4 minute read
Breaking news: But he can fix it
El Camino student Justin Pham turned his tech repair hobby into a business
By Kae Takazawa
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Waking up at around 11 a.m. and leaving for school in the afternoon, he starts off his day and gets down to work at 6 p.m.
Justin Pham, a 20-year-old nursing major at El Camino College, has something he is passionate about: Fixing phones and computers by himself.
Whenever he stays awake until 5 a.m., Pham thinks his daily routine may sound a bit unusual for most college students.
As a 16-year-old, Pham was given his father’s old iPhone, and while walking down the stairs, he accidentally dropped the phone, which needed to be repaired.
However, as a high school student, he didn’t have enough money to get it fixed.
So, he decided to buy a cheap screen and try to fix it by himself, knowing it would be hard for him to do that because he didn’t know much about terminal devices.
As he failed to fix his phone, he searched for how to repair it on the internet, and piquing his interest, he started buying old phones online that was already broken and taught himself how to fix them.
It took half a year to master the skill of fixing phones, and while learning more about fixing those devices, Pham became more into machines.
Following the devices such as phones, he started learning how to fix iPads, laptops, and computers by himself.
As he became better at fixing machines, his family and friends started asking him for repairs and began charging about $40 an hour.
Even though he has been busy with his assignments, he makes up time for himself to dabble in his new hobby.
“I’m not planning to do this work for my future job. I find it interesting and fun. I’m doing this work just to make extra money,” Pham said.
Zion Une, a 19-year-old student at El Camino College asked Pham to fix his iPad before.
“I didn’t believe that he could repair machines. I thought it was just a joke,” Une said. “When I asked him to fix my broken iPad, he did it in just a few hours, and I was surprised and shocked.”
Une said Pham has excellent skills and is very talented. Now, he believes Pham can actually fix devices.
Jane Chun, a 20-year-old student business major also inquired about Pham’s services.
“I heard from some of my friends that Justin is skillful in fixing machines. So I asked him before.” Chun said. “My phone wasn’t totally broken, but he made it back to the original. I still can’t believe that he did it by himself.”
Chun describes that Pham’s skill is admirable, stating he should deserve more and should be remarkable.
“Nothing is ever fully broken,” he said. “You can always fix it using the internet.”
Native influence: Rising social media star shares his culture
El Camino College freshmen Tyler Notah is amassing a sizable audience across social media platforms
By Duncan Callari-Martin
Notah arrives with two things consistent with his content, a smile and a signature Pittsburgh Steelers hat, always representing his favorite football team.
Not only does Notah represent his football team, but he also consistently sports native american fashion brands: a showing of his heritage.
Since middle school, El Camino College freshman Tyler Notah has amassed 28,183 followers across four major platforms TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram.
Notah started content creation at Parras Middle School, where he uploaded short, small “let’s play” videos on YouTube and played video games with his commentary in the background. His love for content creation then carried over to Redondo Union High School, where he went into sports broadcasting, expanding his list of skills.
“Once I got to high school, I started to make sports media videos, covering all sports that I could but also kept it up with making gaming content,” Notah said.
Now at El Camino, Notah continues his content creation consistently and puts working on it as a priority in his daily life. He plans on continuing to grow his brand on his platforms and hopes to build the same following he has on TikTok on other platforms such as YouTube and Twitch.
The film student is known on his platforms as “Native Hustle,” with most of his following coming from TikTok. me or find me on other platforms that they also use.”
On TikTok, he showcased several videos which can be considered “viral,” including view counts of around 52,000.
15,000 followers on TikTok, the largest following of any of his platforms. Nearly three weeks later, Notah earned 11,500 more followers in that span.
He believes this has to do with the popularity of his video series “Catching Up With Cousins,” where he interviews other Native Americans at cultural events called PowWows, a ceremony generally involving feasting, singing, or dancing.
To end the interview, Notah discussed the most memorable moment of his journey so far, the creation of the series that has gained him followers on TikTok.
However, even though he had been working on his content since middle school, it wasn’t until April 5 his platforms started growing.
On April 5, Notah reached
“Creating a tik tok series, where it has gotten recognized by everyone in my culture, has given me the success that I’ve worked so long for,” Notah said. “I enjoy just being able to spread my creativity to all users across different social media platforms, which also brings all those different users on different platforms to follow
“Interviewing the Native American dancers and drum singers, and asking them different questions both professional and humorous has allowed me to embrace the culture more and also share it with the world,” Notah said.
