April 2025 Issue

The award-winning newspaper of Anne Arundel Community College TheCampusCurrent.com

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April 2025

Campus Life

Campus Life

Sports

AACC has a new coffee machine in Careers—its only one.

Students try to separate good art from its controversy.

The Riverhawks won’t play softball this season.

Page 5

Page 6

Page 12

Student Gov. to hold 2nd election in April Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief

For the second time this semester, the Student Government Association will hold an election for officers, starting April 28.

Students elected an SGA president in February after the original 2024-25 president resigned, along with

most of the organization’s other officers.

“It’s our normal election season,” Lea Brisbane, a leadership and involvement specialist with the Office of Student Engagement, said.

The February election was a special election.

Registration for candidates began on March 24 on The Nest (nest.aacc.edu)

and will close on April 4. Students may run for president, executive vice president or any of five vice president positions: finance, outreach, campus activities, public relations and diversity.

Brisbane said she will check references and do grade checks, and call all apContinued on Page 3

Enrollment rates hit highest since COVID Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief

After a few semesters of enrollment declines, AACC reports more students are signing up for classes.

Campus Current archive

Spring enrolllment at AACC this semester is the highest it has been since spring 2020.

Likewise, last fall’s enrollment also was higher than any fall semester since 2020.

AACC reported that 10,576 students are enrolled

in classes this semester, 395 more than last spring, a 3.9% increase.

“We obviously had a dip during the COVID years, and we’re starting to bounce back a little bit,” Erin Reeder, the associate vice president of enrollment management, said. “So [it] looks like fall 2022 was kind of our lowest point, and since then, we’re

“There are limitations on it now that weren’t there before.”

Before 2023, dual enrolled public high school students could take as many classes as they wished—and any classes they chose—at AACC, and Anne Arundel County Public Schools would pay their tuition.

Dual-enrollment student Tomi Brunton, a former Campus Current editor, sets up for an open mic night hosted by Amaranth, the student arts journal.

Photo by Lily Peaper

Fewer high schoolers attend AACC classes Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief

The number of public high school students who are also enrolled at AACC dropped by 7% since last spring.

That follows a 7% drop in dual-enrolled students in fall 2024, according to Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Erin Reeder.

Reeder said the dip in enrollment came after the county limited the number of classes high school students may take for free at community colleges in 2023.

“There has been a decrease due to the fact that the county is not funding, you know, every single course the student wants to take,” Reeder said.

Newly elected SGA officers gather for an event in the Hawk’s Nest after a special election in February.

Photo by Nathan Warner

Continued on Page 3

starting to trend back up.”

In spring 2022, 9,229 students were enrolled at AACC. The following spring, enrollment was up to 9,683.

Reeder attributed the increase of adult learners coming back to school to an expanded selection of online classes.

Continued on Page 3

2 | Campus Current | 2025 | April

Editorial

Meet the Staff Editor-in-Chief Jose Gonzalez Associate Editor Lily Peaper Features Editor Waleska Cruz Daily Editor Lauren Sheesley Graphic Designer Mattie Peri Reporters Morgan Brown Ayla Cole Divine Mesumbe Hudson Toth Photographers Timyha Furlonge Nathan Warner Sydney Wilson Faculty Adviser Sharon O’Malley

Photographers on Page 1, top Jose Gonzalez Wikimedia Commons Campus Current Archive

Invest in student businesses Editorial Board

Every so often, a group of students hoping to make it as business owners set up table-sized stores on the Quad and sell the things they’ve made by hand: jewelry, cookies, stickers, crocheted keychains and plushies.

Once a semester, a bunch of business students-turnedentrepreneurs join Hawk Trade—a showcase for student-created businesses—in the cafeteria. It’s a mecca for shoppers looking for lowpriced, one-of-a-kind, cuteas-a-button items made by people just like us.

Why not shop there instead of at Amazon or Target? We’re all in favor of supporting local businesses, and there’s nothing more local than what’s available here on campus.

We know it’s a big ask in a world of overnight shipping. Still, we want to encourage you to wait for a pop-up shop to appear on the Quad or seek out one of these student artisans and spend your hard-earned money right here on campus.

Lately, it seems that our government is more likely to support billionaires than working-class people during hardships like the pandemic.

So while we wait to see what the upcoming months bring,

Letter from a leader

we want to urge everyone to invest in their local communities, starting with the one where you take classes.

The first image you picture when you think of your community might be your team members or your neighbors. But our community includes the classmates, faculty and staff we spend so much time with right here on campus. Let’s support them.

One of our favorite ways is through pop-up shops.

Upcoming pop-up days are Wednesday, April 16, and Monday, May 5. Both are on the Quad from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hawk Trade is on Thursday, April 10, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the Student Union building cafeteria.

The pop-up shops highlight all different types of student businesses, including those selling clothing and accessories and sometimes students offering services like home repairs and IT help.

