COM major becomes editor of newspaper
Tomi Brunton Contributor
A second-year communications student became editor-in-chief of the student newspaper in August.
Jose Gonzalez, who served as sports editor of Campus Current last semes-
ter, said he plans for the newspaper to be fun, created by good people and supportive of professional advancement during his term as editor-in-chief.
Gonzalez added it’s an honor to take on the role.
“It does mean a lot, because I did put a lot of hard
AACC students in an informal poll say they like Kamala Harris for president.
Adobe Stock photo
work into it,” Gonzalez said. “I’m feeling pretty confident, pretty excited.”
Gonzalez replaced dual-enrolled student Tomi Brunton, who was editor for two semesters before moving to the position of manag- Jose Gonzalez, a second-year communications student, is Campus Current’s new editor-in-chief.
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Informal survey finds campus favors Harris
Divine Mesumbe Co-Editor
Nearly half of students in an informal Campus Current poll said they plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
High school students face new limitations
Public high school students who also are enrolled in classes at AACC face new restrictions on the number and kinds of courses they can take for free.
Waleska Cruz Co-Editor Starting this semester, most 11th- and 12th-grade students enrolled in the Early College Access Program, or ECAP, will not pay tuition if they take four or fewer classes a year and select those courses from a list approved by Anne Arundel
County Public Schools. Eligibility to participate depends on grade point averages and performance in some math and English classes.
“That’s a little bit different this year; there’s a list
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In a poll of 25 students on campus for summer classes, 11 said they will vote for Harris for U.S. president, compared with three students who said they will vote for former President Donald Trump.
Five students said they have not decided which candidate they will vote for, while five said they will not vote and one student will vote for Independent candi-
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to choose college courses from an approved list.
Sock It! 12:30-3 p.m. SUN 1
Bring a clean pair of socks to donate to House of Hope Fall Fun Field Day Noon-2:30 p.m. Siegert Field & Lot D
11:15
with
Photo by Sam Gauntt
Sara Eger, who works with high school students taking classes here, says the students will have
Photo by Waleska Cruz
Meet the Staff
You can survive your 1st year
Editorial Board
Your first semester of community college can be scary. There’s so much about going to college that you just don’t know yet.
The top editors at Campus Current are all second-year students here, and we felt as scared a year ago as you do now.
Contributors
Tomi Brunton
Carter DeSilva
Dan Elson
Sam Gauntt
Ross Birckhead-Morton
Faculty Adviser
Sharon O’Malley
As our first semester went on for us, though, we learned a few things that made the journey a lot less scary.
Here is a short list of some of the things we wish we had known on our first day as Riverhawks last year.
It’s OK to ask for help. Most professors are open to answering questions, and a lot of them are even eager to. That’s why they come to school every day. Helping students is not a bother to them.
Another way to get help with your schoolwork is to find a tutor. The college has free tutors in business and accounting, homeland security, math, science and writing. Some of the tutors are
Letter from a leader
other students who have already taken the class you’re struggling with and some of them are faculty members. Most are available in person or online. Occasionally, you can find private tutors on bulletin boards around campus, but most of those charge a fee.
If your problem is more personal than academic, you can talk to a trained therapist on campus for free. It’s confidential and you can talk about anything you want.
You can make friends by joining a club. Unless a lot of your high school friends also came to AACC, there’s a good chance you hardly know anybody on campus.
Joining a student club is one of the best ways to make new friends once you get here. AACC has dozens of clubs to choose from, from Campus Current, to the Adventure Club, to the ceramics club, to the African Student Association.
If music is your thing, you can find classes that involve playing in a band, like a concert band. If you’re
Most professors are always willing to work with students who need help navigating their new environment. Shown, physics professor John Miller.
by Jose Gonzalez
good at sports, check out the many teams that play for the Riverhawks.
A good plan helps things go smoothly. You need to know which classes will transfer to the four-year university that you may have your eye on and what you need to take so you can graduate when you want to.
To that end, check in with your academic adviser on a regular basis. It’s the best way to keep yourself on track.
Another kind of planning involves your schedule. Don’t get so overscheduled that you have no time for clubs or friends or your parttime job. When you’re a college student, school really shouldn’t be your whole life. The best college experience is the one you’re prepared for. The editors at Campus Current hope you can benefit from our experience and have a great time as an AACC student.
Traveling brings perspective
Divine Mesumbe Co-Editor
Before this summer, I had never left the country before, even though I always desperately wanted to. So when my father asked me if I would travel with him to Canada to visit my Canadian relatives, I was quick to say yes.
