Vol. 74 Issue 12 May 30, 2019

Established 1946

May 30, 2019

THE UNION eccunion.com

Follow us @ECCUnion

Opinions Facing myself Staff writer Melanie Chacon writes about her personal experience in finding the confidence to return to college and fulfill her dreams.

See page 3

News Construction delayed The new gymnasium is expected to be available by the fall 2019 semester.

See page 4

Arts Dude, I’m with the band 20-year-old EC student’s band gets over 240,000 plays on Spotify

See page 11

Features Longevity Photojournalism and photography professor Gary Kohatsu is retiring after 12 years at El Camino College.

See page 12

Sports Going, going, gone The El Camino Warriors baseball team was one of four to make the trip to Fresno for a shot at winning the 2019 California community college state championship.

See page 15

facebook.com/ElCaminoUnion

An intoxicated, partially naked man was arrested at El Camino College after defecating under a roofed passage just south of the Natural Science Building, located along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, on Saturday, May 11, authorities said.

Several people that witnessed the defecating man called the EC Police Department (ECPD) regarding the indecent exposure incident at 1:20 p.m., according

Send us an email at eccunion@gmail.com

Police urge community to use stronger locks when parking on campus Fernando Haro

News Editor @ECCUnionHaro

T

he El Camino College Police Department has launched an investigation regarding the recent increase in bicycle thefts after five were stolen between Tuesday, May 14 and Tuesday, May 21, authorities said.

EC Chief of Police Michael Trevis said the investigation was opened up after one of the theft victims decided they wanted to press charges.

“Every once in a while we’ll see a spike in these kinds of thefts,” Supervising Sgt. Francisco Esqueda said.

Trevis said security footage appears to show two suspects coming from the Alondra Park area off Manhattan Beach Boulevard which is separated from EC by the Dominguez Channel.

“We’re trying to identify them,

we don’t know who they are,” Trevis said.

Esqueda said the removal of homeless residents from the channel, along with their belongings, could have contributed to the recent increase in bike thefts.

For the first time since Tuesday, March 26, residents of the homeless encampment were kicked out of the channel by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department along with other resource agencies including the L.A. County Department of Public Works, Trevis said.

Esqueda said the L.A. County agencies come in and throw away anything the residents can’t take with them.

“I don’t know if the people, maybe, that were down there are looking for replacements for what they had,” Esqueda said. “It’s just one of the things that struck me as a little odd and it kind of coincided with the dates.”

Bike thefts continued on page 4.

Jun Ueda / The Union There has been a recent increase in bicycle thefts at El Camino College since Tuesday, May 14. Five bikes were stolen over the span of one week, making it eight total bike thefts this semester.

Elevator entrapments continue on campus despite permits Several malfunctions occur in Parking Lot H, Humanities Building Fernando Haro

News Editor @ECCUnionHaro Elevator issues continue at El Camino College with the ninth reported elevator entrapment of the semester on Monday, April 29, authorities said.

A person who was stuck in a Parking Lot H elevator for 40 minutes was rescued by the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) after elevator company Fujitec America, located in Santa Fe Springs, could not make it, according to the EC Police Beat, a collection of weekly police reports made available to The Union by ECPD. “It’s like your car if it’s out of order that means something has failed or broken down,” EC Sgt. Gary Robertson said. “I don’t know if its a specific part of a variety of issues.

When EC police officers are called regarding an elevator entrapment, they contact Facilities Planning and Services who then contact elevator company Fujitec America, EC Chief of Police

Michael Trevis said.

However, Fujitec America elevator technicians are often unavailable or can’t make it right away, resulting in the police department calling the LACoFD, according to the Police Beat.

The Union contacted Fujitec but they had no immediate comment on the elevator issues.

Robertson said Fujitec America sends personnel to fix elevators after the entrapment incidents occur.

Elevator entrapments can happen for several reasons, Robertson said.

