Dozens show interest in cheerleading club
Waleska Cruz Features Editor
A new cheerleading club has attracted 60 potential members, an unusually high number for a student organization on campus.
Cheerleading Club President Abby Loftus said she hopes the squad eventually will perform at the college’s men’s and women’s basketball home games.
“My goal is to just hon-
estly make it something enjoyable for the girls on the team, but also something that’s enjoyable for, like, the people that attend the games,” Loftus, a first-year kinesiology student, said.
“Great school spirit … a fun environment at those games, because I know really having a cheer team in high school brought much more of a crowd to those games, and so I’m hoping that maybe it will do the same thing here.”
like
a third-year mecha-
started the cheerleading club with Vice President Annaliz Gonzalez and Treasurer Sophina Nunes to offer students—even those with no experience—the chance to cheer. The team will not be affiliated with AACC Athletics.
The officers unveiled the club at the Student Involvement Fair in September, when 60 potential members,
Continued on Page 3
‘Star Wars’ AI robot open to conversation
Divine Mesumbe Associate Editor
Students collaborated with an AACC professor to make a robot that looks exactly like one in the film, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
Mechatronics professor Tim Callinan has collaborated with more than 20 of his students since fall 2022 to
Students to perform at NY’s Carnegie Hall
Thirty-five music students will travel to New York City in November for a fourday residency with a Grammy award-winning composer, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. Select members of AACC’s Concert Choir and Chamber Singers will join student and professional groups from across the country to learn from and perform with conductor Eric Whitacre.
AACC music professor Doug Byerly said the opportunity is on the level of Mozart inviting the students “to come to Austria for four days and sing with him.”
“[It’s] a once-in-a-lifetime
Continued on Page 3
build K-2SO, named after a droid from the movie.
Callinan also cited B2EMO from the “Star Wars” television series “Andor” as another inspiration for the robot project.
“I like to put stuff [like the robot] in the hallways [of the CALT building] because nobody knows we’re really around,” Callinan said. “Nobody knows what we do
here. So [I thought] if I could put a robot in the hallway to talk to students, it might get them interested” in the mechatronics program.
“That’s really the whole point.”
The robot uses ChatGPT Open AI to answer questions and have conversations with students, lighting up as it
Continued on Page 3
President Abby Loftus (left) and Vice President Annaliz Gonzalez start a cheer club together.
Photo by Finch Cobb
Students
Jonathan Gallegos,
tronics student, helped professor Tim Callinan build a robot inspired by “Star Wars.”
Photo courtesy of Tim Callinan
Loftus
Students will perform a musical adaptation of “Goodnight Moon” at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Photo by Finch Cobb
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Gen Z should engage in polls
Editorial Board
Have you decided whether you’re going to vote in the upcoming election?
This election year, 41 million Gen Z members will be eligible to vote, according to the research organization Tufts’ CIRCLE.
That’s a lot of voters.
Maybe you’re thinking your vote won’t matter.
You’re not alone.
A national poll by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics found Gen Zers are less likely to vote this year than they were in 2020, when President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump.
But it’s not true that your vote as a student doesn’t matter.
In Maryland, two U.S. Senate candidates are running in a race that could determine if the Senate has a Democratic majority or a Republican majority.
In the race for the White House, the winner could be
Letter from a leader
the first black woman/the first Asian-American to hold the office of president, or it could be a former president who has been convicted of 34 felonies.
Which candidates do you want to win?
Young people ages 18 to 29 make up 21% of eligible voters in the United States, according to John Carroll University.
If all of us vote, do you think that would matter?
We think so.
So as you’re deciding whether to vote, reconsider whether your vote counts.
Even if you haven’t registered to vote yet, you still can at the polling place where you vote on Election Day. You just need to show your driver’s license or a Maryland-issued ID.
You can find your voting location on the Maryland. gov website, where all you need to do is type in your street and house number and ZIP code.
Easy. Worth it.
According to a poll by
the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 62% of Americans believe democracy is at risk. That means this election is one of the most important in our lifetime so far.
Do you agree?
Young voters have the power to change the future, but only if we vote. Your vote counts this year, more than ever. What will you decide?
I’ll vote and you should, too
Finch Cobb Photography Editor
Being a new voter is the most intimidating part about turning 18.
Getting a driver’s license and graduating high school were also a big deal. But when it comes to the social pressure to vote, those milestones haven’t affected me as much as truly experiencing the issues I’ll be voting for.
From a young age, it was drilled into me—maybe you, too?—that American citizens have certain duties and responsibilities that we need to fulfill. For example, I’ve always understood that my vote is important to deciding the future of our nation.
Before we even entered the education system, we were influenced by our parents and their views. For me, even in elementary school, I knew something about politics because it was important to my parents.
So for my entire life I have been educating myself for this very moment because it’s what was expected of me. What I didn’t expect, though, was how personally the issues of this election would affect me at age 18. LGBTQ issues have al-
ways been personal to me, as a young queer person. Watching my community being condemned across the country through misguided legislation, like bans on gender-affirming care for young people, is genuinely sickening.