Everything is reasonably priced, and some vendors even have deals for returning customers.

Truthfully, we were shocked—in a good way— by the quality and quantity our peers were capable of producing while keeping up with classes and other jobs they might have. And it just feels better being able to

Students support their peers by buying from their occasional pop-up shops on the Quad.

Photo by Timyha Furlonge support a growing business, compared with always shopping with titans like Amazon.

The pop-up shops offer a chance to talk face-to-face with the creators of the products and even get an insight into why they started these businesses. Some of the businesses are completely selfrun, while others are collaborations with family members.

But this isn’t the only option on campus to support the community. Last issue, we did a deep dive into business professor Shad Ewart and his students, who run a business selling rain barrels. Rain barrels are low-maintenance items that can help lower your water bills at home.

AACC also holds numerous free events each month

that can help students who are on a strict budget.

During the first week of each month, for example, the Office of Student Engagement and the Health and Wellness Center host a produce market, often in the Hawk’s Nest or on the Health and Life Sciences Building’s patio. The event, known as Wellness Wednesday, allows students to grab locally grown fruits and vegetables for free.

Next time you find yourself about to press the “Buy Now” button in your online shopping cart, remember all of the unique handmade items available right here on campus.

Shopping locally benefits the seller and the buyer—and our community.

Don’t drive yet? Give it time Waleska Cruz Features Editor

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101 College Parkway Arnold, MD 21012

I have my driver’s license now, but the journey to getting it was a long ride.

When I was 15 or 16, my friends always talked about getting their licenses and driving around. I was never interested in learning to drive. I was fine with just asking my parents for rides and even told them that when I got older, I would just rely on Ubers to get around. Waleska Cruz, a second-year transfer studies student and Campus Current’s feaMy mom tried to get me tures editor, got her license in July 2024. to learn to drive, but over Photo by Lily Peaper time she gave up because I was so unmotivated. As I got I just wasn’t interested. changed. I started feeling a I still have a long way older, she became more frusI did what she asked just sense of motivation and ea- to go with driving because I trated and pushed me hard- to get her off my back. Finally, gerness that my friends had suck at parking. But if you’re er. She would schedule my though, I took the learner’s probably felt all those years still working on getting your learner’s permit exam ap- permit exam—three times. ago. I said I wanted to get my driver’s license, take your pointments and, to get ready Once I passed that hur- license for myself, not just time. Everyone’s journey is for them, she would research dle and got my permit, she for my mom. different, and it’s important practice tests, order me to didn’t stop. She woke me up I have to give a huge to go at your own pace. study for them, and then early to practice driving and shout-out to my mom. Thanks Stay motivated, keep make me take at least five made me drive her around to her support, I eventually practicing and remember: practice exams a day. when she ran errands. got my driver’s license on July You’ll get there when the It made my head explode.

Eventually, my attitude 31, 2024, at 20 years old. time is right for you.

Campus Current | 2025 | April | 3

News

All SGA positions up for grabs in election Continued from Page 1

The Student Government Association will hold an election for president, executive vice president and other offices starting April 28.

Photo by Jose Gonzalez

plicants to verify that they intend to run for office before the candidates begin campaigning.

Students eligible to run for SGA president must have a 2.25 cumulative GPA and must have completed at least 67% of the classes they have started.

Brisbane said candidates for SGA president should be committed to serving for a year as a voice for students.

Enrollment increases at community college Continued from Page 1

“We are trying to focus on adult learners,” Reeder said. “So we do have a … very big increase in adult learner populations, and that’s in all [age] categories.”

According to the American Association of Community Colleges, enrollment in public two-year colleges grew 5.8% in fall 2024, more than initially estimated. Enrollment

for spring 2025 increased nationwide by 3.9%, according to the association.

“Coming back from COVID would definitely, I think, be a nationwide trend that you’ll see, but there could be other situations,” Reeder said. “So for instance, Maryland in particular, we had the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. So we saw an increase in dualenrolled students. … You might not see that in, say,

North Carolina, if they don’t have a focus on that.”

Reeder added: “Now we are kind of trending back down with dual-enrolled students because the county school system put some limitations on how many courses a student can take.”

AACC saw a 5.8% decrease in dual-enrollment students, 104 fewer students than last spring.

Enrollment in health sciences classes increased by

and a personal training certificate in 2018, both from AACC, encouraged students to run for SGA offices.

“It’s an opportunity to be of service, and that, in my hopes, would serve whoever it is,” Dales said. “To believe in yourself, to step up and be a leader and be a part of that.”

The election will close on May 4. Campus Current will host a debate for SGA presidential candidates during the week of April 21 if the race is contested.

Spring enrollment rates hit their highest point since the spring 2020 semester.

Graph by Mattie Peri 18%, or 240 students, while engineering and math enrollments were up 26%, or 70 students, Reeder said.