In one case, an elevator needed major parts replaced and in another, there was a weight sensor issue, Robertson said.

According to the California Department of Industrial Relations permits posted inside every elevator cart, parts must be inspected each year.

The elevators on campus were last inspected Friday, July 20, 2018, according to the permits. Meaning they have to be inspected this year because the permit expires Saturday, July 20.

The Union also attempted to

reach EC Operations Supervisor Antonio Saucier and Systems Supervisor Michael Clifford through calls and emails but they were unavailable.

Robertson said the elevators causing the most issues are in Parking Lot H and Murdock Stadium.

There have been four reported entrapments in Parking Lot H, four in the Humanities Building and one in the P.E. South Building.

Robertson said the police department makes sure there is at least one functioning elevator for students, staff and particularly students with disabilities in every building.

In the event of an elevator entrapment, the EC Police Department sends officers to the scene to comfort while they are stuck, Robertson said.

Robertson added that the EC Police Department will also help students with any issues, including medical, post-entrapment.

The Union attempted to contact two victims from a Monday, April 1 elevator entrapment but they were not available for comment.

to the Police Beat, a collection of weekly police reports made available to The Union by ECPD. EC Chief of Police Michael Trevis said the man, who was not a student, was arrested by ECPD and booked by the Torrance Police Department (TPD).

The man received a citation since the charges were a misdemeanor and he was released

by TPD when he sobered up, Trevis said.

According to the Police Beat, Facilities Planning and Services removed the feces and cleaned the area.

Rosemary Montalvo / The Union Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters helps an entrapped student exit a malfunctioning elevator on Monday, April 1. There have been eight reported elevator entrapments this semester.

Navigating college life as a student with autism

Students with disabilities not offered tutoring accomodation

Witnesses called police regarding indecent exposure News Editor @ECCUnionHaro

TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA

Investigation launched over bicycle thefts

Drunk naked man arrested after defecating on campus Fernando Haro

See Arts, page 11

Rosemary Montalvo Staff Writerr @ECCUnionRose

Fernando Haro / The Union The Natural Science Building along Manhattan Beach Boulevard on Thursday, May 23. A man was arrested for defecating south of the building on a breezeway Saturday, May 11.

He sits at his desk waiting for his 2 p.m. English 1A support class to begin. His direct support aid sits just a couple feet away.

His professor begins the class with announcements mentioning the possibility of an extension for the personality essay assignment.

Michael Murillo, 20, Spanish major raises his hand in favor of the extension on the assignment.

One of his biggest struggles is writing essays because of his

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Murillo was diagnosed with ASD, a learning disability, and ADHD as a toddler.

“I was a normal baby, but at the age of 3 I was diagnosed with autism,” Murillo said.

He was born in the Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, Ca, but said he grew up in Hawthorne, Ca. Murillo is one of the hundreds of El Camino College students with disabilities that need extra support and accommodations to ensure that they have the same level of access to an education as every other student.

Students with disabilties continued on page 9.

EDITORIAL

2 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

MAY 30, 2019

Illustration by Jose Tobar / The Union

Specialized tutoring is much needed at El Camino

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder are in need of support and resources on campus

O

ne in every 59 children have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2018. ASD has an unmistakable presence within modern society and various organizations have promoted autism awareness, redefining what many think to be a disease as simply a difference.

Organizations like Autism Speaks, Autism Society for America and Autism National Committee have worked to make autism more widely visible and accepted.

Yet, California community colleges only began tracking the number of students with ASD in 2016. When students with ASD attend community college, they join a program called Disabled Students Program Services (DSPS), an initiative at schools meant to bring equal access to programs and activities for students with disabilities.

The Special Resource Center (SRC), which is EC’s version of the DSPS program, is meant to help students with disabilities in their higher education journey. Services the SRC provides for student includes identifying learning disabilities, diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses, developing education plans, learning assistance, educational development courses and advocacy to insure reasonable accommodation, according to the EC website. These are services that DSPS programs typically offer students with disabilities.