Not everybody has seen the world through my eyes. That’s fine. Even if you disagree with my views, I am sure there are issues affecting you that you want to see changed, whether that be the climate crisis, the economy or something else entirely.
I am voting because I want to be an agent of change, not because anyone wants me to, or because I feel obligated, but because I need to be represented.
Elected officials are supposed to work for the people, whether they like it or not. I am the people. You are the people. So why should we let politicians control us without our say?
We have a say. Let’s speak up. Let’s vote.
A democracy where our voices aren’t heard isn’t a democracy, so we can’t be complacent. We need to have our voices heard. That’s why you should vote.
I’m not going to tell you
who to vote for because I don’t want you to vote for something you don’t believe in. I will vote because I know what I stand for and will do something about it. I encour-
age you to do the same. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, we are the change that we want to see. And when we become adults, that starts at the polling booths.
First-year EMT student Finch Cobb, Campus Current’s photography editor, is voting for the first time this year.
Photo by Divine Mesumbe
Students should consider voting this Nov. 5 for their preferred candidates.
Photo by Finch Cobb
Cheer club members need no experience
Continued from Page 1
including a number of male students, signed up. Approximately 15 women showed up to the team’s first meeting a week later.
“It shows … just [how] cheer brings people together,” Loftus said. “It’s like a community that not only strengthens the people that are in it, but it, like, brings people out to the games, and it engages with those people, and it makes that kind of environment more entertaining and more exciting.”
Loftus cheered for four years at Archbishop Spalding High School, where her
coach told her AACC did not have a cheer team. Loftus said she started the club because she didn’t want to stop cheering.
“I wasn’t ready to give up” the sport, Loftus said. “I think cheer helped me a lot, like, to get out of my comfort zone.”
Gwendolyn Johnson, one of the club’s faculty advisers, said the student officers’ passion influenced her to become a part of the team.
“They are really excited, and they have a vision … and that right there is enough to make me want to be an adviser and to support the vision,” Johnson, AACC’s internship
AI-powered robot based on a “Star Wars” droid of the same name.
Photo by Finch Cobb
program coordinator, said.
Johnson, who said she used to be a “cheer coach parent,” said she is “invested in student engagement.”
Loftus said she wants to give students who cheered in high school a chance to continue and newcomers who are interested in the opportunity to try it out.
“I just want to make it, like, a safe place for people to learn and grow,” Loftus said.
Gonzalez, a first-year homeland security management student, agreed, saying she is “excited” to have so many people who are “willing to just jump in there.”
Prof, volunteers build AI-powered machine
Continued from Page 1 five years ago?’ I would have said, ‘Never.’ … I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”
speaks. When the student speaks back, K-2SO converts that spoken language into text, leading ChatGPT to generate a response, which the robot gives audibly.
The use of artificial intelligence “shakes things up,” according to Callinan.
“[This] generation is definitely going to be surrounded by AI,” Callinan said. “It’s very interesting times. … If you had asked me, ‘Do you think [AI] would be as intelligent as it is [right now]
Chorus travels to NY to sing in Xmas show
Continued from Page 1
experience,” Byerly said. “It’s just … an artist’s dream to go live and be in residence with that amazing, world-class artist for four days.”
The singers will perform a musical setting of “Goodnight Moon,” the famous children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown, and a Christmas opera called “Gift of the Magi,” based on the eponymous short story by O. Henry.
Whitaker composed both pieces and will conduct the students for the Carnegie
Hall performance on Nov. 26.
In addition to learning from Whitacre, Byerly said, the students will “have time for professional development and going to Broadway shows, operas, museums and things like that.”
This isn’t the first time
AACC music students have traveled for performances and artistic residencies, Byerly said. They have performed in Spain, Austria and Germany.
“Our students have had opportunities to perform in amazing spaces, but this is really, like, at the top of the
heap,” Byerly said.
Byerly said AACC got this opportunity after Whitacre gave a talk at AACC over Zoom, and it “sparked that relationship.”
“One of our students here is actually a personal friend of Eric Whitacre’s, which is the connection,” Byerly added. “Then we had to send in an audition tape to sing at Carnegie Hall.”
Second-year music education student Justin Walter, who will perform in the November show, said he is nervous, “but mostly excited.”
“I’m a little nervous to
Callinan said he likes doing engineering design projects every few years because it “keeps things interesting” for him, adding that it’s a “win-win” for the students who work with him.
“I’ll have really, really good students … [who are] just blasting through the material,” Callinan said. “They just want to do more and … they get to work with me.”
Jonathan Gallegos, a third-year mechatronics stu-
dent who has been working on the robot since last fall, said the project gave him “extra experience,” which is needed in his field.
Second-year undecided student Gavin Costa, who worked on the robot last spring, said he “jumped on the opportunity” because “it was really cool.”
“When I started on it, it was pretty rough around the edges,” Costa said. “It was really fun [and] I learned a lot. I never got that kind of handson experience working on something like that before.”
be, like, on the Carnegie Hall stage, but I’ll be with all my … friends and everything,” Walter said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
According to Byerly, AACC did not fund the trip. Students paid what they could, and private donors covered the rest.
AACC Cheerleading Club President Abby Loftus competed for Archbishop Spalding High School.