Minority students saw an 8.8% increase compared

to last spring, including a 10.2% increase in both Black and Hispanic/Latino students and an 11.8% increase in students of multiple race/ ethnicities.

AACC reported 1,677 dual-enrolled students registered this semester, down from 1,780 last spring.

1,509 of those students attend public high schools while the rest are homeschooled or attend private schools.

“We’re thinking that’s probably contributing to, you know, some of the families not deciding to enroll,” Reeder said.

The 7% dip—a loss of 143 public high school students—in fall 2024 marked the first time AACC saw a decrease in dualenrolled students since 2022, Reeder said.

Cassandra Moore, AACC’s director of enrollment, development and admissions, said she doesn’t expect the number to drop any further.

“I don’t have a sense that we go from 25% to lower,” Moore said. “I have no sense of that.”

Dual-enrolled student Jules Baquié said it was disappointing when the ECAP program capped the number of courses highschoolers could take for free.

“If the cost of [dual enrollment] increases, or, like, you have to pay [more for tuition], the enrollment will decrease majorly,” Baquié added, “because you’re allowed to have the opportunity of higher education without paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars.”

Daphne Breneman, a dual-enrolled student, agreed, and added, “It wouldn’t be fair … because not many people can afford going to college.”

High school student registration dropping Continued from Page 1

Daphne Breneman is one of 1,509 students who take classes at AACC while also attending high school.

Photo courtesy of Daphne Breneman

“I think serving as that voice and being able to make change happen is the crux of the position,” said Brisbane, who noted candidates should have a strong character, work ethic and willingness to work with others and solve problems.

The new president will replace Meredith Dales, a second-year kinesiology student, who won the February special election.

Dales, who earned an associate degree in art in 2014

But the county at that time limited the 11th- and 12th-graders enrolled in the Early College Access Program, or ECAP, to four or fewer classes a year. And it restricted the courses that students could take to a list approved by AACPS. Since then, high schoolers who choose to enroll in more courses than allowed or in ineligible classes pay 75% of the normal AACC tuition for each class.

Likewise, home-schooled and private school students pay 75% of regular tuition for all of the college classes they take.

The college’s enrollment of home-schooled and private high school students tumbled by 26.6% since last spring, Reeder said.

4 | Campus Current | 2025 | April

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Campus Current | 2025 | April | 5

News

Careers Center gets new coffee machine Lauren Sheesley Daily Editor

Students can order drip coffee, lattes and hot chocolate from the coffee vending machine in Careers.

Photo by Jose Gonzalez

AACC has a new coffee vending machine in Careers, the only one on campus.

The gourmet coffee machine, which serves drinks from the coffee company Seattle’s Best, was installed on the second floor in January.

“I think if the [coffee machine] works, and the students get the coffee they want, then I think it’s great,” Events and Food Services Manager Peter Kaiser, who is in charge of all vending machines on campus, said.

“I think it’s a good addition

Student clubs begin returning to campus Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief Lauren Sheesley Daily Editor

The college has approximately 20% fewer student clubs than it did before the pandemic, but new organizations have been sprouting up regularly over the past couple of semesters.

Lea Brisbane of the Office of Student Engagement said approximately 50 clubs have either started up or resumed operations since the campus reopened in 2021.

The Muslim Student Association is one of them.

“I said that I would give it another try, right?” Muslim Student Association President Abdulrahman Ahmadzai said. “I went to ask students, and this time I was able to open it. And now I

feel really, really happy.”

Brisbane, a leadership and involvement specialist, said many clubs dissolved or paused after AACC shut down in-person classes and moved to online learning after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“I think by the time people got a grasp of ‘OK, now we’re switching into online learning, we’re switching into how to accommodate and let people in society still function,’ a lot of the student leaders were probably gone by that point,” Brisbane said.

“There’s already a really high turnover of our students here [pre- and post-pandemic]. … Student leaders are always changing.”

Among the clubs that returned are the International Student Association, the Esports Club, Students Out to Destroy Assumptions, the

Architecture Club and the Drone Club.

“It really depends on the students and the motivation,” Brisbane said. “And if they have the drive to kind of pull and do it again.”

At first, said Architecture Club President William Menjivar, “The initiative to get [the club] back up and started wasn’t there.”

Then, the club’s faculty adviser approached Menjivar about taking it over.

“Professor [Jeffery] Roberson took that initiative and approached me with an opportunity, and I took it,” Menjivar said.

Menjivar said the club’s leaders have had trouble recruiting members, a challenge other presidents have said they are having as well.

“The only trouble I’m having is reaching the newer students,” Menjivar said.

to our offerings.”

Kaiser said a vendor approached him about installing a coffee machine on campus when Seattle’s Best started making the units. His response, he said: “We could put one in and try it out.”