Why be stuck within one world when there are hundreds out there to explore?
Foreign nations are the closest thing we have to parallel worlds. It’s always been so interesting to me how people can live completely different lives from ours and how we know so little about them.
We could know more, though. Even if you can’t travel, you can still take history classes, browse the internet and otherwise take an interest in other countries, especially those that are so close to us, like Canada.
Each country has a vast history, a vast web of events that shaped them. In understanding how a nation came to be and how the people were shaped by these events, it allows you to broaden your perspective.
I will never forget approaching the Canadian bor-
der with my father. Seeing how busy and packed it was, seeing the national flag of Canada waving proudly. I had rarely ever seen a flag other than our own in person.
Everything was new to me and I welcomed it all with open arms.
I officially entered Canada at 10:56 a.m. on May 18.
Canada truly felt like a different dimension to me. Or rather, a strange dream where everything was so different yet somehow familiar.
No one knew what I meant when I said “miles,” “feet” or “inches.” It was always “kilometers,” “meters” and “centimeters.” I had to quickly figure out how to translate the imperial system into the metric system when speaking with my relatives or other Canadian locals about the size or distance of something. It is only through that translation that I could convey the sheer scale of my journey to others.
The signs on the road were in English and French, or in French only, not in English only or English and Spanish. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to understand all of the French I heard and saw on signs and
Divine Mesumbe, a second-year computer science student, says he gained perspective on a trip to Canada.
by Waleska Cruz
on packages, and to be understood when I spoke my intermediate-level French with the locals.
Visiting Canada showed me what it was like to be in a world that is foreign to me.
It opened my eyes to the possibilities out there, and just how many unique experiences I can have and unique perspectives I can understand if I just go out and look for them.
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Campus Current gets new top editors in fall
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ing editor at AACC’s journal of the arts, Amaranth. Brunton remains on the Campus Current staff as a reporter.
Sharon O’Malley, the paper’s faculty adviser, said Gonzalez is smart, reliable and a good journalist.
“He writes with speed and accuracy,” O’Malley, a journalism professor, said. “He’s friendly. He’s fun. People like him. And I think that’s exactly what we need at the helm of Campus Current.”
O’Malley said the newspaper is starting the year with a small staff, as most of last year's team graduated in May, but she thinks it will be “a fantastic year.”
“We are basically coming back with … a very small handful of people,” O’Malley said. “But in terms of the core group that we already have, I have every confidence that they’re going to be able to pull it off, no matter how small the staff is in the beginning. And I also have every confidence that
the staff is going to grow big.”
Two associate editors will join Gonzalez on the editorial staff: second-year communications student Waleska Cruz and second-year computer science student Divine Mesumbe.
Cruz said Gonzalez is “perfect for the job” of editor-in-chief.
“He’s very smart and he’s a reliable person, and he’s really easy to talk to,” Cruz said. “He gets things done.”
Mesumbe said the edi-
tors are a “very good team” during an news-filled year.
“This is going to be a very productive semester,”
Mesumbe said. “It’s an election year. It’s, you know, the Olympics year. ... [There’s] a lot of stuff is going on.”
College survey finds support for VP Harris
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date Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I’ll have more rights [if Harris wins] than probably with Trump,” Salma Sesay, a third-year biology student, said.
According to an August poll by SurveyUSA, 48% of Americans said they will vote for Harris, compared
ECAP program limits free class enrollment
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of courses that are eligible,” Erin Reeder, AACC’s director of enrollment services integration, said. “They are still eligible to receive free courses at no cost to them. … But it’s really up to the high school … as to how many courses they can get at no cost and which courses are eligible.”
Students who choose to enroll in more courses than allowed or in ineligible classes will pay 75% of the normal AACC tuition for each class. Home-school and private school students will continue to pay 25% of regular tuition. Likewise, 11thand 12th-graders who do not meet all of the eligibility requirements but have a GPA of 3.0 may take a single AACC course per semester at no cost.
with 45% who said they will vote for Trump. In that poll, 4% said they’re undecided and 3% said they will vote for a lesser-known candidate.
Austin Hodges, a firstyear undecided student, said he plans to vote for Harris.
“She aligns the most with what I would expect from
someone in office,” Hodges said.
Jamie Blevins, a second-year nursing student, disagreed.
“If anybody can basically, like, change everything … it’s him,” Blevins, who will vote for Trump, said.
Nelson Zheng, a second-year dual-enrolled student, said he will not vote.