Photo courtesy of Abby Loftus
Professor Tim Callinan collaborated with students to build K-2SO, an
The AACC Concert Singers and Chamber Choir will join 200 other performers in a show at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 26. Shown, professor Doug Byerly.
Photo by Finch Cobb
AACC has classes at Glen Burnie hospital
Lily Peaper Reporter
Approximately 20 medical professionals at a Glen Burnie hospital are working as licensed practical nurses after finishing a 41-credit program taught by AACC professors at their workplace.
The University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center collaborated with AACC’s Health and Sciences Department to create the first on-site, off-campus
credit program for nursing students.
“Practical nursing fills the gap where the [nursing] shortage is,” AACC’s LPN Program Coordinator Tracey Short said.
LPNs perform basic care like checking blood pressure, taking vitals and observing patients, Short said.
The medical center has an immediate need for LPNs, Sandy Jones, AACC’s dean of continuing education and workforce development, said.
AACC receives $600,000 from the National Science Foundation for undergraduate research. Shown, professor Seth Miller, who worked on getting the grant.
Photo by Finch Cobb
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration projects the demand for licensed practical nurses is expected to outgrow the supply between 2025 and 2032.
“It’s a good opportunity for students when they can have training on site at a medical facility,” Jones said.
“It also gives the employer the opportunity to see the students in the lab, to meet with them and provide a pipeline for them for hiring.”
Jones said the medical
Center.
Photo by Finch Cobb
center sought the extensive hands-on learning experience to help its own patient care assistants, patient care techs and mental health associates transition seamless-
ly to new roles in the hospital.
However, AACC nursing students who meet the requirements for the program also may apply.
STEM researchers win NSF grant of $600K
Morgan Brown Reporter
The National Science Foundation in August awarded AACC $600,000 for undergraduate research in science, technology, engineering and math.
The college will use some of the funds to pay students and faculty to conduct STEM research, according to biology professor Seth Miller, who worked with other professors to apply for the grant.
“Students have a lot of competing obligations, and so we wanted to make sure that this was something that we could do, that students would be able to have the
‘Bridge’ project helps students gain skills
Ayla Cole Reporter
Homeland security and paralegal students have extra access to faculty mentors and workshops designed to help them succeed in their fields.
The Legal Studies Institute created the Bridge program in 2022 to offer four workshops on writing, study skills, acing finals and organization.
“We wanted to come up with an idea to help all of our students rise,” Erin Gable, the director of legal studies, said.
Gable said she wanted to
close the opportunity gaps among students of different demographics.
“The Bridge program really helps … and our numbers show it,” legal studies professor Mary Bachkosky, who initiated the program, said. “Our students are doing better because of it.”
Students in Bachkosky’s Legal Studies 111: Introduction to Paralegal Studies, the first class that degree-seeking paralegal students take, may enroll in the program.
She said she plans to add a workshop on professionalism next semester.
Students who take LGS 111 receive emails inviting them to join the program.
This program has been successful, students said.
“The professor really validated my feelings and how I didn’t step into my work ethic as much,” first-year paralegal student Andrea Miller said. “She showed the steps to make me feel better about how I can perform in my studies.”
AACC’s Homeland Security and Criminal Justice Institute created another program, the Aspiring Leaders Academy, in 2015.
time for and get compensated for it,” Miller said.
Miller said students do not have to be STEM majors to participate.
“You just have to be interested in doing a STEM research project,” Miller said.
AACC can use the grant money, which Miller said will last three academic years, starting this semester.
The college also has applied for a second NSF grant for $500,000 from the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. The $600,000 grant came from NSF’s Innovation in TwoYear College in STEM Education competition.
Some students said they are looking forward to con-
ducting the research.
“Since I am a biology major, there would be future opportunities for me to be able to get into research projects or help fellow students with research projects,” first-year student Nihesha Edwin said.
Lance Bowen, dean of the School of Science, Technology and Education, said the college used to fund three or four research projects a year. Now, Bowen said, “We are going to be able to do dozens of those projects a year.”
NSF awarded $14.5 million to community colleges for 35 projects, workshops and conferences, according to the foundation.
The Legal Studies Bridge program and the Criminal Justice Institute’s Aspiring Leaders Academy offer students workshops and mentoring.
Darian Senn-Carter, the institute’s director, said he finds similarities among students, and then creates workshops for them and assigns each one to a faculty mentor. Students meet with mentors at least once a month.
“This is not an office hour,” Senn-Carter said. “This
is not an appointment. … Someone [is] there to support you.”
Senn-Carter said he created the academy after “reflecting on my own personal experiences with mentors. I wanted to create a pathway for students to have the same experiences.”
AACC offers courses for licensed practical nurses at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical
Photo courtesy of Darian Senn-Carter
‘Power’ is theme for liberal arts program
Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief
What is power?
Two English professors said that is a “big question” and have designed a way for instructors to structure their courses to allow students to answer it in their classrooms.
With a $250,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation, professors Candice and Tim Mayhill, a married couple that created the Center for Liberal Arts Work—or CLAW—while on a joint sabbatical last spring, are advocating for seminar-style classes that incorporate discussions about power—or whatever the “big question” is in any given semester.