Kaiser noted that the campus has not had a coffee machine in the past because “they haven’t been very reliable in the past.”

Coffee machines must be located near a water source.

The vending company might put more of them on campus if this machine does well, Kaiser said.

First-year transfer stud-

ies student Amber Brown, who bought hot chocolate from the new coffee machine on a recent morning, said she hopes the college installs more so students don’t have to walk so far for their caffeine fix.

First-year nursing student Breanna Hilton agreed, suggesting the campus should add a coffee machine to the Health and Life Sciences Building.

“I’m shocked we don’t have one, actually,” Hilton said. “Yeah, it’s kind of crazy.”

Associate Editor Lily Peaper contributed to this story.

Student clubs like the Esports Club are returning to campus after a long break that started when the campus closed in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Photo by Divine Mesumbe “Since all the marketing, I’ve really done it by word of mouth. … So that’s a challenge, but we’re definitely working to make it known.”

Ahmadzai, a first-year cybersecurity student, agreed.

“At the beginning of the semester, I faced some challenges because I wasn’t able to find students,” Ahmadzai said. “I almost gave up.”

Some clubs, including Amaranth, the student arts journal, Campus Current, the

student newspaper, and the Super Science Club pushed through during the pandemic without disbanding.

To stay alive, a number of science-themed clubs that had operated pre-pandemic banded together to form one, larger group.

“And as soon as COVID kind of was, like, stopping, it just grew and grew,” President Alex Branford, a thirdyear plant science student, said.

6 | Campus Current | 2025 | April

Campus Life

Controversial artists still have lots of fans Lily Peaper Associate Editor

Fun and Games

Some students say they are able to separate artists from their art when their behavior is controversial.

Second-year business management student Michael Dang, for instance, still listens to alternative rap star Joji, despite his past as Filthy Frank, whose songs and actions have been characterized as everything from racist to homophobic to cruel.

“Oh, my goodness, ‘Die for You’ is a big one,” Dang said. “It gets me in my feelings, and I don’t cry ever unless I listen to that song.”

Music and TV fans on campus said it’s easy to forgive the behavior of their favorite artists because their art is so good.

Xuefa Gbaguidi, a firstyear nursing student, still finds herself enjoying controversial artists like Kanye

West when she listens to Spotify.

West has most recently been under fire for selling T-shirts with a swastika, which is associated with the Nazi Party, on them.

Julissa Mendoza Robles, a second-year creative writing student, agreed with Gbaguidi.

“There’s this reggaeton singer I listen to … called Nicky Jam,” she said. “He released an album that I really liked. And then, like, two weeks later, he was at a Trump rally. Oh, and damn, he’s Puerto Rican, and it’s very well known that Trump does not support Puerto Rico.”

Mendoza Robles said she was disappointed because the artist’s actions went against her own political views.

“But the thing is,” Mendoza Robles said, “I had kind of already fallen in love with the album, so I kept listen-

ing to the songs.”

The students said they put blinders on in order to enjoy their favorite artist’s music or TV shows.

First-year creative writing student Claudia McCandless is one of them.

“I view [drag queen RuPaul] with a grain of salt,” McCandless said, noting that the TV host hasn’t always been the most welcoming to trans women on his show, “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

On the reality TV competition, RuPaul searches for the next drag superstar.

“He was very hesitant to let trans women onto [the show],” McCandless said.

“And he would make, like, controversial statements.

There used to be a part of ‘Drag Race’ where he would say ‘she-male’ and just things like that.”

McCandless added that RuPaul was involved in a controversy in 2020 when he unapologetically admitted that

Students on campus say they still enjoy the work of celebrities like RuPaul, who was involved in a controversy in 2020.

Wikimedia Commons photo fracking—drilling into the earth to release the gas inside—was taking place on his husband’s Wyoming ranch.

McCandless acknowledged that RuPaul has made the “Drag Race” community more inclusive by having trans women and trans men compete on the show.

“I’ve been watching [the show] since I was, like, 12, so I’ve seen it, like, grow and progress and become better,” McCandless said. “So I do,

like, feel better about being a person that, like, watches the show, and I do buy merch sometimes.”

Mendoza Robles recalled a time in fifth grade when a friend told her not to listen to Lady Gaga because she smokes.

“Sometimes you just have to like the artist anyway, despite what others think,” she said. “People have different ideas of what is wrong as well.”

Campus Current | 2025 | April | 7

Campus Life

Take a break from all stressors in SUN 120 Waleska Cruz Features Editor

A quiet space in the Student Union building helps students feel less stress. In fact, it’s called the StressLess Room.

The StressLess Room in SUN 120 gives students, faculty and staff 20 to 30 minutes to relax, one at a time, by sitting in a heated massage chair with a foot massager. Or they can stretch on the room’s yoga mat or use the aromatherapy diffuser, which comes with a variety of relaxing scents.

