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FROM “NEWS BRIEFS” PAGE 1
The program helps prepare and motivate students to transfer from community colleges to top-tier educational institutions like UCLA. The program runs through the summer and also year-round. It guides students through their current college experience and assists with the transfer process through applications and admissions. CCCP scholars benefit by having a higher rate of admission to selective institutions, and they are eligible for special scholarships. Requirements for eligibility are located at www.cccp.ucla.edu where the application can also be obtained.
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Enterprise Incubator Welcomes Entrepreneurs
Applications for the Los Angeles City College Enterprise (LACCEI) Incubator are open.
The LACCEI is a 12-week hybrid course, which runs from March through June and is open to all L.A. County residents.
The program assists the participants through the entrepreneurial process. Highlights include business plan development, a dedicated workspace provided by Managed Career Solutions, Inc., mental health and first aid certification, in addition to Gig Economy Success Kit certificate and Entrepreneurship Skills certificate.
The LACCEI is open to 25 candidates only, and the application can be found at the following link: https://www. lacitycollege.edu/Academics/ Economic-Development-andWorkforce-Education/EnterpriseIncubator
FROM “CANDIDATES” PAGE 1 Debate Educates City Voters
site, James moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s in search of a community willing to accept him as a gay man just starting out on his professional career.
“We need a city attorney to be a problem-solver who will take strong action on behalf of the people of Los Angeles,” James said.
James has worked on numerous issues, both civil and criminal, including illegal dumping, contracts disputes and labor relations.
Hydee Feldstein Soto is an attorney/neighborhood councilwoman who was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and came to the United States at 17 years old. During the forum, Soto revealed she had Jewish and Latina values.
“I will bring new energy, new ideas, and a renewed focus on problem-solving,” Soto said, “not politics to the city attorney office. I’m running to bring real positive change on the issues that most affect our daily lives.”
Sherri Onica Valle Cole, Los Angeles attorney/educator and former criminal prosecutor, was born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana, Mexico.
“I am the daughter of a Mexican undocumented mother and an African American father,” Valle Cole said. “I‘m half Latina and half African. English is my second language.”
Valle Cole says she has a passion for the law. She gained her expertise as criminal prosecutor seeing first-hand the complexity of the problems that L.A. faces. Reforming the criminal justice system and police accountability are on high on her agenda.
“I understand the importance of mental health and how homeless suffer from mental health illness, substance abuse or both,” Valle Cole said.
The city has failed by trying to enforce laws that are criminalizing the homeless community.
“I was homeless as a child; I know what it is like not to have a perfect home. Poverty is not a crime,” she said.
Teddy Kapur is an attorney, business-owner and professor at City College. Kapur is the son of immigrant parents who came from India 50 years ago. Like most immigrants who arrived in the United States, his parents did not have any money and worked multiple jobs to survive and at the same time attended school. He is grateful to be born in the United States and to follow his parents’ example.
“The homeless population surges year after year, rent continues to rise,” Kapur said. “And there’s shortage of affordable housing. Local businesses struggle to survive, and the American Dream my parents achieved is out of reach for too many.” Kapur teaches job search strategies at city. He studied for one year at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has a joint degree from New York University and Harvard and believes the city attorney position can change a city.
“The city attorney has the ability to change the trajectory of Los Angeles,” Kapur said, “because the office shapes every law and policy passed by the city.”
Civil rights attorney Faisal M. Gill is an immigrant from Pakistan who came to the United States when he was 8 years old. He grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. His father drove a taxicab to make ends meet.
As a young adult, Gill remembers that he struggled to focus on his studies and not taking life seriously. One day his father took him and his brother to work while he drove the taxi. And after a day of sitting in the front seat of the cab, Gill’s father said, “‘You both can either be in the front seat of the cab, or the back seat of the cab, the choice is up to you.’”
Most of Gill’s work is in civil litigation, police brutality and helping those who face discrimination from government entities. Recently, he won a settlement with the City of Los Angeles in a federal civil rights lawsuit. The case involved a Black Hollywood music producer who fought in court to have LAPD body camera video footage made public to prove allegations he was racially profiled prior to being arrested.