Seminar classes, Tim Mayhill said, are “a lot more fun. It’s a lot more active. You have a lot more agency as a student ... in a seminar class than you do in another class. You’re in control of your ed-
ucation, and what you get out of it is what you put into seminar.”
In a seminar class, students spend their time in discussions with their professor and classmates rather than listening to lectures.
Professors who participate in training through CLAW can have their classes tagged in the course catalog as seminars so students who want to take seminar-style classes will know which ones to choose.
So far, professors in subjects ranging from English to math to anthropology to communications have signed up to participate. Tim Mayhill said a student who enrolls in multiple seminars will discuss power in the context of each of those disciplines.
“This is my education,”
Tim Mayhill said. “This is how all of these things speak to each other and so in framing it around that big ques-
ARE YOU IN THE RIGHT SPOT?
tion, it makes sure that all of these disciplines are speaking to each other, because all those disciplines do speak to each other.”
All of the classes that are tagged as seminars will focus, at least in part, on the same big question, Candice Mayhill said, adding the question will change every two years.
“You might go to your English class and we’re reading a book and we talk about power and what it looks like there, and then you might go to a science class where you’re talking about sustainability and power,” she said.
Students may register for as few or as many seminar classes as they choose each semester. Professors may decide whether they participate in CLAW and teach seminar-style.
Candice Mayhill said eventually, students might be able to take all of their general education courses in
English professors Candice and Tim Mayhill created the CLAW program to help improve education by training professors to teach seminar classes.
Photo by Finch Cobb
seminar-based classes.
The professors said the online-only environment forced on students by the pandemic inspired them to create CLAW and promote seminar classes.
“Post-2020, when we had that COVID shift to online, all of the discussion kind of, like, went away,” Candice Mayhill said. “It’s an attempt to kind of bring that back again. ... What is it that we like about face-to-face
classes? It was that we actually got to talk to each other.”
The program, she said, helps students and professors “get back to why you wanted to enroll in a face-to face-class in the first place.”
“The reason why we teach is we’re super stoked about something, and we want you to be stoked about it too,” Tim Mayhill said. “And I think that we need a class format that allows you to be stoked about it.”
FOUR YEAR PLAN
Your personal goal is to earn a bachelor’s degree at a four-year school. What’s your plan?
Remember that your four-year school has its own requirements. Go to their website. Find the four-year plan for your bachelor’s degree program. Make an appointment with your academic advisor, who is a transfer expert. They will help you make sure that your AACC courses all count toward your bachelor’s degree. Talk with your professors and your academic advisor now to start making your transfer plan.
To meet with someone about Transfer Studies email Prof. Scott Cooper at sacooper@aacc.edu
AACC seeks to make viable shooter drills
Regan Leonard Reporter
Third-year data science student Ev Dahl doesn’t “do super great with loud noises. I don’t do well with flashing lights because they trigger migraines.”
So on Sept. 17, when lights started flashing and speakers all over campus started blasting instructions for the college’s second lockdown drill in a year, Dahl admittedly felt startled.
Public safety officials had publicized the drill in advance.
Future drills, however, might not come with notice of a specific date, time or place, Arlene Crow, the campus Public Safety and Police Department’s emergency manager, said.
Instead, police might notify faculty and students that a drill is coming up in a week “because we need to make it as realistic as possi-
ble … while still keeping in mind the mental health and responsibilities of students and staff.”
Crow acknowledged, “There’s always going to be people that have anxiety about it.”
To address that concern, Crow said, her team made sure one of the college’s three mental health counselors was on campus during each drill.
Before the second drill, police asked faculty to show a training video to their classes.
“We felt if we can show you what to do, then you’ll be more comfortable,” Crow said.
“I had a couple of professors that would practice with their class to see how quickly they could do it,” Crow said. “And then we had other professors that just said, ‘I’m too busy.’ … It’s for everyone’s protection on campus to participate with it.”
The lockdown drills have followed the recommendations of the National Association of School Psychologists for mitigating the psychological effects of lockdowns, before, during and after.
During the first drill last year, Public Safety conducted “19 different drills [in] 19 different buildings,” Crow said. The Sept. 17 drill was for three buildings to give the exercise “a more natural feel,” Crow said.
Crow said each drill will come closer to simulating an emergency on campus.
“It might be a couple of years from now, but someday we’ll do a complete drill,” Crow said. “We’ll do ‘avoid, deny, defend.’… Some people would have to evacuate a building, and then some people would have to lock down.”
Avoid, deny and defend are strategies for dealing with an active shooter. Crow explained that students can
try to get as far away from the danger as possible; hide in place with the lights off and door locked; or aggressively try to stop the shooter and defend themselves.
Public Safety has not conducted an “avoid, deny, defend” drill yet, Crow said, because if a dangerous individual is on campus, people who are untrained to handle
the situation “may walk right into harm’s way.”
The next drill will be next semester in the evening so students taking late classes can participate.
After the September drill, “I appreciated the warning,” Dahl noted, adding, “I fully understand that, like, in an actual lockdown, we need flashing lights.”
