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SACRAMENTO CITY COLLEGE’S STUDENT-RUN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1922
VOLUME 100 ISSUE 5 NOVEMBER 12, 2015
OPINION
Curing the curse of colorblindness
Robin A.F. Swan
Features Editor · robinfritzexpress@gmail.com
What must it be like to feel, not just annoyed and inconvenienced, but afraid for your life every time a police officer pulls you over? To be viewed as dishonest and undesirable by store employees and fellow citizens? To take it as common knowledge that there are some places in the country where it’s too dangerous for you to stop for food or sleep or even gas, because the residents hate you just for your skin color? As a white person, I wouldn’t know. Two years ago, my closest friend asked me if I realized that, as a white person, I was privileged. Her question made me stop and think. I came from a low-income family. Most of my clothes as a child were hand-me-downs from neighbors or thrift-store bargains. My family received food assistance from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of which we were members. They’d had no money to send me to college. “No,” I said to my friend. “I don’t. What do you mean?” My friend is Asian-American, of Korean descent. She was adopted as a baby and raised by an upper-middle-class white couple. She began to relate some of the many experiences she’d had with racism, from well-to-do white children hurling racial slurs at her in the neighborhood where she grew up to being treated harshly when pulled over by police for minor infractions. When I told her how many times police officers had let me go with just a warning for having expired registration, no car insurance, or even for speeding, she was shocked. Even as an adult, my friend is still stereotyped and the recipient of racial slurs. This was when I began to understand what the term “white privilege” meant. That conversation motivated me to learn more about racial inequality in our country. And this semester when I needed a history course to fulfill a transfer re-
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quirement, I chose History 321, “History of the United States: African-American Emphasis,” taught by Professor Keith Heningburg. I expected that this course would help fill in some of the remaining gaps in my knowledge of how this country’s history resulted in the disparities we have today. But I’ve gained far more than that. On the first day of the semester, I entered the room to find that I was one of only three or four white students in the class, and the majority of the students were black. This was an unusual experience for me, even in such a racially diverse school. I immediately felt that I should be extra careful of what I said and did in the class to avoid coming across as a stereotypical white person. I didn’t want to cause offense.
Even as an adult, my friend is still stereotyped and the recipient of racial slurs. This was when I began to understand what the term white privilege meant.
Robin A.F. Swan Features Editor
And then I thought that maybe those feelings were similar to the way a lot of people who aren’t white feel every time they walk into a room full of white people — which probably happens daily. As the course has progressed, my eyes have been opened further to a little of what it’s like to go through life as a black person. One particular class session stands out to me in this regard. As part of a lecture on race relations in the late 1800s, we students were asked to share our experiences with racism or racially tinged encounters. Now, as a journalism student, I read the news regularly, and I had considered myself pretty well-informed about some
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ways black people are often treated differently. But it hadn’t really sunk in that these things can happen anywhere — not just in the “deep South.” I sat there and listened to my fellow students tell of being stereotyped by white people, treated poorly and suspected of shoplifting by retail employees, and being pulled over by police — having committed no violations — and called “boy.” All right here in liberal, diverse Sacramento, California. One young-looking man told of parking his car in a public parking lot, getting out, and opening his trunk to get out his gym clothes. A white woman came to her nearby car, looked at him strangely and pressed a button on her key ring. A police officer drove up almost immediately, leaped from his car, and pulled his gun on this student. The student said he was petrified and thought he was about to lose his life. Fortunately, this officer looked around before using his gun, saw the keys in the student’s hand, and realized what was actually going on. But it seems pretty clear that when the officer saw a dark-skinned man standing at the open trunk of a car, there was only one scenario in his mind. A similar encounter didn’t end so well for Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old African-American boy shot and killed by Cleveland police officers last November. I strongly urge white students to take History 321. They will not only learn about our nation’s post-Civil War history of race relations — they will also have the invaluable opportunity to hear first-hand about experiences that we, as white people, will never have.
Photos by Wiliiam Grubb · williamgrubbexpress@gmail.com
What dish does your family have for Thanksgiving dinner that isn t typical Thanksgiving food?
Franny Penn · Psychology
“Sweet potato pie. It’s not non-traditional, but you have to make it right. Pineapple juice and chunks with marshmallows, sweet potatoes and a dash of vanilla and nutmeg.”