The room was packed, the forum was well attended. Homelessness, safety in our streets and affordable housing were the issues that the audience was most concerned with.
Ninochka McTaggart, Ph.D., is the executive director of League of Women Voters (LWV) of Greater Los Angeles.
“It was a great event, a great turn out,” McTaggart said. “We had wonderful questions asked in the room and online through our live streaming. It was great that the community was able to engage with the candidates.”
Joan Lewis, a former LACC student said the event helped him better know the candidates.
“I learned a lot about what the city attorney office can do,” Lewis said. “I didn’t know anything before coming here. This solidified who I am going to vote (for).”
The great diversity of the candidates shined a light on what Los Angeles is all about: a multicultural city that enriches its residents with the hundreds of different cultures and ethnic groups.
The garden is meant to be a community space where people can gather and see what a produce garden looks like and learn about growing their own veggies. Club members also hope the garden will be a place where people can come pick free and fresh produce on campus.
Organic produce and herbs that come from traditional grocery stores can be more expensive and out of reach for students, especially those who live in East Hollywood where the grocery stores are few and far between.
Further plans for the garden include working with the child development center to create a program for children to learn the real source of their food. In addition to providing food and learning opportunities, grass and leaf cuttings will go to compost to create more rich soil to put back into the garden.
Those who have the time and dedication, and would like to take part in the Community Garden at LACC should contact Sean Phommasaysy at phommas@lacitycollege.edu. Demand for garden plots is high and spots will be given to individuals who demonstrate an ability to make the time to care for the garden.
Former ASG Officer Claims She Was Bullied
Associated Student Government was a lonely place for Kaya Landingin where she says she did not find acceptance.
BY DULCE GALVEZ
Drawings in soft pastels of birds and trees arrive on the cell phones of Kaya Landingin’s classmates. She studies arts and humanities, and her friends who receive the pictures of the whiteboard images say the drawings are special.
However, she felt anything but special during her time in Associated Student Government (ASG) at L.A. City College. Landingin was a part of student government for less than six months from September 2021 until Feb. 15, 2022. She started out as senator of activities, but she moved up and became the executive of outreach after four months. She says her friends and fellow officers treated her poorly. They left her alone in the office, and they did not support her with ASG tasks at LACC events or with paperwork.
“I was so disappointed,” she said. “They were supposed to work together … but I don’t see them working together. And I [was] always alone at the office, and I am always disappointed, they don’t even help me out.”
Landingin describes herself as a normal student “like everyone else,” but she says she struggles to be accepted.
“I am not a person who was born normal,” she said. “Actually, I have a learning disability, that is number one. I am actually kind of smart.”
Kenneth Callahan is executive of clubs. It is his responsibility to organize campus clubs and charter them.
“ASG should have been better as far as guidance, understanding, and linking her to mental health resources,” Callahan said. “ASG should have supported her needs as a disabled student.”
Callahan says he was a good friend and supported her needs mentally and emotionally. He says he helped Landingin with the steps toward a successful transfer to university.
“[The] ASG board didn’t have that much experience dealing with students with disabilities,” he said. “That was less the fault of the board not caring, and more of them not knowing how to act.”
When Landingin was not invited to attend an ASG retreat, she was offended and felt “bullied.”
“Kaya’s spirit and attitude was not similar to ASG’s spirit and attitude and therefore, she was not invited to the retreat,” Callahan said.
On March 8, she went to the Student Union Building and packed her belongings in a box and quit ASG without notice.
“It doesn’t mean I am a terrible person,” she said. “I don’t feel (the) appreciation that I am doing my job or stuff. I feel nothing. At other schools, I feel like they would be able to appreciate me, such as Valley or ELAC.”
Dean Armineh Dereghishian advises student government at L.A. City College. She says she cannot disclose the reason why Landingin left student government.
“ASG is handling the situation privately,” Dereghishian said.
