Volume 72, Issue 18
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TALK TALK the
Speech and debate team win big at nationals
BY MARCUS CAMACHO
T
Staff Writer he speech and debate team won the national championship title in its division at the Phi Rho Pi National Speaking Tournament for community colleges in Cleveland, Ohio last week. The tournament was a sixday event that started April 7
and ended on April 12. “It was an amazing experience. We not only were able to have the gratification of winning the award but we were able to make history and hold a new record for other schools and other teams to beat,” East Los Angeles College Speech Team Member Liliana Dung said. The team faced 28 teams from its division and 20 teams from the next division above to win 14 high-level awards. “I was elated. I’ve been doing this activity for 21 years and in all my 21 years, I’ve never either coached or been on a team where every student on the team broke (won an award) at a national championship tournament,’ CoDirector and full-time professor Ryan Smith said. “It’s almost unheard of. It’s what people in the speech community refer to as a school break or team break, meaning that every one on the team broke one event.” The team’s score were made up by the students individual performances at all of their speaking events. The team had enough points to not only win in its division but it had enough to beat the upper division. Colleges from multiple of states, nearly 600 students, participated in the national tournament. The team’s budget allowed for eight out of 30 students on the team to go to the competition. Other teams had around 30 students each. “Our team is competitive based so to know that there are more schools and more people to compete with amplifies our competition vote and makes us go directly into having to win and achieve,” Dung said. The National Student Fellowship Award was given to speech team president Israel Beltran. The award is special because he was selected by the students and coaches from the entire southern California region. The award was a two-part award that goes to the competitor who showed great sportsmanship and for contributing the most points to the team. Along with that award, Beltran won gold in poetry, and in program oral interpretation. Beltran and team vice president Gordon Ip got bronze in dramatic duo interpretation. Thomas Martinez and Justyne Gutierrez placed silver in dramatic duo. Chloe Romero placed gold in dramatic interpretation, silver in poetry and bronze with partner Dung in dramatic duo. Esteban Terrazas placed silver in poetry. Terrazas placed bronze in dramatic interpretation and in dramatic duo with partner Steven Fuel. The team placed gold in individual events–Hindman Division and overall–Hindman Division. The team was thankful to the Associated Student Union at ELAC for their financial support. ASU helped fund part the trip to nationals that went to the plane tickets, hotel and food. The other part of funding was provided by sources known only to the directors. The team spent countless hours of instruction, training and mentoring from the coaches and the directors to improve their skills and win awards. The team’s awards will be presented to the college’s administration in the next couple of days.
News Briefs
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Job and Career Fair
Milestone reveals authors’ fears BY IVAN CAZARES Staff Writer A group of Elans shared their fears and aspirations through short stories and poetry to celebrate the newest issue of Milestone in the S2 Recital Hall on April 16. Milestone is a literary magazine that has been published at East Los Angeles College for the past 70 years. “That’s over 60 years of giving students an outlet,” English professor Dustin Lehren said. Lehren served as an adviser in this year’s issue. This was the first year that the selection process was handed over to a committee of students. Students from English 32 promoted the magazine and encouraged others to submit their work. “Allowing students to submit work online and the use of social media to promote Milestone paid off,” Lehren said. English 32 students also took on tasks such as copy editing. However, the layout was handed over to the school’s graphic artist. Milestone publishes art, photography, poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. “The fear of failure stood out in this year’s issue,” Lehren said. “Milestone gave me the tools and opportunity to express myself,” Matthew Mejia said. Mejia, who recently transferred
to Cal State Los Angeles, had some of his work published in a collection of poems titled “Reflections and Illuminations.” The book features poems written by more than 50 poets from four different countries. Mejia said that he has always had a hard time speaking in front of others, and that he remembers the day that he first was able to overcome his fear. “On November 26, 2013, I was giving a presentation for Milestone and it was the first time I heard myself yelling,” Mejia said. “Although it might sound cliche, dreams really do come true. They might not all come true, but some do,” President of the Speech Club Israel Beltran said. He also said that one must put in the effort to make his or her dreams come true. “Milestone is an outlet for those who want to be taken seriously. We want to start a deeper conversation,” Lehren said. The group that presented answered questions from the audience. Students and members of the East Los Angeles community can submit work at https://milestone. submittable.com. The deadline for submitting work for next issue has been extended to April 23. For more information on Milestone see page 2
Elans learn dangers of distracted driving
600 students
participated in the Phi Rho Pi National Speaking Tournament.
The speech and debate team defeated
AWARD-WINNERS Israel Beltran •Gold Award - Poetry •Gold Award - Program Oral Interpretation •Bronze Award - Dramatic Duo Interpretation (with partner Gordon Ip) Gordon Ip •Gold Award - Program Oral Interpretation Thomas Martinez and Justyne Gutierrez •Silver Award - Dramatic Duo
28
Chloe Romero •Gold Award - Dramatic Interpretation •Silver Award - Poetry •Bronze Award - Dramatic Duo (with partner Liliana Dung)
and
Esteban Terrazas •Silver Award - Poetry •Bronze Award - Dramatic Interpretation •Bronze Award - Dramatic Duo (with partner Steven Fuel)
teams from its division
20 teams in the next division above
A job and career fair will be held on May 7 at the S2 courtyard from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. The fair is free and open to the community. For more information, contact cottercm@elac.edu.
Overall Team • Gold Award - Individual Events - Hindman Division • Gold Award - Overall Hindman Division
New scholarships
The Accounting Club and Southern California Gas Company are offering scholarships and internships. A guest speaker will be at F7-117 tomorrow from 12:15-1:15 p.m.
BY MARCUS CAMACHO Staff Writer California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and iHeart Media teach students the dangers of distractions while driving for Distracted Driving Awareness Month at East Los Angeles College on April 20. Every April, OTS, the California Highway Patrol and more than 200 law enforcement agencies across California participate in the month-long event that aims at preventing driving deaths caused by distractions. OTS is going to different campuses in California to share facts about the dangers of being distracted while driving. The event had a timed basketball-shooting contest where participants were forced to shoot basketballs and reply to texts that were sent from an electronic device at the same time. “Students in their 20s are one of the largest demographics for fatalities due to distracted driving, so we are out here hoping to educate in a fun way, in an interactive way, with the basketball hoops while they have to text while they shoot,” OTS Representative Jennie Leatherman said. The game is meant to show students how hard it is to focus on making shots and trying to text at the same time. “The reason being is that something like shooting baskets, in the bigger picture like driving, is something that requires concentration. We’re just trying to
show them something as simple as shooting baskets cannot be done while text messaging,” Leatherman said. Students struggled to shoot the ball and text at the same time. Most of the time they would stop shooting and would text. When students would stop shooting to text, the representatives would say things like “you wouldn’t stop driving to text,” or things that would make them keep shooting. The point of the contest was to show students that you could not give your full attention to driving if they are busy trying to do other things. A survey by California Traffic Safety reported that 61 percent of California drivers said they were hit or nearly hit by a driver who was talking on a cell phone in 2014. Distraction.gov reported 10 percent of drivers under the age of 20 that were involved in fatal crashes, were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. Drivers under the age of 20 hold the largest portion of accidents due to distractions. After students were done with the Shoot the Hoops and Text Competition, they would go to a prize wheel that offered chapsticks, backpacks, hand sanitizers, $5 Starbucks cards and $100 American Express cards. The students were also asked to enter for a chance to win a VIP trip for two to the Wango Tango concert in Los Angeles. For more information visit the website at ots.ca.gov
Correction In last issue, the story “Campus News wins at state convention” the photo caption identified Stephanie Garibay as Stephanie Guevara.