Jim Yang · Undecided “Rice, just plain white rice.”
“Pineapple ham. It’s delicious. Potato salad. Oh, yeah, and red rice. That’s an islander Thanksgiving.”
EDITORIAL POLICIES Views published in the Express do not reflect those of the Los Rios Community College District Board of Trustees, the Associate Student Government, City College, Journalism department, administration, student body, or faculty; unless otherwise stated. MEMBERSHIPS Journalism Association of Community Colleges, California Newspaper Publishers Association
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“I’ve had gumbo, but all the food I eat is pretty much black-people food. [laughs].”
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NEWS
New counselor on campus?
Feminist Club s mission to convince administration to hire a sexual assault counselor Reanna Simmons
Staff Writer · reannasimmons.scc.express@gmail.com
City College’s Feminist Club has come and gone in different incarnations over the last 10 years, but the current club president said the group’s most recent return brings with it a new mission and determination. The club is currently gathering signatures for a petition to bring a trauma counselor to campus who specializes not only in matters of sexual assault and harassment but also other serious issues. Feminist Club President and political science major Taylor Buck said that such a counselor would not be just an important resource — it’s what the students want.
I think the best way to combat underreporting is to have somebody students trust on campus, which is where an advocate comes in.
Amelia Tauber
Treasurer, Feminist Club
“[We’ve been] trying to determine [how] people on campus feel about safety,” Buck said. “[After] conducting informal surveys, we’ve essentially determined that the campus safety, sexual harassment [and] sexual assault is our main focus.” Buck said that there are about 15,000 full-time students on campus, and obtaining 1,000 signatures would show
the necessity for a trauma counselor. “We talked about it as a group,” said Professor Sherri Patton, Feminist Club adviser. “What is the issue? What could we do? We did settle on that getting a counselor be one of the really good goals for the group to work on.” As of Nov. 2, the club has 196 signatures, Buck said. The club was inspired to reach out to students after social science and field ecology major Amelia Tauber brought the need for a counselor to the attention of the club, Buck added. “Our treasurer, Amelia Tauber, took it upon herself to begin the petition process for hiring, or designating a counselor on campus,” said Buck. “[This counselor] would be specifically for crisis and emotional support.” Tauber said she joined the Feminist Club during the 2015 spring semester. “I was actually standing outside of Rodda Hall South talking about a sexual assault that I’d heard happening on campus and not being handled properly, and I was talking fairly loudly to my friend about it, and it just so happened that’s when the Feminist Club’s [meeting] was ending and Adam [a member of the club] overheard me talking about it,” Tauber said. “[He] said, ‘Sounds like you’re interested in the same stuff. Would you like to join the Feminist Club?’” Tauber added that before that moment, she didn’t know the college had a feminist club on campus. The Feminist Club was previously known as Women’s Alliance but rebooted in 2013 with a new name and a new team
of roughly three to five students. This semester the club has nearly tripled in size, according to Buck. Tauber had just started a petition to bring a sexual assault and harassment counselor to the campus when she became a member of the Feminist Club. The petition, which addresses the administration, was adopted as part of the club’s mission at the start of the 2015 fall semester and reads, in part, “Sacramento City College must employ an on-campus sexual violence counselor and advocate who has been trained to work with survivors of sexual assault.” Tauber said she was inspired to create the petition after doing a report on the “Yes Means Yes Law.” Gov. Jerry Brown signed the student safety sexual assault bill into law in September 2014, also known as the “Yes Means Yes Law,” which requires both parties to agree on the sexual activity about to take place. When Tauber was done with her report, she said she was assigned to do a persuasive presentation for public speaking. “After reading about our campus statistics, it look[ed] [like] we had an underreporting issue,” Tauber said. “[It’s] very common that almost all campuses see some kind of underreporting in varying degrees, and I think the best way to combat underreporting is to have somebody students trust on campus, which is where an advocate comes in.” Tauber said she would like to see a sexual assault and harassment counselor on campus not only to promote students’ trust, but to alleviate some of the counselors’ workloads.