Illustration by Kevin Remson
AACC’s Emergency Manager Arlene Crow says she is looking to create lockdown drills that are practical. Photo by Waleska Cruz
Travel classes study biology
Julissa Mendoza Robles
Reporter
Biology students and their professors will travel to the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador, in January.
The trip is part of Biology 122: Fundamentals of Ecology Travel Study. Last semester, students traveled to Costa Rica for 14 days.
“[Students] learn about basic concepts of ecology at the beginning of the course, and then the second half of the course, in the lecture, they learn specifically about the ecosystems we’re going to visit,” biology professor Benjamin Weibell said. “I love teaching the travel study, because when people are put into a new environment, their minds just open up.”
Weibell started teaching the course in fall 2019, but paused it during the pandemic. The course resumed in fall 2023.
Biology professor Seth Miller, who will accompany the students to Ecuador, said the South American country has “really cool ecosystems” and unique species that he looks forward to showing students.
“I can’t wait to see marine iguanas,” Miller said.
“There are seals and sea lions there that are super tame because humans have never really bothered them. There are giant land tortoises.”
Students will be in good hands during the trip, Miller said.
“It’s an awesome way to travel out of the country, because you are going with a group of other students,” Miller said. “And ... you basically have three, like, Ph.D.-educated ecologists, two of whom speak a good amount of Spanish.”
Second-year welding and business student Jonah Mule went to Costa Rica
last January as a part of the travel study course. He described the pre-trip part of the class as a “sneak peek” for what the students would see in Costa Rica.
“I definitely, like, came
out of it with a whole new world [view] of ... we should do things to protect this land, because it’s the most diverse species land, I think, in the world,” Mule said.
Students, who pay their own travel expenses and must have a passport, can sign up for future trips by registering for BIO 122. Students may choose to take the class for credit or as a non-credit course.
A biology class traveled to Costa Rica earlier this year to learn about the ecosystems there.
Photo courtesy of Benjamin Weibell
Student races, talks about bike accident
Waleska Cruz Features Editor
“When I was 4 years old, I broke my femur, and then at age 13 or 14, I broke both my arms at the same time,” second-year homeland security student James Churn said. “And then after that, I broke my upper arm, and then I broke my collarbone. … My nose was broken in five places over a few months.”
Last year, he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Yet the 20-year-old has no plans to stop the activity that caused his injuries: dirt bike racing.
Churn has won more than 170 trophies for highspeed racing in tournaments in the four years he has been competing—so many, he said, that “if I stopped right now, I’d have a Hall of Fame–type career.”
Every morning, Churn said, he arrives on campus at 8:30 a.m. to do homework,
study and attend classes. Then, three afternoons a week, he meets his coach in Waldorf to train for the next competition.
But when Churn crashed his green Kawasaki KX 250 bike while training for a Pro Motocross Championship last year and suffered a traumatic brain injury, he questioned whether he would ride again.
“I don’t remember the crash,” Churn said. “[But] I got told that, literally, my bike just came out from underneath me, out of nowhere. I was told that I was going 75 [mph] when the crash happened, and that when I flew off the bike, my head went straight towards the face of the jump, so it was like hitting a brick wall.”
After this setback, though, he said he took a break for a couple of months and then “fought through it” by going to the gym and getting mental health therapy for PTSD
caused by the accident.
“And it’s just tough to come back from an injury,” Churn said.
Churn said his dad influenced him to start his dirt bike journey.
“So my dad was a professional [dirt bike] racer,” Churn said. “He was actually the only one in his family who raced, so I kind of got into racing because of him.”
Churn has been featured on NBC Sports.
“It’s definitely wild for me … and [nerve-racking],” Churn said. “I was actually on TV when I got interviewed for the first time, and it was kind of crazy. My first national [tournament] I ever rode I saw a bunch of cameras for NBC, and I remember how nervous that made me feel inside.”
He added: “I had to tell myself, ‘There’s a reason why I’m here,’ and I can’t let myself get nervous and not, like, perform ... so you don’t
Second-year homeland security student James Churn practices motocross racing.
Photo courtesy of John Montgomery
want to perform badly.”
Churn said balancing his college life and dirt bike riding can be stressful. But he said he found a way.
“The key is, like, I train in the evening, [I] come [to campus] early to get the work done, and then ride,”
Churn said. “And sometimes [I] have in-person exams, and I come in early for that. So basically, getting into the important stuff early, like college, [which is] honestly more important than racing to me right now, just because the after part of racing, racing doesn’t last forever.”
For Gen Z, claw clips come back into style
Waleska Cruz Features Editor
Another ’90s style is back, with students wearing claw hair clips in a variety of colors and shapes.
Students on campus said the clips have made a comeback because the mothers of college-age women never stopped wearing them, even though the style peaked 30 years ago.
“My mom, it was like her hairstyle that I always grew up seeing her wear,” second-year psychology student Madelyn Montilla said. “And I think my mom is the most beautiful person in the world.”
A claw clip squeezes open and closed like a clip used to secure a bag of chips, but it has teeth on the bottom to hold hair in place.
According to Bear’s Meadow, an online retailer that sells hair accessories, the claw clip was invented
in Italy in the late 1980s as “a practical hair accessory” that would securely hold hair in an updo without bobby pins or elastics.