While the number of DSPS students are going down, the number of students with ASD is rising at EC. In the fall 2016 semester, 113 EC students identified as students with ASD. Since then, the number of students with ASD at EC has increased by almost a quarter with 140 students with ASD enrolled in the spring 2018 semester, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Management Information Systems Data Mart (CCCCO MIS Data Mart).

Given this rise in students with ASD at EC, more resources need to be allocated towards them.

At some Southern California community colleges, like Long Beach City College and Santa Monica College, DSPS programs offers students with disabilities specialized tutors.

However, at El Camino College, students with ASD are referred to regular tutoring

resources offered by respective departments on campus. That means stopping by the Learning Resource Center inside the Schauerman Library in which subject tutoring is available or finding other methods to get help.

Furthermore, according to the CCCCO MIS Data Mart, DSPS funding, which funds the SRC, has almost doubled in the last five years.

In the 2017 to 2018 academic year, EC’s received $1,508,367 in DSPS funding.

While there are most definitely other expenses that the $1 million-plus budget goes toward, making sure students with disabilities having a place at the table is of utmost importance.

That means making every method of help and access available, especially in the form of specialized tutors who are used to working with students with disabilities and know best how to help them with coursework.

E ditoria ls a re u n signed a n d a re writ ten a n d voted u pon by the editoria l boa rd.

W hat a re you r t houg ht s on havi ng t utor i ng of fere d for st udent s wit h d isabi l it ies? Sha re you r t houg ht s on e ccu n ion@g ma i l.com

• • •

Editors’ thoughts: Thumbs up, thumbs down

Source: Autism Speaks

Thumbs up to Warrior Life Magazine coming soon.

Thumbs down to bicycle thefts happening on campus.

Thumbs up to nine more days of spring semester

Thumbs down to next week being finals week.

THE UNION

Vol. 74, No. 12 May 30, 2019

Facts on ASD

Many young adults with autism do not receive any healthcare for years after they stop seeing a pediatrician.

Depression affects an estimated 7% of children and 26% of adults with autism.

More than half of young adults with autism remain unemployed and unenrolled in higher education in the two years after high school.

Contact: eccunion@gmail.com Newsroom: (310) 660-3328 Advertising: (310) 660-3329

Editor-in-Chief.......................................Giselle Morales News Editor............................................Fernando Haro Features Editor, Managing Editor..........Ernesto Sanchez Arts Editor..............................................Kevin Caparoso Sports Editor...........................................Devyn Smith Opinion Editor........................................Roseana Martinez Photo Editor ..........................................Rosemary Montalvo Copy Editor............................................Omar Rashad Assistant Editor......................................Justin Traylor Staff Writer.............................................Kealoha Noguchi Staff Writer.............................................Diamond Brown Staff Writer.............................................Jun Ueda Staff Writer.............................................Jaime Solis Staff Writer.............................................David Rondthaler Staff Writer.............................................Oscar Macias Staff Writer.............................................Anna Podshivalova

Staff Writer..............................................Melanie Chacon Photographer...........................................Elena Perez Photographer...........................................Mona Itani Photographer...........................................Cody Siraguglia Photographer...........................................Eliana Rodela Photographer...........................................Mona Lisa Chavez Photographer ..........................................Mari Inagaki Photographer...........................................Marina Virishmar Photographer...........................................Nicoleene Yunker Photographer...........................................Delesia Jackson Photographer...........................................Viridiana Flores Photographer...........................................Alfred Terry Photo Adviser..........................................Gary Kohatsu Advertising Manager...............................Jack Mulkey Adviser....................................................Stefanie Frith

The Union is published on designated Thursdays by Journalism 11 and 14 students at El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90506, and is free to the student body and staff.