By fall 2023, 1,889 high school students were dual-enrolled at AACC.
Pre-Blueprint, community colleges and public school districts had started sharing the cost of tuition in 2013 for dual-enrolled students enrolled in up to four classes a year, according to The Baltimore Sun. After the Blueprint law lifted those limits, more high schoolers enrolled in community colleges across the state.
Under Blueprint, school districts pay 75% of each student’s tuition, and community colleges waive the
The number of high school students at AACC increased by approximately 30% after the Maryland Legislature passed a 2022 law, Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, to give public high school students free tuition at community colleges for as many courses as they could handle.
remaining 25%.
But county school districts had a hard time covering those costs as enrollments increased.
“You have a broader amount of students eligible for dual enrollment [under the expansion], but yet the Blueprint funding has not kept up with that,” Brad Phillips, executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, told The Baltimore Sun.
Reeder said she advises high school students to consult with their guidance counselors, who have information about which courses are eligible for free tuition.
“Our mission is to provide opportunity to students ... so students can, you know, accumulate credits before they gradudate from high school so they can save money. ... That’s very helpful for students,” Reeder said.
take
Second-year students Waleska Cruz (left) and Divine Mesumbe (right) will join Editor-in-Chief Jose Gonzalez at the helm of Campus Current this school year.
Photo by Sam Gauntt
Five of the 25 students who took a Campus Current poll in August say they will not vote for president. Adobe Stock photo
Dual-enrolled students may
fewer tuition-free courses at AACC starting this semester. Shown, Glen Burnie High School and AACC student Angel Alvires.
Photo by Waleska Cruz
Student, U.S. veteran joins Bd. of Trustees
Divine Mesumbe Co-Editor
A second-year cybersecurity student and U.S. Army veteran became a member of the AACC Board of Trustees in July.
Devin Keller, 27, replaced former student trustee Rachel Gwin, a nursing student.
“I think being a student trustee is a great way for me to represent the student view on the board,” Keller said. “It’s an honor and privilege to have the position.”
The student trustee has a vote on the eight-member Board of Trustees, which makes governing decisions for the college.
Student Engagement Director Amberdawn Cheatham said Keller will attend board meetings and community events, and will assist AACC
The Anne Arundel County Council approved the college’s budget.
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President Dawn Lindsay in several of her initiatives.
“So he’ll be very active in serving as a leader,” Cheatham said.
According to Keller, Kenneth Gilliard, the Student Achievement and Success Program retention adviser, recommended that he become a student trustee.
“I didn’t know too much about the higher echelons of a university or college,” Keller said. “I did not have plans of joining the Board of Trustees prior. … I wasn’t sure exactly if I had the qualifications. I mean, just meeting some of the other board members and talking to them, they are people with years of experience, degrees and other successful achievements.”
Keller said his goal is to “do the role justice.”
“I’ve been told about
Divine Mesumbe Co-Editor
The Anne Arundel County Council approved the college’s budget and funding over the summer. The council approved an increase of $2.4 million
Board of Trustees members before me that have done a great job. For example, there was this guy, Conor [Curran], who was the [student] Board of Trustees [member] two years ago, and they’re still talking about him. So obviously, he did an outstanding job,” Keller said.
Keller said one of his strongest skills is communication.
“I think I would be great at articulating what the students need and want,” Keller said. “I think I might be a better translator than potentially Board of Trustees members in the past, as that’s one of my strong suits.”
Cheatham said it was a “very easy choice” to select Keller as the student trustee.
“Devin has an amazing skill set,” Cheatham said.
cybersecurity student Devin Keller is the college’s new student trustee.
Photo courtesy of Devin Keller
“He’s a military veteran and he also has a passion for just understanding what impacts the student population. He is a student leader.”
for the college’s operating budget, which pays for the day-to-day operation of the institution. In addition, the council approved the college’s capital budget, which goes toward building projects, structure renovations, continuing campus mainte-
Cheatham added: “I’m excited for our student body ... excited about him serving and sharing the perspective of our students and our military veterans.”
nance and technology.
Gov. Wes Moore officially appointed Keller to the board this summer.
College officials have said they will begin the construction phase of the first through third floors of the Florestano building on West Campus and will begin the design phase of the upcoming renovations project in the Dragun building.
“We are pleased with what the budget allows us to do while maintaining operating costs and high-quality learning for our students,” Melissa Beardmore, the vice president for learning resources management, said.