According to Tauber, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office reported that City College has the highest counselor load in the state, with a ratio of 900 students to one counselor. After the Sept. 3 on-campus shooting, City College put academic counselors in place to provide trauma counseling to students. The counselor the Feminist Club is hoping to provide would be more suited to assisting with trauma, Tauber said. Both Buck and Tauber said they have talked to campus administrators in hopes of turning their wishes for the campus into reality. “As far as action, we’re determining what we’re going to do,” Buck said. “Our main goal is campus safety.” Students interested in signing the petition can drop by during the club’s meeting Tuesdays from noon to 1 p.m. in Rodda South 269.
City College Feminist Club member Emily Zavala-Aguilar helps Lorrelle Greene, social science major, fill out a survey for the club during City College s Club Day Sept. 24. Photo by Elizabeth Ramirez · elizabethramirezexpress@gmail.com
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November 12, 2015 · Express
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NEWS
Women s health services back on campus
Free contraception, STI and pregnancy testing available for the first time in three years Vienna J. Montague
News Editor · viennajmontagueexpress@ gmail.com
Like most campuses, City College provides a plethora of services to students — from counseling to cafeteria food, veterans’ resources to Disability Services Programs for Students, and tutoring — to reduced-cost Regional Transit passes — all arguably important for students. But there was one important service the campus didn’t have until this semester, according to City College nurse Wendy Gomez. For the first time in more than three years, students have access to on-campus reproductive health services. Women’s Health Specialists are providing free contraception, STI and pregnancy testing one day a week on campus in Health Services. Health insurance isn’t necessary, but if students are covered, their insurance companies can be billed, according to Gomez. While it’s taking time for word to get around about the newly reinstated service, flyers posted in campus bathroom stalls have been a fairly effective marketing tool. “I saw flyers around the women’s restrooms, and then I’ve been to the clinic and saw flyers there, too,” said Greta Andrade, a first-semester student who had just moved to Sacramento from Los Angeles. “I would refer someone if I knew they didn’t have the means, or really can’t go to their own doctor. If I needed to go, I would use it.” If a student needs further services, or would like HIV testing, he or she will be referred to a Women’s Health Specialist center with the staff and equipment to perform the test. “They don’t do [HIV testing] here on site because [even though] there’s a rapid HIV test, it’s not as reliable as the blood test,” Gomez said. “So [Women’s Health Specialists] chose not to do the rapid HIV test at all. “However, if any of their [regular] testing comes up positive, they have the ability to do the treatment right here,” Gomez said. “They have the ability to give them the prescription for the medication and the counseling for it.” Women who need to have PAP smears can also set up appointments with Women’s Health Specialists. Gomez said services for reproductive health were provided on campus by Planned Parenthood until 2012.
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“We had Planned Parenthood coming in once a week for, like, seven years, and then they lost their funding,” Gomez said. “And they pulled out [of providing services] for not just us, but for the entire district. “It took us three years to find another organization that was willing to [provide services] for us. American River College actually got Women’s Health Specialists to do it for the whole district,” Gomez said. “It started there last semester, and Cosumnes River College will be shortly starting as well.” There are 10 appointments available every Monday. Appointments are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis, but students wanting to get in early can be added to a waitlist. If an appointment is a “no show,” the next student on the waitlist is called in to fill the slot, said Health Assistant Ashley Gibbs.
...If any of their [regular]
testing comes up positive, they have the ability to do the treatment right here. They have the ability to give them the prescription for the medication and the counseling for it.
Wendy Gomez
City College Nurse
“There is always a waitlist,” said Gibbs. “Generally I have a waitlist every Monday of six to seven students. With that being said, people do get in, [but] not always the entire waitlist. “They give me their cell phone number, and when I have a no show, I’ll call and say, ‘Hey, can you come now?’” Gibbs said. “If they’re not on campus, I generally take what their [availability] is, so if I have something come up during that time, I’ll call them.” Gomez said the first appointment can take around half an hour, but the following appointments, for say, birth control refills, only take between 10 and 20 minutes. Students can book an appointment at Health Services in Rodda Hall North 125 or call (916) 558-2367.