Unsigned editorials and cartoons are the opinion of the editorial board and do not necessarily reflect the views of the student body, staff or administration. Letters to the editor must be signed and must be received one week prior to publication in the Union office, Humanities Building Room 113.

Letters are subject to editing for space, libel, obscenity and disruption of the educational process. Single copies of the Union are free; multiple copies can be requested through the Union.

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OPINION

MAY 30, 2019

Letters to the editor: May 28 to May 31 Counseling at El Camino Website, www.nacacnet.com states, “Counselors are few in number, often have large student caseloads, and have additional constraints on the amount of time they can dedicate to college counseling.” College counselor can’t help students due to, too much “overloads.”

As an El Camino Student, my first year has been very challenging to find help. I arrived in a counseling office, got listed classes to take and sent off. I was sent to a specific counselor to help me in my major, however, as a first-year student, everything was still confusing.

I was not offered extra information to help me with my major, I as well felt that a counselor who is willing to really help a student achieve academic success, they will offer them to “keep in touch,” so as a student, have a counselor to seek help too.

These college counselors need to improve how they help their students correctly and being able to provide students with all the extra help they need to be able to succeed academically. Counselors need to improve on how they communicate with their college students, being accessible for students to reach out to and refer them to extra support if needed.

— Jayline E. Lopez, 19, nursing major

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The counseling system makes college a lot harder than it needs to be. The counseling system here at El Camino is so broken that it needs a new philosophy. As a firstyear college student, I know how hard it can be to get a meeting with a counselor.

This is a major problem because the student to counselor ratio is 482 to 1. This puts students who want to see a counselor in a bad situation because there aren’t enough counselors to keep up with the demand. Without enough counselors, students will have to wait for days or weeks waiting for a counselor just to get an orientation about their future.

This is up to the administrators to hire more counselors. This will benefit every student because with more counselors students will be certain that they will see a counselor at the schedule that best fits for them.

— Alfredo Castillo, 20, history major

Programs and clubs This letter is to suggest the idea of publishing more advertisement about the clubs available in the campus. There are so many different clubs around the campus but, most students don’t know about them.

This is important because extracurricular activities look good when a four-year university is looking at a student resume. It also helps the students as a stress reliever because they stay after class in a friendly environment making new friends or, doing homework in small groups instead of procrastinating in their houses.

For example, I’m wondering what is going on every day because there’s always an activity going on in the campus but I don’t know what it is. And that’s most of the time. Like me, most students don’t know what is going on in the campus. Yeah, college staff send emails to the students but they never read them.

So, dedicating a page in “The Union” only for clubs information like when and where they meet, how to join them, etc would be very helpful for students and for the success of the clubs.

— Erwin Roberto Rodríguez de Paz, 19, computer science major

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Dear students of El Camino College, If you are struggling in anything at all whether it is trouble in class, counselor or even in your personal

life the people of the MANA program holds open arms to all.

No requirements needed they are here to help and can help in any situation. Kina, Sina, and Nic, who are the heads of the program, have helped many students get their troubles sorted and pushed them to graduate.

They hold workshops not just for school but for your everyday lives like how to get FAFSA, and how to budget your money and really work so that you can be able to get to where you want to. The program has the best counselors, Robert and Chris, who are always supportive of all the students and MANA have resources like access to laptops, computers, basic supplies, classes, counselors and tutoring to help you succeed.

This is my first semester as a college student and has found another family in this program with students and faculty I can rely on and there is space for you. Come down to the student activities center to find your new guide to success.

— Jonah Tavai, 18, engineering major

Empowering MOTIVATION

El Camino College needs to provide psychological counseling for students so that they can be academically successful.

The only way to help students obtain success is by recognizing the importance of mental health and there various ways to do this.

For one, colleges need to make psychological counseling as accessible as possible. According to the American Psychological Association, colleges have “ratios, on average (705:1 at schools smaller than 1,500 students), while larger institutions had larger ratios (2,624:1 at schools with more than 35,000 students).” This means that students have less of an opportunity to seek help since counselors are scarce. The lack of counselors will discourage students from wanting to seek help.