Renovation projects continue on campus Council OKs AACC’s budget
AACC is wrapping up renovations to the gym and the Math and Physical Plant buildings and will be starting construction on the first three floors of the Florestano building this school year.
The gymnasium and the Physical Plant building are getting new roofs. According to Jim Taylor, AACC’s facilities planning and construction director, roofs have a typical warranty of 20 years. Issues such as leaking can occur as they age.
“Those two roofs were in need of replacement, so we started those just about spring break and they should be wrapped up relatively soon,” Taylor said.
Taylor added: “We have
roof inspections done periodically, and so when a roof is nearing its … end of life period, if you will, we’ll start to schedule work to replace that roof.”
The Math building is also getting substantial renovations that displaced classes and faculty offices last semester and into the fall. Much of the building’s furniture was removed so contractors can paint the walls and replace the floor coverings.
Math courses relocated to other buildings across campus.
“There’s been no instruction in there while we’re doing … some of the renovation,” Taylor said.
The team benches at Siegert Field also got an upgrade. A new overhead shel-
ter showing AACC graphics was installed to protect players from the weather.
“We haven’t gotten a chance to use them in a game-playing situation yet because it just went up,” Athletic Director Duane Herr said. “We haven’t played, but they’re out there and ready for use.”
Herr said the baseball and softball bleachers got new seats with railings.
In addition, the college’s fiscal year 2025 budget includes funding for renovations of the first three floors of the Florestano building on West Campus. The fourth floor opened in January.
“I don’t have any particular worries,” Taylor said. “Things always … pop up on projects, but we have a good staff. We … usually manage
the projects very well and do our best to make sure that people aren’t impacted.
... We’ll try to get the projects done as quickly as possible.”
Taylor said the next area
for campus modifications will be reworking some of the sidewalks and redoing the landscaping around the library, Student Union and Ludlum Hall starting in September.
Second-year
Jose Gonzalez Co-Editor
Among the construction projects on campus this summer was an update to the team benches on Siegert Field.
Photo by Jose Gonzalez
Gen Z takes interest in CDs, vinyl albums
Ross Birckhead-Morton Contributor
College-age students are buying more music in the form of CDs and vinyl.
Members of Gen Z, including some AACC students, collect physical copies of their music to make sure they’ll own it forever, unlike the songs they choose from streaming platforms, which can remove albums at any time.
“For me, I think it’s being able to actually own something that you have, like … the physical disk, and you’re not going to lose it,” environmental science student Kyra Box said.
Streaming services make up 84% of music revenue, but Gen Z enjoys collecting CDs even though it’s not as convenient, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Music professor Ian War-
denski said he has noticed students who collect hard copies of music have more of an “audio commitment” in terms of an appreciation for the higher quality of sound from a good turntable or stereo system compared with a phone using a streaming platform.
“I’ll hear from certain students that they’ll be collecting vinyl or they’ll be collecting CDs, right?” Wardenski said. “And then I’ll hear from other students that, ‘Nope, Spotify all the way.’”
Transfer studies student Jude Worth, who was wearing a The Cure T-shirt on campus, said supporting artists through buying physical albums is important to him.
“I like the concept of physically owning media,” Worth said. “I still use streaming services, but it’s nice to be able to support artists financially also when
I can. And it’s also … not only a piece of music, but it’s also, like, kind of a piece of memorabilia.”
Second-year communications student Carter DeSilva agreed.
“It’s just cool. … I have all of my grandparents’ [vinyl] so the ones from like, ’70s, ’80s,” DeSilva said.
Box said she started collecting physical music because her parents did.
“My parents had a big collection of classical music, rock, and they gave it to me and I thought it was neat,” Box said.
Wardenski said parents with a strong passion for music pass their album collections down to their children.
“I think that there is, you know, a generational component here, right?” Wardenski said. “Where, you know, a certain generation will likely have far more hard copies
Some students prefer to collect physical music like CDs and vinyl rather than streaming music online.
of music: vinyl, CDs, maybe even some tape, right? And then sharing that with the younger generation.”
Worth said just being in a record store is a part of his music experience.
“Stepping into a record store for the first time, it’s
like you have all this stuff around,” Worth said. “It was just being in that environment [that] inspired me to, like, this is something that I want to do. Sometimes you get in an environment and you realize it’s the right environment for you.”
Photo by Jose Gonzalez
Some students don’t have driver’s licenses
Ross Birckhead-Morton Contributor
Some AACC students at 18, 19 and 20 years old don’t have their driver’s licenses yet, either because they’re not interested in driving or they haven’t taken the time to learn.