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Health Services Assistant Ashley Gibbs aids City College nurses Wendy Gomez and Jeff Christian in the Health Services department located in RHN 125¦ Elizabeth Ramirez · elizabrthramirez@gmail.com
FEATURES
Driving sex education
Human sexuality students offer free condoms, lubricants, knowledge 2015 Town Hall on Climate Change: Creating Our Future Saturday 11/14
08:30am–04:00pm Student Center
The all-day event will feature a distinguished panel, a public comment period, networking, community organizations and interactive workgroups. General Admission $20 and up, The Condom Cart has offered free contraception, candies, fliers and goodie bags since spring 2015. | Photo by Emily Peterson · emilypetersonexpress@email.com
Tyler Heberle
Staff Writer · tylerheberleexpress@gmail.com
This October, dildos became the talk of the town in Austin, Texas. It happened when students at the University of Texas at Austin protested the state’s recently signed “campus carry” law by “strapping ‘giant swinging dildos’ to their backpacks” in violation of the university’s rules, as reported by USA Today. City College students, conversely, have the freedom to openly display some objects banned by the obscenity policy at UT Austin. Two days a week at City College, psychology and human sexuality students transport sex items like condoms and lubricants around campus to pass out to other students. Their golf cart, dubbed the Condom Connection Cart, is decorated with two humorously named “giant swinging dildos” of its own, the brown, wooden “Woody” and the bending, pink “Snake Eyes.” They are often used for demonstrations of sexual intercourse, along with a model vagina. Human sexuality Professor Patty Blomberg is in charge of the Condom Cart’s operations on campus. She teaches psychology and human sexuality at City College, and she says she hopes the cart’s services will give students more knowledge about many sex-related issues. “A long term benefit [of the cart] is awareness — awareness of the fact that Sacramento County, amongst other notable achievements, also has the highest [number of] incidents of chlamydia,” Blomberg says. “Chlamydia and gonorrhea are rampant on this campus.” Blomberg says the Condom Cart owes its origin to the Capital City AIDS Fund. This non-profit organization was founded in 1995 to help with prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in the Sacramento area. Using proceeds from condom dispensers placed across Northern California, this organi-
zation donated the $800 cart to provide protection for City College students. Since then, it has contributed condoms and lubricants for the Condom Cart, as have organizations like the Gender Health Center and Planned Parenthood. The Condom Cart has been a new way for Blomberg to keep busy, she says, since switching her focus to paid teaching in 2010. She has been promoting safe sex throughout this new phase of part-time teaching, and she often gives out condoms at places like Planned Parenthood and the AIDS Foundation. Blomberg, often dressed in formal suits, says this has earned her a surprising reputation. “My friends have always had a great deal of enjoyment teasing me about always having condoms,” Blomberg says. Blomberg says students who don’t want to write a term paper for her human sexuality class may instead help with the Condom Cart as part of the sociology department’s Community Service Learning Program. The students drive the cart across campus Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m., wearing flashy red and gold capes branded with a capital “C” emblem. Of the 20 current student helpers, four currently have permission to drive the Condom Cart. One such student driver is Michael Smith. He says he hopes students can implement the Condom Cart’s services in their lives. “[The cart’s service] helps prevent AIDS and educates people how to protect themselves from the dark reality of life,” Smith says. The Condom Cart also offers literature that aims to give students a fuller understanding of sexuality. One pamphlet the volunteers hand out is “Reproductive Health Services on Campus,” which explains that confidential pregnancy testing, STD testing and birth control are offered at City College. These services are offered Mondays at 10 a.m. in Rodda Hall North
125, in the back of the counseling office. Wendy Gomez, one of two campus nurses, says that in addition to the services listed on the pamphlet, the health center also offers condoms, Ovarian F tablets or “morning-after pills,” and urine tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia. While commending the Condom Cart’s services, Gomez urges students to carefully think about their decisions. “We like to stress healthy relationships, not experimentation,” Gomez says. Blomberg says she’s aware of the risks of sexual activity, and she stresses safety in her human sexuality course. She makes special note of the fact that her students receive extra credit if they take an HIV test. Topics such as STDs, Blomberg says, are sometimes discussed on a Facebook page called “Condom Connection.” This page is run by Blomberg and Jennifer Woods, social media manager at the Capital City AIDS Fund. Don Button, a professor of graphic design for print, digital imaging and web design at City College, was instrumental in the “Condom Connection” page’s creation. Button was also a key organizer of Sex Positive Week, which involved panels held in the Student Center in February 2014 to promote safe sex practices and open discussion of sexual topics. “That hopefully paved the way a bit [for City College] to do something as progressive as the Condom Cart,” Button says. While some colleges in America still place restrictions on sexual expression, Blomberg suggests that educators “let [their] students know that human sexuality is who we are.” Button says he also remains in favor of sex positivity. “Sex is in our bodies and brains,” Button says. “It’s how we got here.” For more information on sex education and reproductive health services at City College, contact (916) 558-2367. · · ·
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register at sactownhall2015.com
International Games Day Friday 11/20
01:00pm–05:00pm LRC 105
Students will be able to bring their own tabletop games or play one of the LRC’s games.