“Our radiologic technology program … [was] showing us it as a free, awesome way to kind of reduce stress and stop in, in the middle of studying, or just whenever we wanted to just kind of decompress and have a quiet, calm space,” fourth-year medical coding student Heidi Beliczky said. “I thought the massage chair was very cool.”

Katie Keys, the project director for sexual violence prevention, said, “We are trying to keep it as comforting as possible.”

“It’s really special to be able to have a place like that on campus where students can come in [when] visibly, they’re either shaken up or just at their limit, and when they come out, they’re able to ... crack jokes and we’ll be able to have a conversation,” Keys said. “And being able to see that transition is really nice. It’s like validation that it works.”

Retired Health Services Manager Beth Mays opened the StressLess Room in 2005.

Stephanie Jenkins, a registered nurse, said the StressLess room is “very, very popular and very used daily by students. It’s one of our most popular services.”

“It helps me just kind of get away,” second-year kinesiology student Tarra Dawkins said. “It helps me… turn

everything off for 25 to 30 minutes. So I go in there, just so I could take a step back and slow myself down when I can’t ground myself in the other ways that I typically would.”

Jenkins said counseling is available to anyone who comes to the room in distress.

“If someone comes in and they’re having an anxiety attack or panic attack, we kind of, you know, talk to them for a bit and then have them use the StressLess Room,” Jenkins said. “Obviously, if they need more resources, we can take them up to Counseling as well, because we work very closely with Counseling.”

Beliczky said she plans to start using the room.

“I’m a single mom and I’m busy, and honestly, a room like that sounds heavenly.”

Users must sign in and are not allowed to bring food

A room designed to help students relax and destress is home to a massage chair, yoga mat and aromatherapy defuser.

Campus Current archive or drinks into the room, Keys said.

The StressLess Room

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8 | Campus Current | 2025 | April

Campus Life

Students say hobbies cut down screen time Ayla Cole Reporter

Students who researched the impact of excessive screen time for a mass media class have some advice for their classmates: Get a hobby.

First-year nursing student Jayla Jones is “trying to be outside, going to the gym or finding some type of activity to do while streaming instead of just laying in bed and eating snacks.”

Likewise, first-year creative writing student Claudia McCandless is spending more time reading and less on the phone.

“I like to read,” McCandless said. “So I try to kind of counteract being on the phone or computer with reading … because that was instilled in me pretty young.”

Communications professor Jessica Mattingly said unplugging from streaming is a good idea.

“It’s just getting away from it,” Mattingly said.

“Taking digital inventories of your screen time and scrutinizing that. Stay off your phones during obligations. Make that your digital cleanse.”

AACC students, like most of their Gen Z peers, are so

attached to their screens because social media is designed to suck them in.

“Media use is designed for our personal interests,” Mattingly, academic chair of communications, said. “Your phone knows what you want to see because it tracks everything.”

More than 50% of Americans believe they are addicted to their phones, and up to 60% of teens show signs of internet addiction, according to the Center of Internet and Technology Addiction.

“Technology is more normalized now,” said Jones, who said she learned about

Whether it is on a pencil case, a shirt or in their hair, female students are reclaiming bows.

Students around campus are wearing bows, reflecting a national trend. Pinterest reported a 190% increase in searches for “bow necklace” and a 180% boost in requests for posts on “bow outfit” in 2024.

One reason is the cuteness, according to fans.

“I think they’re pretty cute,” first-year undecided student Lily Fulton said. “I don’t know. It’s very girly.

And I think I’m pretty girly.”

Some students wear

Mechatronics device ups interest in class Divine Mesumbe Reporter

A mechatronics professor is refining a sand plotter—a device that uses magnets and a metal ball to draw shapes in sand—that one of his pre-pandemic classes built.

Professor Tim Callinan said the project could increase interest in the mechatronics program. “[When people] see what we’re making, what our stu-

dents are capable of … people will walk in and be like, ‘Oh, I want to make one of those,’” laboratory technician Syl Merello, an AACC alumnus who works with Callinan, said.

The mechatronic device uses a specialized microprocessor and is programmed to read XY coordinates, calculate how much the metal ball needs to move along these coordinates, and manipulate magnets to make sure that

screen-time addictions in the class. “We grew up with it. … We can watch TV on our phones now.” “[Kids are] growing up in an environment of just having access to it so freely,”

Mattingly agreed. “It’s a part of everyone’s everyday life.”

Internet and screen addiction can have some negative effects, including anxiety, insomnia and irritability, the students learned.

bows for practical reasons.

Others see the popularity of bows as a way for women to reclaim repressed femininity.

“When you’re a teenager, you’re kind of growing up, and … feeling like you need to reject that … element of femininity and girliness that you used to dress in,” second-year graphic design student Zingray Germershausen said.