“I’ve just been very uninterested in driving,” second-year communications student Waleska Cruz said. “I remember when I was 16 … all my friends were very excited to learn to drive. But then I was just like, uh, not really.”
In 2020, 25% of 16-yearolds and 45% of 17-yearolds had driver’s licenses. That compares with 1997, when 43% of 16-year-olds and 62% of 17-year-olds had them, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
Some young adults on campus said they aren’t getting their licenses because
Fun and Games
they’re anxious about driving, while others said they need a license.
Still, many students said they feel pressured by friends and family to hurry and learn how to drive.
“My parents, they always pressure me all the time,” Cruz said. “My sister pushes me all the time, too. ... They always tell me, ‘Oh, you’re so old. Like, you got to learn how to drive, you have to sort of face that fear.’”
But some, like first-year psychology student Morgan Caldwell, said they’re not in a hurry to start driving.
“I just didn’t feel like I needed it,” Caldwell said. “It’s kind of on my own time, it’s up to me to move forward with it. So it’s like nobody else is really telling me, ‘You need to do this.’”
For second-year communications student Joey Perticone, “It was mainly because of quarantining. I just kind of didn’t leave my
house. I didn’t take driver’s ed until I was 17, 18, and I’m 19 now.”
Perticone had another reason for avoiding driving: “One thing is that I was in two car accidents growing up. They weren’t bad or anything, no one died or was hurt, but I was, like, 4 and 8 years old, so it just scared me a little.”
First-year criminology student Naomi Brown pointed to anxiety as a reason she doesn’t drive yet.
“I’m old enough,” Brown said. “I just haven’t learned. I don’t have all my hours. I have major anxiety when I drive so, like, I don’t trust other people on the road.”
Still, students said it is inconvenient to have to rely on others for rides.
Cruz said she feels embarrassed sometimes asking for rides.
“Depending on people to drive for me, like, it is really embarrassing,” Cruz said. “I
have to sometimes ask my sister and I have to ask my parents. Sometimes I have to ask friends.”
Cruz said getting her driver’s license would make
her more independent. Brown said she’s gearing up to finally take the driving test “because I want to drive. I want to drive, you
Second-year communications student Waleska Cruz got her license at age 20 after her family and friends pressured her to take the test.
Photo by Divine Mesumbe
Student joins U.S. military
Waleska Cruz Co-Editor
Second-year English student David Moss dropped out of AACC at the end of the spring semester, but he’ll be back in a year. At that time, the Army National Guard will pay his tuition.
Moss, 19, started a 10week basic training this summer in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where he learned soldiering skills like discipline, teamwork and physical readiness. He expects his first assignment to be as a helicopter mechanic trainee in Fort Eustis, Virginia.
“I decided that I would like to join the army now and [that] would give me the financial assistance that I would need [for college],” said Moss, who will enter the military with a rank of private first class.
Plus, once he finishes bootcamp, he will be a parttime soldier in the Maryland
National Guard, which will allow him to return to AACC and eventually enroll in a four-year university in the state.
Shaikh Ali, the former president of the AACC chapter of the Student Veterans Association, said one of the major reasons why college students join the military is because the army pays for their education.
Moss said his parents are supportive of his decision because they both served in the army.
“So my entire life, the army was kind of the option that they were telling me to go to,” Moss said.
His friends, on the other hand, are not as supportive.
“They think that I am not making the best decision as I am leaving for [nine] months,” Moss said. “And then just come right back.”
But Moss said he made up his mind about joining the military when he was in
the sixth grade.
“What I wanted to do or what branch even, that was quite literally not decided on until I signed on the dotted line back in February,” Moss said.
Moss’ plan after bootcamp is to come back to AACC.
“The plan is I’m just go-
ing to keep coming to class just as normal, except with the added benefit of being in the army, being paid by the army, having my education all paid for and having a whole other support system,” Moss said.
As a National Guard member, Moss could be called to help with domes-
tic disasters like, for example, the collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Moss, whose initial contract with the military is for three years, said he would like to stay in the National Guard for 20 years so he can get full retirement benefits and he hopes it will change him.
Fun and Games
Second-year English student David Moss dropped out of AACC to join the Army National Guard and plans to come back to school in a year.
Photo courtesy of David Moss
Students say doodles help with schoolwork
Waleska Cruz Co-Editor
The best way for May 2024 graduate Allison Terry to concentrate in chemistry class, she said, was to draw pictures of stars and plants in her notebook. Her chemistry professor, it turns out, did not agree.