Thanksgiving Recess Thursday 11/26
Enjoy a four-day weekend for the holidays. Classes resume Monday, Nov. 30.
Holiday Volunteer Opportunites
Loaves & Fishes 10:00am–12:00pm
1321 N. C st., Sacramento Loaves & Fishes needs volunteers to help prepare food and serve clients for the holidays. volunteer@sacloaves.org
Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services 3333 Third Ave., Sacramento Plenty of opportunities for trained volunteers, including bagging and prepping groceries or helping with food delivery. volunteer@sacramentofoodbank.org
Sacramento Pet Food Bank 2127 Front St., Sacramento Volunteers needed to organize pet food collections drive for Sacramento. volunteer@cityofsacramento.org
Salvation Army
3755 N. Freeway Blvd., Sacramento Help the Salvation Army organize food and toys for clients for Thanksgiving and Christmas. handsonsacramento.org
November 12, 2015 · Express
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PROFILE
ROBERT HEISLEMAN
Robert Heisleman preserves college history through Facebook posts Zachary FR Anderson
Marketing Manager · zachanderson.express@gmail.com Photos by Elizabeth Ramirez · elizabethramirezexpress@gmail.com
While the rest of California braced itself for the mass exodus of displaced refugees from the Dust Bowl-ravaged Heartland, the New Deal brought Sacramento Junior College a new library where the Learning Resource Center is located today. This is just one of the many historical factoids that former City College staffer Robert Heisleman has shared on his personal Facebook wall since September 2014. Admissions and Records Supervisor Kim Goff says about Heisleman, “It’s been great working with Robert because he knows such an extensive history of the college that if you needed to know something, you could always ask Robert.” Until Oct. 22, Heisleman was the campus outreach specialist for the last 17 of his 32 years at City College, after spending the first 15 as the manager of the student store. “I’ve always liked history,” says Heisleman. “Over the years I’ve taken [the] opportunity to read more about City
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College, and I worked in an office that had a small collection of yearbooks.” The yearbook was the Pioneer, which published its final issue in 1962. These yearbooks, in addition to copies of the Express newspaper since the 1920s, have aided Heisleman’s project to preserve and educate the public about City College history. The history of Hughes Stadium has been one of his favorite topics. According to Heisleman, Hughes Stadium was for a long time the largest venue in Northern California outside the San Francisco Bay Area. His July 12, 2015, post describes the 1988 Pink Floyd concert that was held in the stadium. Heisleman recalls that that there was some strange cloud cover over the stadium that night. “When they performed — you know that they were going to be loud anyway — but the noise carried across town into the Arden area where people were complaining about the noise level.” Hughes Stadium has not hosted a concert since then. One of his favorite subjects in his Facebook posts has been successful former students. Heisleman recalls Joe Batiste, an African-American student from before World War II, and calls him the greatest athlete to come out of City
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College. Bastiste was a track star who led the college to two consecutive national championships. Heisleman’s Feb. 1, 2015, post featured actor Jessica Chastain, who was a student from 1996-97 before transferring to Julliard. Since then, Chastain has gone on to earn a Golden Globe for her performance in “Zero Dark Thirty.” She was also nominated for two Oscars for her work in “The Help” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” But in addition to the positive history in his posts, Heisleman has not shied away from darker moments. He recalls the effect that World War II had on a significant number of students and their families. “The Japanese community was taken out and relocated to places like Manzanar, some as far away as Missouri and Colorado,” Heisleman says. “The [Japanese] community was very cooperative, even though their citizenship was not being respected.” On Jan. 18, 2015, Heisleman added to his series of posts with one about the Sacramento Junior College Japanese-American students who were unable to complete the spring term of 1942 as a result of the relocation. Fumiko Yabe, a 17-year-old who sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at a college symphony concert on Pearl Harbor
Day, as well as other Japanese-American students from the era, received honorary A.A. degrees in 2010. Heisleman remembers Yabe as “vibrant, energetic and happy to be returning to the college” more than 60 years after she was a student. In his many years working for the college, Heisleman says that he has supervised over 1,200 students as they filled out their applications and paperwork, and has helped them with personal matters. “Students are really the best part of the job when you work at a college,” Heisleman says. “We were more than just his employees. We were definitely like his family, his grandchildren,” says history major Donnaven Bradley, who worked in the Student Center with Heisleman. “[Robert] cared about us, and he went to war with us with any situation that we needed. I definitely appreciate and respect him for that.” But throughout his years working with students whose names and faces Heisleman still remembers, he says, “The one thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that you are a teacher [at City College], even if that’s not your job title.”
