. My parents came to the United States
from the Basque region in Spain, a region
between France and Spain on the Pyrenees
Mountains. I have an older brother who lives in
the Midwest, pursuing his aspirations in the
financial market industry. I am very proud of
him, and all of his accomplishments; he is truly
an inspiration! Besides my immediate family, the
rest of the family lives in the Basque
region.
As a product of the community college system,
I am a strong believer in its mission and its
ideals. I attended Cañada College and
earned an A.S. in Business Administration.
Cañada is a special place with fond
memories. I spent four years there taking many
remedial courses in math, English, and reading
while earning my lower division units preparing
me to transfer to a university. I cherished my
time there because of the many wonderful
relationships I developed with faculty, staff,
administrators, and of course my classmates. In
addition to these special people, I learned a
lot about myself and developed my
self-confidence that I can succeed in any
endeavor I choose to pursue. In addition to
completing my formal education at Cañada,
the best move I made was to get involved in
student leadership. I served as a student body
president, and later served as the student
member on the Board of Trustees of the San Mateo
County Community College District as well as
numerous statewide positions with the State
Chancellor's office of Community Colleges in
Sacramento. These experiences allowed me to
travel across the country, visit wonderful
cities in the State, tour dozens of college
campuses, and meet hundreds of interesting
people who I can never forget. Because of these
experiences and support from the community
college system, I was prepared to move on to
California State University at Hayward.
Initially I was an accounting major who
enjoyed debiting my credits, working with income
statements, and balance sheets. I am not ashamed
to admit it, I found calculus to be a
challenging course, a course I needed to
complete for a business degree. They say that
the third time would be a charm and for me it
was. After the third attempt, I decided I needed
to select a different major, so through some
soul searching I realized I enjoyed public
speaking and people to people communication. I
became a Speech Communication major; it was
another good move for myself. I found a subject
matter that developed a strong connection
between my everyday life and my studies. I was
absolutely blessed to have Dr.'s Jack Samosky,
John Hammerback, Agah Saeed, and Gale Young as
my chief professors/supporters while in the
program. These individuals inspired me to want
to study hard and to seriously consider becoming
a college professor as my profession. Each of
these professor's influences has become a part
of my teaching persona. I believe I met the
right people at the right time. I tailored my
studies around interpersonal, organizational,
and intercultural communication while completing
my requirements for a Business Administration
minor. Because I had so much fun learning, with
the encouragement of my professors, I continued
my formal education and earned my MA in Speech
Communication from California State University
at Hayward.
I loved my Master's program! This was an
opportunity to take a broad subject matter and
mold my learning experience to what I wanted to
learn. The process required me to become clear
of what my learning objectives were and to
discipline myself to achieve my objectives.
Since I love to research, write, and orally
present my work, the program was a match made in
heaven. I focused my studies on rhetoric,
organizational communication/management, and
interpersonal communication. I was fortunate to
be able to study the rhetoric of many different
subject matters, historic people, and historical
times. In addition to my studies, I worked at
the communication laboratory assisting
non-native speakers with pronunciation and
outlining speeches. I love to learn, and I
learned a lot about a broad range of subjects,
something that attracted me to the major.
My next stop was a valuable experience
working as a Client Support Manager, for a
Silicon Valley international management
consulting firm specializing in ISO
9000/QS-9000, and process re-engineering. My
responsibilities entailed documenting process
and overseeing the progress of clients ISO
registration programs. The client base I
supported were high profile Fortune 500
companies, industries ranging from automotive,
trucking, semiconductors, banking,
communications, network integration, and
construction. In addition, I advanced the
company's marketing (on-line presence) and
company strategies while participating in the
company's ISO 9000-registration process. After
this encouraging experience, I moved on to work
as an Operations and Marketing manager for an
outsourcing company.
As an Operations and Marketing Manager for an
outsourcing company in the Bay Area I worked
closely with clients listed on the Fortune 500
and the NASDAQ stock index. My primary
responsibility was to evaluate the condition of
the company, the market, and develop appropriate
business strategies and lead the company to
profitability. In addition, I reengineered
company processes and conducted a competitive
intelligence study to better compete in the
outsourcing industry. In the spirit of
continuous improvement as a manager, I completed
a Dale Carnegie Leadership Management Training
Program specializing in strategic planning,
budgeting, employee criteria evaluation, and
enhancing workplace relationships for company
and individual success.
I started teaching during the 1998-1999
academic year at Cañada College teaching
public speaking, interpersonal communication,
and small group communication. In addition to
these courses I enjoy teaching
communication across cultures, as well as public
speaking for non-native speakers.