“A lot of my professors have told me to stop and not to and that, like, it’s not good to, but I like to do it. It doesn’t distract me,” said Terry, who transferred to University of Maryland, Baltimore County this semester. “It helps me focus, if anything, more because I can, like, doodle and listen to what they’re saying.”
In fact, a number of studies have shown that doodling is good for students.
According to Plymouth University psychology professor Jackie Andrade, doodlers recalled 29% more of the spoken material they lis-
tened to than those who did not doodle.
And a study published by Harvard University found that students who doodle remember more, feel less stressed and are better able to focus.
May graduate Jenna Schneck, who transferred to a four-year school, agreed that doodling helps her focus.
“I think it’s a way to help with focus and boredom,”
Schneck said. “I feel like it helps me remember things in class more when I’m actively writing something or drawing something.”
Schneck said she likes to doodle flowers and eyes “and whatever really comes to mind … like something super quick, like, random patterns. … But if I’m bored, it’s, like, actual drawings.”
AACC psychology professor Rachelle Tannenbaum agreed that doodling can help students focus.
“If your brain has kind of a higher need for stimulation, and the class, or whatever it is, isn’t providing enough of that, then the doodling can provide just enough extra stimulation to keep them at that optimal level and keep them from daydreaming,” Tannenbaum said.
Still, professors are prone to accusing doodlers of not paying attention, Tannenbaum added.
“So certainly, a lot of people have a common perception [that] if they doodle, oh, they’re not paying attention,” Tannenbaum said. “And we know that for some students, that is absolutely true. … But the key is remembering that that doesn’t mean that everybody who doodles is not paying attention.”
Some students save their doodles.
Terry said she saves her doodles “if it’s, like, ‘Oh, I’m proud of this, like, I spent 30 minutes in class just doo-
May graduate Allison Terry says doodling helps her concentrate in chemistry class.
dling [this].’ If I really liked how it turned out, I keep it. … If I really like a doodle, like taking a picture of it or like cutting it out, put it somewhere like that.”
Still, not every student is a doodler.
“I don’t really doodle in
class at all, honestly,” fourthyear nursing student Abigail Cooper said. “Most of the classes that I’m taking I honestly find interesting. So I’d rather pay attention than doodle. ... I feel like if I don’t pay attention ... I’m probably not going to do as well.”
Photo by Waleska Cruz
AACC houses orange snake
Divine Mesumbe Co-Editor
The Health and Life Sciences Building is home to a snake named March.
In Room 105, students can find March, a 16-yearold corn snake. March serves as a live example in some zoology classes, according to professor Benjamin Weibell.
“As we talk about the principles of science of animals in zoology, [students] get to see these real examples in the classroom,” Weibell said. “That makes a difference because they can ask good questions based on their own observations.”
According to Weibell, a former student donated March to the classroom in 2008. March has a history
of escaping, having slithered away from its container twice within that year.
“When it was small, we were in the Dragun building and it escaped. … The janitors found [March] at one point and they put it in some kind of container to try and cage it up,” Weibell said. “But … by the time I got there in the morning … [March] escaped again.”
Nobody saw March for the next few months, according to Weibell.
“One of the janitors noticed [March] crawling in one of the gardens outside the Dragun building … so then we caught it … and then from that point [March] never escaped again,” Weibell said.
Weibell said the snake
hasn’t been “officially sexed” but “looks like a male based on tail length.”
Isabella Whalen, a second-year nursing student, is
the snake’s primary caretaker.
Whalen said she feeds March dead mice once every two weeks and takes it on
walks—she carries the snake as she walks around HLSB. Whalen said March is “very docile” and has never hurt anybody.
Prof. offers new class about Latinx authors
Co-Editor
An English professor is offering a course called Latinx Literature this semester that will examine Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Dominican American, Cuban American and U.S. Central American authors.
Jennifer Dix, who has taught at AACC for 17 years, will lead the three-credit class to help students deeply understand the works by analyzing their literary, historical and political concepts.
The class will benefit students in “a lot of different ways,” Dix said. “One, just learning to read critically and write analytically about literature is an in-
credibly important skill in and of itself, but I’m hoping that people will get exposure to works that they haven’t encountered in their other classes.”
The professor said “a lot of things” inspired her to offer the new in-person course.
“There are so many just really powerful and amazing works,” Dix said. Without a Latinx literature course, “there was just a gap in our current English curriculum.”
Narrowing down the list of potential authors to include in the course was a challenge, Dix said.