SPORTS
Former coach hired by Seattle Mariners
Andy McKay focuses on mental aspect of baseball with players as farm director Kristopher Hooks
Sports Editor · khooksexpress@gmail.com
A former City College head baseball coach is on the move after accepting a front-office position with a Major League Baseball team. Andy McKay, Panthers head coach from 1999 to 2012, was hired Oct. 21 as the Seattle Mariners director of player development, the team announced. McKay, 44, spent the past three seasons with the Colorado Rockies organization working as the peak performance director. It was a role that allowed him to focus on the mental aspects of the game with players, a concept, he said, stems from his time as a student-athlete at City College. “It all started at Sacramento City College in 1989 when I was a student reading the book ‘The Mental Game of Baseball’,” McKay said. “It gave me a new perspective on how I wanted to play and how I wanted to coach.” Before joining the Rockies organization in 2012, McKay was the head coach for the City College baseball team for 14 seasons. He held a 427-2052 record as the Panthers head coach and won one state championship and seven league championships. His successor, current Panthers head coach Derek Sullivan, played for McKay from 2000 to 2002. Sullivan, who also served as an assistant coach for McKay from 2005 to the time he left for the Rockies, said McKay should excel in his new position because of his ideas about how to help players improve.
Just like at Sacramento City College, the goal is to be the best in baseball ‒ the best in the game.
Andy Mckay
Seattle Mariners
“In the vast majority of the game, you have a bunch of players that are fairly equal physically, tools-wise,” Sullivan said. “Their ability to be consistent is what separates them, and it’s a small margin. [McKay] looks at what really affects that consistency and desire in the great ones, hall of famers and elite performers, and the vast majority of the time, it’s not physical.” Since taking over as head coach of the Panthers in 2012, Sullivan said he has
Seattle Mariners new director of player development Andy McKay was the Panthers baseball coach for 14 seasons prior to joining the Colorado Rockies organization in 2013. ¦ Photo by Dianne Rose · dianne.rose.express@gmail.com
used McKay’s philosophy to help guide Sullivan on his path as a coach. “He really believes [that] the highest level of the game is separated by players who know how to get after it every day,” Sullivan said. “And [a player’s] mental state is far more impactful than how much they squat or bench.” From a Major League Baseball standpoint, the move is the first major hire in Jerry Dipoto’s early tenure as the new general manager for the Mariners. McKay was given the position just 13 days after former director Chris Gwynn resigned, and will oversee the organization’s six Minor League teams and Dominican Republic Academy, according to McKay. Despite having to be in charge of more within the Mariners organization, McKay said there’s no difference in the culture he wants to build in Seattle and the one he built with the Panthers. “Just like at Sacramento City College, the goal is to be the best in baseball — the best in the game,” McKay said. “Good coaching and good teaching is good no matter where it is.”