She continued, “I started to grow up more and realize, like, I don’t actually care. And … I just … love being girly.”

Other students, like Fulton, said they wear bows to express themselves.

“It’s the way that I express myself, and if I want to present myself as being

young and youthful,” Fulton said.

New York Fashion Week featured bows prominently.

However, business professor Stephanie Goldenberg pointed to a clear-cut reason for the rise in popularity in bows.

“One, you stand out to be different, or one, you join in with a fashion or a group or a trend to have community,” Goldenberg, the academic chair for entrepreneurial studies, said.

One of those trends might be the coquette aesthetic.

Popularized by artists like Lana Del Rey, Laufey and Sabrina Carpenter, the staples of bow fashion include pearls, lace and pastel colors.

Bows back in fashion for girly girls at AACC Morgan Brown Reporter

Women students say wearing bows—an international trend—is an expression of their femininity.

Photo by Lily Peaper

Too much screen time can make students anxious and irritable, and can cause insomnia.

Adobe Stock photo

the object moves.

According to Merello, the project started in 2018, when five students worked with Merello and Callinan to complete the first version of the sand plotter.

The pandemic paused the project for three years.

Callinan said he was inspired by puffer fish to create the device.

Male puffer fish create immaculate patterns in the sand to attract mates, ac-

A sand plotter on the second floor of CALT draws intricate patterns using magnets and a metal ball.

Photo by Waleska Cruz cording to Callinan.

“It’s really, really complicated … [and] it’s really interesting,” Callinan said.

Callinan also cited Japa-

nese sand gardens as another inspiration for the project.

The sand plotter is displayed on the second floor of CALT.

Campus Current | 2025 | April | 9

Campus Life

Students need skills to balance their time Waleska Cruz Features Editor

Second-year biology student Kimora Barrow recalls the moment when she realized she had a problem managing her time.

A senior in high school, she had already fallen behind in her statistics class early in the semester. Come finals week, she rushed to catch up on all of her homework and exams, but it was impossible.

“I found a solution, but it was still very stressful,” Barrow said. She dropped the class.

Barrow isn’t the only college student—at AACC or otherwise—who struggles with time management.

According to the productivity experts at Lifehack Method, a productivity coaching site, 82% of people don’t have a time-management system in place, and the average worker spends 51%

of the workday on tasks of little to no value.

Third-year transfer studies student Ev Dahl is one of them.

“I’ve got a very poor working memory,” Dahl said. “So it’s like, ‘I need to sit down and do my homework but, oh wait, I should go do my laundry,’ or, ‘Oh, no, wait, I got to, like, organize this one thing.’ And then it’s like, the whole day goes by and I haven’t done anything fully, because I’ve done 13 things partially.”

Carolyn Pratt, the department chair for Achieving College and Career Advancement, said she advises every student to have a calendar, whether it’s digital or paper.

“Some strategies I suggest are having a digital calendar, having an Outlook calendar, which AACC offers to you to schedule,” Pratt said. “What times am I going to be in class? What times am I going to be at work? What

times are [for spending time with] my loved ones? So I know that I’m also getting time to see the people I want to see, utilizing those digital calendars.”

Some students recommend the same thing.

“It makes me so much better when I have an app [like Google Tasks] that I can put in everything I have to do in a week and then I can set each day for each, so I can make myself do it that day and not have to do five assignments in one night,” first-year engineering student Kylie O’Neil said.

Barrow said she tried using a paper planner, but “I never remember to write things down.” So she switched to an online calendar.

Barrow also estimates how long each task will take.

“So like, if it takes me 30 minutes, I’ll set a … reminder for my next assignment at, like, 6:30 p.m. and so on.

More than 80% of people don’t have a time-management system in place, one study says.

Adobe Stock photo The only tip I have is, like, just a time block.”

Third-year plant science student Reni Zolt said she recommends that students keep trying to find their personal balance.

“I would say give yourself

time to do the things that you want to do productively, and then also give yourself time to really buckle down and think,” Zolt said. “Just getting it started and getting the ball rolling, you will not be disappointed. It will help greatly.”

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10 | Campus Current | 2025 | April

Clubs

Overcast Improv club has upcoming shows Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief

AACC’s improv troupe will host its final shows of the semester in April. Members will play classic improv games on stage in HUM 112.

Photo by Jose Gonzalez

Overcast Improv will host its final spring show on April 25 and 26.

The performance will be the fourth of the school year for the club, run by co-presidents Jason Kalshoven, a third-year film studies student, and Éva Parry, a second-year history student.

“We’re really looking forward to ending the semester with a good send off for the club,” Kalshoven said. “We’ve just been doing so much this year."

Overcast Improv’s two other shows were a performance based on movie

Architecture student revives org. this term Hudson Toth Reporter

AACC’s Architecture Club relaunched in February, five years after COVID-19 shut it down.