“I feel like … my hair feels more secure,” first-year undecided student Maya Matute said. “I have very thin hair in general. So holding it with, like, standard elastic sometimes doesn’t keep it secure, and then just the style, I think it just looks cute.”
Business professor Stephanie Goldenberg said the clips appeal to women who like to wear their hair up.
“It’s really kind of behavioral,” Goldenberg said.
“So people who want to have their hair out of the way, from like, temperature wise … or for just optional reasons, like doing art or working out, or maybe just, ‘I’m having a bad hair day and not doing anything about it’ … just, you know, pull it back.”
Claw clips, like other
consumer favorites from prior decades, have made a comeback, in part, because so many women have been showing them off on social media, Goldenberg said.
“It’s kind of interesting to see how things come full circle, come back around, things that were popular,” Goldenberg said. “It’s true for many products, like … record albums. Now I hear ... CDs are coming back, so it’s just that it’s almost cyclical the way things come back into trend.”
Students said they style their hair all the way up in a twisted bun using the clips.
“I usually wear, like, a twisted bun,” Montilla said. “I never wear half up half down. My hair gets frizzy, so it’s always twisted up in the back, like military style. And then I put the two baby pieces in the front normally, and baby hairs on the sides of the ears.”
“I like [to] … just twist in … the bun,” first-year nursing
student Arielle Lopez said.
“I’ll [also] just, like, put in a high ponytail. It depends, like, that’s usually what I do at work, because I’m a lifeguard, so I like to get it out of my face.”
Although claws are a trending accessory for hair, it can be a hazard to drive while wearing them, according to media reports of injuries and lawsuits involving the clips. Some reports have de-
tailed drivers whose clips have sunk into their skulls when they bumped their heads hard against a headrest during a car accident.
Some students said they wear them anyway.
“I do, unfortunately,” first-year interior design student Julia Teitelbaum said. “I know I shouldn’t, but I do.”
“Yes, it’s dangerous,” Montilla said. “I know I shouldn’t.”
Claw hair clips are making a comeback on college campuses.
Photo by Finch Cobb
Students to vote for abortion referendum
Ayla Cole Reporter
AACC students said in October they will vote for a constitutional amendment on Nov. 5 that will give Maryland residents the “fundamental right” to an abortion.
In an informal poll of 50 students on campus, 39 said they will vote for the amendment because they support a woman’s right to choose.
“I am strongly for,” firstyear geology student Cole Hales said. “Mainly because [abortion bans] will not stop abortions, it will only stop safe abortions.”
Since the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, six states have passed constitutional amendments supporting legal access to abortions, and 10 more, including Maryland, have it on the ballots this year.
“Not being able to control what’s happening to your body is really terrifying,” third-year creative writing and psychology student
Zoe Sharp said. “Especially for people who have reproductive issues like polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis.”
Others said a constitutional amendment would legalize a woman’s right to choose.
“I believe in a person’s right to choose,” second-year entrepreneurship student Cameron Millar said. “I don’t think the government should have anything to do with our bodies.”
“I trust women,” thirdyear game development student Austin Kenneth said. “I feel like it should be up to the women of America to make this choice.”
A few disagreed.
Dual-enrollment student Sabrina Ritcher said she opposes the amendment.
“I believe ... every human from conception is created in the image of God, and I don’t think any person is allowed
to violate that,” Ritcher said.
Some students said they have mixed feelings about the ballot question on abortion.
“It’s not … that black and white,” second-year mechanical student Boone Gervase said. “I think it should be legal in some cases, de-
pending on how old the fetus is.”
First-year education student Aiden Marion said he doesn’t think he should have a say.
“Being a man, I find that my thoughts … aren’t really valid,” Marion said.
Poll finds disinterest in true crime content
Morgan Brown Reporter
AACC students in October said they do not listen to true crime podcasts.
In an informal poll of 50 students, 31 said they do not listen even though some used to.
First-year chemistry student Alexander Stringfield said he prefers to listen to music when he’s working and he tries to “avoid as much distraction as possible, so having other people talking at the same time just doesn’t help.”
A poll by Edison Research shows AACC students are bucking a national trend.
According to the research, 84% of Americans
Informal survey notes podcasts are popular
Lily Peaper Reporter
Students at AACC said in October they listen to a variety of podcasts, mostly comedy.
In an informal poll of 50 students on campus, 30 said they listen to about two hours of podcasts each week.
“I listen to ‘Crash Dummies,’” Michael Gandy, a sec-
ond-year student, said. “It’s my type of humor that, you know, makes me laugh when I’m having a bad day.”
Podcasts have been steadily growing in popularity, according to polls by Edison Research. In 2023, 42% of Americans older than 12 said they listened to a podcast within the last month, compared with 30% in 2013. Alexa Kennedy, a first-
year transfer studies student, said she starts every day with a 45-minute podcast. “I listen to self-help ones,” Kennedy said. “The Emma Chamberlain one about mental health, a lot. She’s really inspiring.”
“I listened to Theo Von’s [comedy podcast] when he first started it,” Stefan Wickar, a second-year transfer studies student, said. “And
older than 13 watch or listen to true crime podcasts, TV shows or social media videos, and the numbers are growing.