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November 12, 2015 · Express
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SPORTS
Forging her own path
Volleyball s Kassidy Rauh makes the grade on and off the court Kristopher Hooks
Sports editor · khooksexpress@gmail.com
It’s not every day that a high school student gets a 4.75 GPA her senior year and decides to go to a local community college to play volleyball instead of attending one of the many universities to which she was accepted. However, that’s the kind of player City College volleyball head coach Laurie Nash got when freshman setter Kassidy Rauh chose to pursue collegiate athletics. “I can still remember the day I called [Nash] and asked, ‘Hey, am I still eligible to come over [and play]?’” said Rauh. “She immediately said yes and then freaked out a little bit. Just hearing the happiness that I could give her assured me that I made the right decision.” Nash, too, remembers that call because throughout the recruiting process, Rauh’s father gave her Nash no indication that Rauh would choose to play volleyball. “It was just very out of the blue,” Nash said. “[Her father] never really gave me the impression that she was going to contact me. In fact, I guess she had contacted me before she had even let her dad know she was going to come play for City.” The decision to play volleyball wasn’t as cut and dry, Rauh said. At Kennedy High School in Sacramento, Rauh was a three-sport athlete in volleyball, soccer
City College setter Kassidy Rauh sets the ball for outside hitter Madyson Taylor.
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and basketball (the latter she stopped playing sophomore year) and maintained above a 4.0 GPA leading up to her senior year. It was because of her academic record that she wanted to go to one of three schools: University of Chicago, Brown University or Cornell University. Rauh, who turned 17 in May, later found out that she was not accepted by all three universities. In addition to her top three choices, she also applied to UC Irvine, University of Portland and Johns Hopkins University, among others. But those schools weren’t part of the plan.
She had this air about her where it was as though she couldn t care less about who the team was on the other side of the net.
Laurie Nash
Volleyball Head Coach
“I didn’t want to go to a four-year school that I didn’t want to be at,” said Rauh. “So I thought if I go to a two-year school and play volleyball for two more years, that would be great. Then I can transfer in after.” Two community colleges recruited Rauh to play volleyball out of high school: City College and Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Both schools have more in common than whom they recruit, though, having recently been in the news for campus shootings. City College’s Sept. 3 on-campus shooting left one student dead and one injured in an isolated incident. Less than a month later, on Oct. 1, Umpqua Community College had a mass shooting that left eight students and one assistant professor dead. “It was really kind of ironic because we had just had the shooting here [28 days] before, and I thought, ‘I should’ve gone to Umpqua,’” Rauh said. “Then [28 days] later, I thought, ‘Good thing I stayed [in Sacramento].’” Nash began to recruit Rauh to play for City College during a California Interscholastic Federation Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 playoff match between Kennedy and Oak Ridge high schools. Though Rauh’s team lost the match, Nash said she was impressed with Rauh’s overall skillset and attitude toward the sport. “The way that she carried herself on the court — going for balls, not afraid to hit the floor,” Nash said, remembering the first time she saw Rauh play. “She had · · ·
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City College setter Kassidy Rauh smiles at one of her teammates after the team scored a point during the match against Modesto Junior College Nov. 3 in the North Gym. ¦ Photos by Kristopher
Hooks · khooksexpress@gmail.com
this air about her where it was as though she couldn’t care less about who the team was on the other side of the net.” Rauh has played all 24 of the Panthers matches this season — her freshman year — as the starting setter, helping lead the team to a 16-8 record. She currently sits at 10th in the the state with 698 assists and 19th in assists per set with 8.95. Even with her success on the court, Rauh still maintains her goal of getting accepted into each of her top three schools. After she gets her associate degree in biology from City College, Rauh said she wants to transfer to the University of Chicago to continue her undergrad studies and study biology, then Brown University for graduate school. In addition to the goal of going to
the colleges that once rejected her, Rauh hopes to get four Ph.Ds. — in biology, chemistry, entomology and a fourth she’s unsure of yet. “I just love learning,” Rauh said. “I feel like it’s universal that people want to have power over someone, and I just like having knowledge over people. I like knowing things, and I like to be in control of the knowledge. And I just like having random facts in my back pocket.” Being rejected by her preferred universities gave Rauh the proverbial chip on her shoulder that keeps her motivated on and off the court, she said. “I kind of took it personally,” she said. “Now it’s like, ‘No, you’re going to take me. All of you. You’re going to… I want to deny you.”