According to club President William Menjivar, the group’s goal is the success of students in the field of architecture. The club plans to set up portfolio workshops, invite four-year colleges with architecture programs to transfer events and potentially feature keynote speakers.

“As we’re in the process of kind of launching, we’re in

the process of also thinking who we are and [what] we want to do and how we want to serve our students,” assistant professor Jeffery Roberson, the club’s adviser, said.

AACC’s Architecture Club is a chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, which offers students scholarships, professional development and a conference.

Menjivar, a second-year architecture student, claimed the main challenge in starting the club back up after a lengthy COVID-19-induced break was for “someone to actually just pick … up the

baton and run … with it.”

Roberson added because all of the pre-pandemic club members graduated, the organization no longer had anyone to move into the leadership role.

“There’s a lot of work in terms of, like, getting a club off the ground, and it’s a pretty big lift,” Roberson said. “Usually what happens is, you know, the students that have been around for a year or two, they’re ... helping younger students transition into those [kinds] of leadership roles, and once that’s not there anymore, you

sequels in December and the “SKETCHy Behavior” series in March, which consisted of non-improvised sketch comedy shows.

The club also worked with AACC Theater to host Black Box, a collection of short plays by students.

Parry said the club has grown since it started in fall 2023 and she didn’t expect it to attract many members.

This semester, up to 30 students have attended each club meeting to try out their improvisational skills.

“I think when we started, we probably had like, maybe six people that were showing up regularly,” Parry said.

“That has definitely been

something that’s been really, like, fun to see grow.”

Kalshoven said the upcoming show will feature classic sets of improv games.

“Our improv show [goes] back to the basics, just classic, regular, normal, cool, fun improv,” Kalshoven said.

“And it’s going to be great.”

Club member Jaycee Cord said she’s looking forward to the upcoming shows.

“I think that all of the cast members are hilarious, and they do great things with their games, and their improv skills are just perfect,” Cord, a first-year film student, said. “You will always catch something funny ... going on.”

Second-year architecture student William Menjivar restarted an architecture club this semester.

Photo by Jose Gonzalez know you’re really starting a new club.”

This club is recruiting students who are interested in design, not just those who want to be architects, according to Roberson.

“Our main demograph-

ic we’re targeting is architecture students, but it can be for anyone who isn’t,” Menjivar said. “It takes interest in architecture, [but] it doesn’t have to be architecture. It could be construction management or anything.”

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Campus Current | 2025 | April | 11

Entertainment

Profs warn of AI use in work Lily Peaper Associate Editor

Professors on campus said they are worried about students who rely heavily on artificial intelligence, or AI, during their time at AACC. AI is software that was created to think and learn like humans. AACC professors told Campus Current it has useful aspects for students and professors who need a reprieve from repetitive tasks. However, some students have used AI to complete entire assignments.

“Instead of embarrassing themselves in front of the professors, or showing that they don’t know something, it’s cool to show the professors that they are the best and they know everything, [so] they use AI,” medical lab technician Reham Okily from the medical laboratory science program, said. “It’s easier for them, and it saves a lot of time. But they will graduate and they

don’t know anything. They may kill someone.”

Okily helps train medical laboratory students to perform scientific testing on samples from patients. In their future jobs, those graduates will report the results to doctors.

“If you are using it wisely, it’s really useful,” Okily said.

“If it’s just because you want to graduate without even understanding anything, it hurts a lot.”

Some English professors, like Wayne Kobylinski, also said they are concerned that students are missing out on valuable learning opportunities in the classroom.

“In my courses, I tell my students that plugging a prompt for a writing assignment into generative AI is like signing up for a weight-lifting class and then coming with a robot that lifts all the weights,” Kobylinski said.

Erin Gable, director of the Legal Studies Institute, said she sees the same thing with students in her department.

Recent studies have reported that students use AI in English classes the most.

Getty Images photo “Somebody that produces an object, makes a painting or a cup, they get paid for that product,” Gable said. “For attorneys and legals, our commodity, what we get paid for, is our brain.

It’s how well we know the law, how well we know the legal concepts.”

In late 2024, a Statista survey revealed approximately 75% of public relations professionals who use AI at work mentioned that their younger or newer colleagues are not learning the profession’s principles be-

cause they rely too heavily on such tools.

Okily said the problem affects students studying multiple fields.

“If I’m giving you an essay to write, you can use [AI] to get more ideas,” Okily said. “But find it yourself. Don’t ask the AI to write it for you and then ask it to rephrase it, because it’s the same thing. You didn’t do it yourself.”

AI has come a long way in the last couple of years.

In January the Business of Apps revealed in a report

that ChatGPT has approximately 250 million weekly users. The site can be used to summarize texts, give feedback on grammar, generate a prompt, write a full paper or even just play a game.

Kobylinski has found in his classes that students use AI when writing discussion assignments the most.

