Volume 71, Issue 12
Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
www.elaccampusnews.com
Helping Hands Non-profit organization started by former ELAC student prospers Erik Luna Staff Writer In protest of high tuition, students from East Los Angeles College pitched tents in front of the campus and occupied the school two years ago. Through this protest, former ELAC student Esperanza Ortega went on to create The Hook-Up Resource Center in Montebello, which was started to help students in need and expanded to help veterans. Starting from a humble list of 20 clientele, Ortega and her partner William Valenzuela, a Marine veteran, were able to expand their client base to more than 500. “We realized that there were some students that were homeless and so we decided… to open up a place for them. Somewhere they can come out and get clothing, get help getting shelter and hygiene products,” Ortega said. The center is a non-profit organization that gets help from various organizations such as Goodwill of California, Volunteers of America, People Assisting The Homeless and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Since its inception last year, the center has received computers from the YMCA to assist in tutoring and also food to give out every Thursday. “We used to start out with brown bags with sandwiches, string cheese basically a lunch,” Ortega said. “Now, we have gotten to a point where we give away large bags of food every Thursday.” According to Ortega, the center has now implemented a food pass, in which every time someone receives food they get a hole punched in their pass. Ortega said it’s a necessary step to maintain order during those busy days. With plans to expand to an East Los Angeles location by summer, Ortega and Valenzuela are juggling a huge workload. Along with giving food out every Thursday, The Hook-Up was able to provide 80 families with a Thanksgiving meal this year. Ortega and Valenzuela offer their time to Care Ministries, a non-profit organization based out of El Monte, in exchange for food they can give out at The Hook-Up. Students from Pasadena City, Cerritos, and Rio Hondo colleges, as well as ELAC, volunteer at the center to tutor elementary, middle school and high school students. For more on this story, visit www.elaccampusnews.com.
Speech team presents award-winning speeches Forensics Association Fall Championships at California State University, Long Beach. The team now find itself The East Los Angeles College showcasing there work from these Speech Team will present speeches tournaments to the community. honored with awards from In total, six students and coaches tournaments around California at Ryan Smith and J. Edward “An Evening of Comedy, Drama Stevenson will perform speech and Poetry” in the Proscenium selections, many of them either Theatre tomorrow. original works The Speech or published Team attended work from “We are thrilled to the 2013 established offer this opportunity writers. Wa t s o n - L a n c e r Invitational to the community. For the entire tournament semester, the We know it’ll be on Oct. 27 at speech team interesting, thoughtPasadena City was building up College. provoking and speeches and ELAC’s Speech selections for create interesting Team was ranked “An Evening conversations.” among the top six of Comedy, teams. This is out Drama and J.Edward Stevenson Instructor of the 20 colleges Poetry.” from all over the “We are country. thrilled to The students participated in the offer this opportunity to the competitive speech tournaments, community. We know it’ll be the 2013 Robert Barbera interesting, thought-provoking and Invitational and the 2013 Ray create interesting conversations,” Dahlin Invitational, both taking Stevenston said. place in El Cajon and California “We want to create an opportunity State University, Northridge for the ELAC community to (CSUN). experience and share the awesome The team will be attending the work of the ELAC Speech Team,” 2013 Pacific Southwest Collegiate Stevenson said. Diego Olivares Staff Writer
News News Briefs Briefs
Final Exams
Splattering the ‘germs’ The Vincent Price Art Museum celebrated the end of the fall semester with artist Jaime “Germs” Zacarias demonstrating a live painting asking questions about his art and his style. Zacarias’s work has been on display at “La Luz de Germs” in Hoy Space at VPAM since Sept. 10. The live event also featured DJ Alter spinning music as guests mingled among each other. “La Luz de Germs,” will be closing on Saturday. The VPAM is open throughout the week except for Sunday and Monday. For more information and museum hours visit vincentpriceartmuseum. org.
ELAC students Raul Herrera, Gordon Ip, Sarah Naab, Alberto Mireles, Carlos De La Torres and Nicholas Montero will perform during the event. Some of the pieces are forensics pieces, which is another name for individual events. “The reason people do forensics is mainly to express their ideas and/or concerns toward society,” De La Torre said. The pieces that the students selected are very personal ones. The team members feel that their pieces not only express their interest, but express themselves as artists. “It allows them to not only drastically improve their communication skills, but it also gives them a medium through which they can express themselves,” De La Torre said. Through this event, the Speech Team hopes to make it a night of entertainment for everyone attending. Their objectives are to raise funds to help support the team for future time. “An Evening of Comedy, Drama and Poetry” will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 if purchased in advance on the web site Vendini. com.
Final exams will start on Monday and continue through Dec. 15. For more information on final exam dates and times, visit elac.edu/schedules/ fall2013.htm.
Campus News will not print during winter session
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CN/Jesus Figueroa
Corrections:
In Issue 11 of Campus News Megan Razzetti and Gabriela Gonzalez were both spelled incorrectly in Campus News.