Some students find the content in true crime disturbing.
“I’m just not into it,” second-year nursing student Samantha Stewart said. “It’s not really my thing. I also have a really active imagination, so it kind of freaks me out, honestly.”
Others agree they find true crime to be upsetting.
“I just don’t go out of my way to listen to it,” first-year English student Corey Carrol said. “It makes me feel sick sometimes.”
The students who said they like true crime gave dif-
ferent reasons.
Second-year nursing student Jennifer Escolera pointed to the “motivation behind the killing and why it was done and what led to them to do it” as the interesting parts of true crime podcasts.
First-year information systems student Aliya Njoya called the podcasts interesting and informative.
“I can learn stuff from it and avoid situations,” Njoya said.
Some students said they watch true crime because they like to learn what makes killers tick.
First-year radiology student Lihue Bryant said she watches true crime because “it’s really cool” to think about “the psychology of it.”
Photo by Finch Cobb
then there’s this guy Camp Underground. … He just talks about conspiracy theories and stuff like that. It’s so interesting.”
Edison Research found the most popular
themes are comedy, society and culture, news, true crime and sports.
The majority of AACC students in an informal poll say they support a woman’s right to choose and that they will vote for Maryland’s constitutional amendment. Adobe Stock photo
An informal poll reveals 31 out of 50 students are not interested in true crime podcasts.
Adobe Stock photo
60% of students in a survey say they listen to podcasts.
podcast
Second Wind focuses on men’s masculinity
Divine Mesumbe Associate Editor
A new student club called Second Wind gets male students together to discuss masculinity, emotions and self-improvement.
Christopher Robinson, a second-year transfer studies student, started the club to encourage discussions about self-development and mental health. Members support each other during regular meetings on campus.
“Masculinity right now is in a very turbulent state,” Robinson, the Second Wind
club president, said. “It’s in a phase where the old ways are not working. … A lot of guys are kind of, like, restricted in what they can do [and] feel.”
Second Wind’s main focus is masculinity, which is “very fluid,” “on a spectrum” and “not binary,” according to Robinson.
“My hope is [for] masculinity to be more [of] a different way of life,” Robinson said. “You could be like a, kind of more conventional man … [or] you [could] have more feminine traits.”
Kenneth Gilliard, the
club’s faculty adviser, said the topic of masculinity is “not one-sided.”
“It’s a scope,” Gilliard, the student success and retention adviser, said. “It is something that everyone has a trait of, whether you’re male, female [or] if you identify as different or [if you’re] going through a transition.”
Second-year kinesiology student Jayeim Blake said he joined the club because masculinity is “very powerful” and there should be more male role models.
Second-year homeland security student Phillip Mi-
ment. Shown, club President Christopher Robinson.
chaels said masculinity is a “taboo and sensitive” topic that people are scared to talk about.
“I think topics like this need to be discussed. Other-
wise, it’s going to be stigmatized and people are going to get the wrong view,” Michaels said.
The club’s first meeting drew a dozen participants.
Muslim club reopens after year-long hiatus
Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief
A new club for practicing Muslims began meeting in October.
Abdulrahman Ahmadzai, the president of the new Muslim Student Association, said he started the club for Muslims to “come and pray.”
“I wanted … to join the Muslim club,” Ahmadzai, a first-year cybersecurity student, said. “But when I heard that there is no Muslim club, then I decided to create one.”
The original club, run by former student Hamza Iqbal,
New group promotes student fitness goals
Divine Mesumbe Associate Editor
A third-year public health student and an AACC Fitness Center employee started a club to help members set and reach their workout goals.
Student Aidan Gamache, the club president, started the Hawks Fitness Club with John Lorenzana, the vice president, last spring to build a fitness and nutrition community on campus.
“I feel like this is really something that could actually pop off,” Lorenzana, an AACC mechatronics alum-
nus, said. “[It’s] a really cool idea.”
The pair organized the club last semester but didn’t hold the first meeting until October.
The club members will eventually work out in the gym but for now they are meeting to discuss goal-setting, proper nutrition and healthy workout habits.
Gamache said he wanted to establish a fitness community on campus because he “saw a gap” in students helping other students work out in the Fitness Center in Jenkins Gymnasium.
“[When] I actually went
to the school gym … I noticed a lot of people needed help,” Gamache said. “A lot of people, you know … didn’t know how to properly do lifts, or they were lifting dangerously.”
Lorenzana said the club is “not necessarily” for bodybuilders only.
“Fitness is, like, a whole range of things,” Lorenzana said. “[We want to], you know, help people with their goals, make new friends and experience, like, the different faces of fitness.”
Third-year student Aidan Graham, a club officer, said he wanted to contribute
stopped meeting in 2023. Owen Silverman Andrews, an instructional specialist, was the faculty adviser for the club.
According to Ahmadzai, “no one was willing to take their presidential [role] and other important places for the club to be run.” Ahmadzai added he wanted to start the club for Arabs and non-Arabs who are Muslim.
“A lot of people think that only Arabs are Muslims and they only speak one language,” Ahmadzai said. “So I wanted to show people that
non-Arabs can also be a Muslim, and non-Arabs also can be Christian.”