The advisor says ASG officers must provide three weeks written notice before stepping down. She says Landingin did not provide verbal or written notice.
Landingin says she did not want to be in ASG any longer because of the “bullying.” The student says many people have disabilities at different schools, including learning disabilities and mental health problems. Others are just stressed out.
Landingin said because she is different, her father describes her as special. He tried to prepare her for people in general.
“My dad always told me, people don’t understand, in the way you move, in the way … you speak. It was so sad because no one cares about this,” she said. “No one’s going to understand. A lot of people [are] going to take advantage of me. A lot of people, they don’t see the way I am ... name-calling me or they [are] rude. They’re mean.”
Landingin has enrolled at another campus in the Los Angeles Community College District while she finishes an art course at City. She says now things are going well for her mentally and emotionally.
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FROM “EARTH” PAGE 1 Garden Blooms for College on Earth Day
Sustainability, Climate Change and the Environment
The theme for this year’s 17th Earth Day celebration at LACC is “Sustainability, Climate Change and the Environment.” In addition to showing off the new Community Garden, the event will feature a variety of demonstrations and art installations. This is the first year that the Earth Day celebration will include art from students. The art will range from sculptural installations to posters that address this year’s theme.
The Los Angeles Children’s Hospital will also have registered dieticians at the event to give demonstrations about healthy eating. There will be cooking demonstrations and even a demonstration explaining how to turn tap water into tasty drinking water. The demonstrations will help people be more “green” at home by utilizing what they have in the kitchen, to eat more vegetables, and to help people buy fewer single-use plastic water bottles.
Addressing sustainability in the future, the event will also showcase protein-alternatives to standard meat and dairy. Bugs might be the ticket to more sustainable farming practices in the future, a featured topic this year. There will be a booth that allows the adventuresome to taste a variety of edible insects, a viable food source for future generations.
The Earth Day celebration will take place on the LACC campus on April 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Ron Finley is the ‘Gangsta Gardener’
Talking about community gardens in Los Angeles would be completely lost if we didn’t mention the guest of honor for our Earth Day this year, Ron Finley. Finley began spearheading the quest for Angelinos to grow their own food in 2010 when he was dubbed a “gangsta gardener.”
Finley started his career in activism when the city of Los Angeles cited him for planting a garden in the green space between the sidewalk and the street directly in front of his residence. He was surprised to learn the city of Los Angeles technically owned the grass between the sidewalk and the street.
Rather than backing down, Finley used his passion for bringing fresh produce to the food desert that was his South-Central L.A. neighborhood to change the law.
After fighting his citation, the “Residential Parkway Landscaping Guidelines” changed and urban farmers are no longer fined for planting a garden in the strip of land owned by the city.
In April 2020, Finley taught a master class about home gardening.
“If kids grow kale, they eat kale,” Finley said in a TED talk about guerilla gardening. “If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes.”
Finley understands the struggle that people in the city face when trying to get fresh produce and he hopes that his foundation, The Ron Finley Project, can help bring knowledge to people that are curious about growing their own food.
Homemade Mint Tea
An easy way to start your journey into home gardening is through fresh herbs. Herbs can be easily grown on a small patch of land or even in a sunny apartment window.
Mint leaves are easy to grow and have a number of health benefits including aiding in digestion and improving brain function--perfect for those late night study sessions.
Start with two cups of boiling water.
To that, add about 15 fresh mint leaves wrapped in cheesecloth or a reusable tea bag. (Alternatively, you can add the leaves straight into the water; you will just have to strain them out after steeping.)
Let steep for 3-5 minutes.
Remove mint leaves and add honey or lemon to your liking and enjoy!
POLICE WIRE
COMPILED BY SORINA SZAKACS
April 6, 2022 – Non Criminal Report/Injury – Cesar Chavez Administration Building April 8, 2022 – Non Criminal Report/Injury – Student Union April 12, 2022 – Property Lost/Found/Recovered – Cesar Chavez Administration Building April 14, 2022 –Non Criminal Report/Injury – Student Union, Parking Lot 3 and Parking Lot 4