“I’m trying to represent multiple communities and, I mean, you could teach a class just on Puerto Rican
Hobbies help students cope
Carter DeSilva Contributor
Some AACC students manage the stress of school by finding creative outlets through artistic hobbies.
Still, some students who tap their creative sides outside of school said they don’t have enough time to devote to both.
“Depending on what
classes you’re taking, there’s not really the opportunity to have a healthy balance between school and hobbies and still keep your grades up,” first-year psychology
student Ella Westerfeld said.
“It kind of [becomes] one or the other.” Westerfeld and some
AACC friends created an alternative music band that took up a large amount of
their time during the fall semester.
Brooklyn Page, a firstyear art history student, spends her spare time writing science fiction stories, which she said gives her a healthy balance between school and hobbies.
“Having a hobby like writing—that takes up time,” Page said. “I feel like that can benefit your schoolwork
because … it would prevent burnout.”
Psychology professor Rachelle Tannenbaum said hobbies can relieve stress and lead to better mental health.
“But also, it’s a way to just kind of implicitly remind yourself that you are not just a student, or an employee, or whatever, and that you have these other facets,” Tannenbaum said.
literature, in and of itself,” Dix said. “So then trying to find one work to convey the richness of that can be really challenging.”
Dix, who double majored in English and Spanish in college, added: “I started with a theme of transformation, and then tried to think about all the different ways that things can be transformed. Whether that’s a political transformation, immigration or migration, personal transformation in the way someone sees the world. ... Then I just started thinking about books that I had read recently that would fit into.”
The 15-week class will run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in Humanities 100.
Students are finding new hobbies to manage stress.
English professor Jennifer Dix is offering a new course this semester featuring the works of Latinx writers.
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Dix
Waleska Cruz
Room 105 in the Health and Life Sciences Building houses a 16-year-old corn snake named March.
Photo by Divine Mesumbe
Adobe Stock photo
Bilingual high school students display art
Waleska Cruz
Co-Editor
Students from five Anne Arundel County high schools created self-portraits and accordion books as part of an AACC summer course for bilingual students, who displayed their artwork at a showcase on campus on Aug. 8. The 17 students were enrolled in two, five-week classes, ELL 319—a course for English language learn-
ers—and ACA 100, an orientation for new college students.
“I want them to take away the understanding that multilingual students learning English belong at AACC … and that they can produce both brilliant, creative work and also the more traditional writing assignments and academic work that they need to do,” Owen Silverman Andrews, an instructional specialist for AACC’s English Language Learning program,
said. “And that we want to celebrate them and not just say, ‘Oh, yeah, good job, pat on the back, here’s your grade.’”
This is the third time Andrews has partnered with public schools by offering classes for students whose first language is not English.
He said few multilingual students were taking advantage of a state program that allows some high schoolers to take classes for free at AACC.
High school student Chryscis Gindhart made a self-portrait involving wrestling for a summer AACC class for dual-enrolled bilingual students.
Photo by Waleska Cruz
“We started this summer program specifically for them,” Andrews said. “They take an English language learning class that I teach, and a college success seminar class. But in addition to that, we’ve infused both these classes with the arts because it’s a way to learn language and learn about college.”
New histotech classes begin
Students who want to learn how to analyze human tissue samples in a laboratory can enroll in a new program at AACC.
The college, which introduced a histotechnician
program in summer 2023 but hasn’t offered any classes since last August, has three courses this semester: HTC 100, Introduction to Histology Safety and Techniques; HTC 201, Advanced Histotechnology; and HTC 204, Genetic and Pathogenic Disease.
“Not many people know
what histotechs do,” professor Briana Zeck, the histotechnician program director, said. “Because people haven’t really heard of us, and there aren’t that many programs, there’s a national shortage. So the program itself is very important.”
Zeck, who created the
non-accredited curriculum for AACC, said fewer than 50 histotechnician programs exist in the U.S.
“There is a huge necessity to create more histotech programs,” Zeck, the college’s only histotechnican professor, said. “It’s really fine detail work.”
Briana Zeck is the professor of the new histotechnician program.
Photo courtesy of Briana Zeck
Divine Mesumbe Co-Editor
Former men’s soccer asst. becomes coach
Jose Gonzalez Co-Editor
The former men’s assistant soccer coach became head coach this summer.
Drew Belcher replaced Nick Cosentino, who coached the team for 18 seasons.