Ahmadzai said he hopes to organize events for Eid al-Adha and Ramadan next year.
“Ramadan is in three months,” Ahmadzai said. “We are planning to, in Ramadan, … give food to the poor people, needy people. … We are planning to get money from our urban club members, [and] then give that to poor people.”
Ahmadzai said he’s excited to start a new club “for the first time in college.”
help students reach fitness goals.
to this club because he has an “extensive background” in the fitness world.
“I used to be really fat and I didn’t want to be,” Graham said. “[So] I worked
out a lot. I had to get my nutrition [and] portion sizing controlled.”
According to Graham, the club is needed because people are “getting ... lazy.”
The Second Wind club focuses on male self-improve-
Photo by Divine Mesumbe
The Muslim Student Association returns after a yearlong absence. Shown, club member Zakaria Mouaici (left) and club President Abdulrahman Ahmadzai.
Photo by Jose Gonzalez
Third-year student Aidan Gamache (right) and Fitness Center employee John Lorenzana start a club to
Photo by Divine Mesumbe
International soccer athletes join ’Hawks
Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief
Three international students are playing soccer at AACC this semester.
Paul Zimmerman, a firstyear business management student from Cologne, Germany, and Cheik Kangoute, a first-year English student from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, are both new to American soccer.
Still, Zimmerman, a midfielder, said, “It’s actually quite the same” as soccer in Germany.
“It’s not a culture shock,” Zimmerman said. “I [played] soccer for basically all my life, so I knew what was go-
ing to happen if I joined the soccer team here.”
Kangoute, a winger, disagreed. He said soccer is “very different” compared with how the sport is played in the Ivory Coast.
“We play soccer everywhere,” Kangoute, who arrived in the U.S. in the summer, said. “[I] don’t have to learn. I just play.”
Both students came to AACC for soccer and college.
Jayeim Blake, a second-year kinesiology student and returning goalkeeper, is also an international student, from Trinidad and Tobago.
Zimmerman said he likes playing soccer in the U.S.
“I like everything,” Zimmerman said. “It’s like … the different culture. … I like speaking English, of course.” Kangoute agreed, adding, “I love my team.”
Head men’s soccer coach Drew Belcher said “it’s fantastic” having foreign players on the team.
Belcher added: “Any time you can get a different methodology of teaching and learning and playing, you can bring that into your team at high levels. It’s great.”
According to Belcher, a lot of international college students play soccer because it’s the most popular sport in the world.
Bball season to start fall season on Nov. 9
Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief
Riverhawks men’s and women’s basketball will begin the fall season on Nov. 9 at Penn State York.
Men’s basketball will welcome seven returning players back to the team.
Head coach Joe Snowden said he is “looking for good things from them.”
“I’m looking for … their leadership, the savvy of play from last year,” Snowden said. “And bringing it back into this year.”
Snowden coached the men’s team to win the regional championship in 2020, beating Prince George’s Community College 84-79.
Volleyball wraps fall season with 3-0 win
Micah Rhymer Reporter
The Riverhawks volleyball team wrapped up its regular season with an 8-11 record on Oct. 19 with a 3-0 win against Mid-Atlantic Christian University in Washington, D.C.
Team captain Lluvia Owens-Pabon, an outside hitter, said the season was OK.
“I feel like we can do so much better as a team,” Owens-Pabon, a second-year business student, said.
“With the talent of the team and the coaching staff I feel like we can go so much farther.”
Owens-Pabon identified team chemistry as a key focus moving forward.
Head coach Tanecha Rice described the season as a
time of learning for everyone.
“Learning communication and learning the game ... has been our biggest challenge,” Rice said.
The players and coach agreed that the season record does not reflect the skill level of the team.
Still, some players said the season produced some lasting friendships, lending to a good team dynamic.
Snowden said he wants to reach the national championship.
Second-year guards Avery Evans, a business administration student, and Miles Evans, a philosophy student, plus forward Angelo Harris, a transfer studies student, will be the team captains this season.
Snowden, the coach for 12 years, said he hopes his players “do better than last year.”
The Riverhawks finished the 2023 season with nine wins and 16 losses.
Avery Evans, a returning player, agreed the team can do better.
“This year they expanded my role on the team,” Evans said. “I have to, you know, be
able to play that way, play at that level. So I have to, like, really be disciplined.”
The women’s basketball team, on the other hand, will have fewer returners.
In fact, Lionel Makell, the head women’s basketball coach, said the team will be without key players until the second half of the season.
“Main focus is to have enough players,” Makell said. “We’ve had a few that transferred in that found out they’re ineligible. They don’t have enough credits.”
Second-year forwards Holly Wall, a business communication student, and Ayannah Gorham, a undecided student, will return this season.
Guard Angel Colbert practices for the upcoming basketball season, which begins on Nov. 9.
Photo by Finch Cobb
Cheik Kangoute, a first-year English student from the Ivory Coast, is one of three international players on the Riverhawks soccer team.
Photo by Finch Cobb
Outside hitter Jadyn Brown (front) and setter Bella Hadden practice for the season’s final games.
Photo by Roderick Lyons