“The point of the writing class is to go through the process … to get experience with the kinds of things that you need to do to be a writer,” Kobylinski said.

12 | Campus Current | 2025 | April

Sports

Softball team will not compete this season Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief

The Riverhawks will not field a softball team this season because of a lack of players.

“We unfortunately couldn’t go on with our scheduled season,” Athletic Director Duane Herr said.

Softball only had four players, including two returners, registered for the season, compared with last year’s nine athletes.

The last time AACC Athletics canceled a sports season was during the 20142015 school year, when so many women’s lacrosse players suffered injuries that too few healthy athletes were available for play.

“It happens pretty frequently across the [National Junior College Athletic Association], especially within Region 20,” Herr said.

“It was unfortunate,” Herr said. “We had a plan.

We’ve been working on the

field, and we’re always ready to get out there and watch our student athletes perform. … And it just didn’t happen. So the student athletes that were interested, you know, it’s disappointing to say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry we won’t have a team this year.’”

Second-year transfer studies student Madison Conlon said it was hard to hear the season got canceled.

“I’ve been playing since I was probably, like, 8 years old,” Conlon, a returning first

AACC’s first-ever women’s golf team is getting a late start to the season because the cold and snowy winter weather delayed recruiting.

The team, with a roster of six players, is scheduled to play its first game on April 3 against the College of Southern Maryland.

“We started late in the recruiting process, and we have a few brand-new golfers, and so [we’re] teaching them the game, working on their skills, and getting them

Some athletes play 2 sports for Riverhawks Jose Gonzalez Editor-in-Chief

Playing one sport at the college level—let alone two—takes time and energy.

But for some student athletes who play more than one sport, it’s achievable because they know how to manage their time.

“Basically, I take all my classes during the day, and then … I have a good two to three hours before practice … [where] I try to get all my work done,” Oliver Rivas, a first-year architecture student, said. “I just try to keep good time management … and also enjoy the sport that I play.”

The college has at least eight students on team rosters for more than one sport this school year.

According to Athletic Director Duane Herr, students participating in more than one sport is not uncommon.

“We have seen it,” Herr said. “Especially with cross country to women’s lacrosse and soccer to women’s lacrosse.”

Herr added: “I think the connection … for [women’s] soccer to basketball has been a little bit more than we’ve seen in the past.”

Of the eight students who play on two teams, three played women’s soccer and basketball.

baseman and catcher, said.

“I’ve played it every single season, so to hear that, like, my softball career is over, I mean, yeah, that was hard.”

Still, Herr said he expects the Riverhawks will have a softball season next year.

“They’re making several

phone calls, making visits, emails, you know, all the appropriate ways to communicate with potential students and seeing what they can do to get student athletes to come play here,” Herr said.

“We’re right back to recruiting now for next year.”

comfortable to get them to the level of where they can compete,” head coach Mike Rice said.

Rice said he expects the team to play six matches during the season and compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Southeastern District Championships and “see where we go from there.”

Rice said the women golfers “are going down in history as being the first players.”

“I’m excited to make history,” golfer Arianna Whited, a second-year forensics student, said. “We didn’t know we were the first women’s

team, but once we figured that out, we were excited.”

Second-year public health student Maureena Peters said she is new to golf.

“My goal is just learning the sport of golf because it’s a lifetime sport I can play,” Peters said.

Rice said he is “honored” to be the women’s golf coach at AACC. “I was extremely excited about it,” Rice added. “I’ve coached women golfers for, you know, years now, along with men golfers. And then with this opportunity, and it being the first of its kind in Maryland, it’s a great honor.”

Women’s golf starts practicing for games Lauren Sheesley Daily Editor

Women’s golf will start its season on April 3. Shown, first-year golfer Arianna Whited.

Photo by Sydney Wilson

AACC Athletics canceled its softball season this spring because of a lack of players.

Campus Current archive

Still, playing two sports can present challenges, like overlapping game and practice schedules.

“Each season, there’s always going to be off-season workouts for the other sport,” Rivas, a midfielder and defender for men’s soccer and lacrosse, said.

Playing schedules for women’s soccer and basketball competed for her time, Holly Wall, a second-year communications student who plays both, said. “I had to, like, miss the first month of our basketball season this past year, and that was tough.”

Still, Wall, a shooting guard on the women's basketball team and a winger

Some athletes, like second-year business communications student Holly Wall, right, play more than one sport.

Photo courtesy of Holly Wall and attacker on the women’s soccer team, said the experience has benefitted her.

“I think it’s a great way to make friends,” Wall said.

“I think it’s a great way to, like, find support outside of school, both through coaches and, like, our athletic staff,

and you get that support, like, all year round.”

Women’s basketball head coach Lionel Makell agreed.

“I love it when they play multiple sports because that means they got to keep their academics on point,” he said.