Belcher said Cosentino “gave me a lot of leeway to do a lot of work that maybe a lot of head coaches might have not allowed or wanted. He gave me that freedom.”
Belcher has 15 years of coaching experience. He previously coached Chesapeake High School’s varsity boys’ soccer team from 2017 to 2021 and he is on the coaching staff of the semi-professional Christos Football Club.
Belcher said he helped lead Christos to the U.S. Open Cup qualification this spring, losing to the Richmond Kickers, 1-0 in the first round.
Belcher said he’s “super excited” to coach the River-
hawks soccer team.
“I mean, this is what I do,” Belcher said. “I coach on the outside as well … so for me to get this and land this … is a tremendous honor.”
Belcher said he hopes he can help the players become better overall and possibly take a step closer to a role in professional soccer.
“So for me, ‘How can I arm them, you know, to get to that next step and next level?’” Belcher said. “That’s
my job and my expectation of that.”
Belcher is “really spoke[n] highly of,” Athletic Director Duane Herr said.
“Being connected to the players, helping the players, supporting them to their goals and their next steps and focusing on academics.”
College discontinues lacrosse sports team
AACC has discontinued women’s lacrosse as a sport starting this school year.
The National Junior College Athletic Association has canceled women’s lacrosse for all community colleges, citing the lack of schools offering the sport.
“When several … [women’s lacrosse] programs dropped this spring, it was inevitable,” former AACC women’s lacrosse head coach Jim Griffiths said. “Doesn’t mean I like it, but I don’t disagree with it either, because there was very few schools left to play.”
Last season, six com-
Riverhawks prep for upcoming fall games
Riverhawks sports teams returned to practice this month with high expectations for their upcoming seasons.
Men’s and women’s soccer will play their season openers on Aug. 27 with a mix of returning veterans and new faces.
“Our women’s soccer team performed really well last year,” Athletic Director Duane Herr said, “and they’re bringing back a lot of key pieces of that team.”
The women’s team made
the Region 20 Division II championship final in fall 2023, losing to Community College of Baltimore County Essex by one goal in overtime.
Head coach Jim Griffiths said he hopes to build chemistry to compete on the highest level.
“We always have high expectations,” Griffiths said. “But, it’s also a matter of how quickly you can blend players ... together.”
Makenzie Boyd, a second-year nursing student and returning forward, said she wants to “improve as a team” and get to the playoffs.
Tina Tinelli, a second-year information assurance and cybersecurity student and returning defender, said it’s easy to “win games and have hard conversations when you have good chemistry on the team.”
The men’s soccer team has a new coach. (See related story on this page.)
“We want to see some continuity with our coach and allow him to get settled,” Herr said.
The men’s soccer team failed to make it to the playoffs last fall after reaching nationals two years straight.
Head coach Drew Belcher
munity colleges nationally hosted women’s lacrosse, including two from Maryland: AACC and Harford Community College.
Four teams competed in the national Women’s Lacrosse Invitational for a chance at the national title in the 2024 season. Onondaga Community College won the tournament. The Riverhawks, undefeated in their 2023 season, won the national title that year.
Second-year transfer studies student and former midfielder Mia Keen said she saw the end of AACC women’s lacrosse coming.
“I was bummed because I knew, like, a lot of my friends really took the sport serious-
ly and they wanted to go to the next level,” Keen said.
Second-year undecided student and former defender Tadem Augustin said she was a “little devastated” when the program was discontinued.
Rod Lovett, NJCAA’s assistant vice president for sports governance and regional leadership, said the organization made the decision on July 1.
“We are disappointed, as we never want to discontinue a sport,” Lovett said. “Women’s lacrosse has been on alert for several years.”
Lovett added: “Unfortunately, we were not seeing growth to indicate that it could continue.”
Angel Ochoa-Delgado, a first-year defender, practices for the opening soccer game of the season.
by Jose Gonzalez
said he has “high expectations” for the season.
Jayeim Blake, a second-year kinesiology student and returning goalkeeper, agreed.
“I’m expecting for [the team] to be as good as the
coach wants them to be,” Blake said.
Volleyball season starts on Sept. 4 at Chesapeake College with five returners.
Head coach Tanecha Rice said she expects them to be leaders.
New head soccer coach Drew Belcher holds a pre-season practice on campus.
Photo by Jose Gonzalez
Savanna Reitz, left, a former Riverhawks lacrosse midfielder, plays against Harford Community College in spring 2023.Photo by Dan Elson
Photo
Jose Gonzalez Co-Editor
Jose Gonzalez Co-Editor