The administration needs to bring awareness about mental health and an efficient way to do it is by making the whole campus part of it.

If campuses don’t improve mental health services then this will affect many community college students because they will be distracted with psychological issues.

— Elizabeth Castillo, 18, biology major Students and other members of the El Camino College community outside the journalism staff are also invited to submit guest columns for consideration.

COMEBACK Roseana Martinez / The Union

Student’s academic journey leads to journalism Through hardships, coming back to school led to winning awards at EC

Dear El Camino Administrators,

Mental health at EC

strong

DETERMINED

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El Camino College has a growing number of single-parent students, yet there is only one program available to them. Furthermore, this program has many requirements that not all single parent students meet.

The CARE program, run by the amazing Breeanna Bond, is a program designed to help single parent students (male or female) with meal and gas cards and support.

To qualify for CARE a student has to be receiving cash- aid AND meet the qualifications for EOPS. The problem with these criteria is not all single parent students qualify for cash-aid as they as working multiple jobs in order to support their child(ren).

CARE also has a limit of students it can take in each semester, thus limiting the program even more.

Therefore, I believe the CARE program should be given their own unique sets of qualifications to allow more single-parent students to receive the beneficial support provided by Breeanna Bond.

— Jesicca Quackenbush, 27, early childhood education major

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 3

Melanie Chacon Staff Writer @ECCUnionMelanie

I

remember driving into the parking lot the first day of the fall semester at California State University, Fullerton in August of 2004. It was a warm day and I had the windows down in my 2003 white Chevy S-10 Xtreme. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, an album

by My Chemical Romance was playing through my speakers as I looked for a space.

I was a green college freshman glistening with ignorance.

It didn’t take long for me to become overwhelmed and bored.

I ended up on academic probation.

My second semester was not much better and I soon dropped out.

I felt like such a failure, but I was determined to go back to school.

A year later, I enrolled at El Camino.

It felt good to be back in school, but that didn’t last very long. Once

again, I was overwhelmed and bored.

I was frustrated with myself.

Grade school was a breeze for me. Why was I having such a hard time in college?

I didn’t share my feelings or struggles with anyone at the time.

My friends knew exactly what they wanted to do and they were on track in school. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I wanted my career to be and I simply had no direction. I dropped out. Again.

I was embarrassed and ashamed.

I had failed. Again.

I decided a drastic move was what I needed. So, in August of 2007, I packed my 1998 navy blue Volkswagen Jetta and I drove to Utah.

I enrolled in school in Salt Lake City, got few roommates, and a full time job.

Unfortunately, my workload became too much for me to keep up with. I had no choice but to leave school, and continue working in order to support myself.

I was a college drop-out. Again.I was ashamed. I had failed. Again.

It was always my goal to go back to school, but as the years passed, school was put on the back burner.

I can’t help but feel like I wasted a lot of time lollygagging in my twenties in SLC. But I had a lot of demons I was wrestling with.

I wasn’t confident. I lacked inspiration and drive. I lacked purpose.

I had to make a positive move, and fast.

I decided to start pursuing my dream of becoming a journalist.

I had always wanted to be a sports reporter like my idol Craig Sager.

I landed an internship with a local sports radio network and that internship led to another internship which led to a part-time job.

In time, it was evident that I needed to go back to school in order to further pursue my career goals.

By this time I was married, and coincidentally my husbands job transferred him to Los Angeles, my hometown, in the fall of 2017.

I was applying to jobs like my life depended on it. Months went by and I had no call backs. That really discouraged me.

I felt ashamed. I felt I had failed.

Again.

I was down. I felt sorry for myself for a bit, but then I rallied for my future and I got back up.

I found myself back at El Camino in the spring of 2018.

I was determined to finish my journalism degree.

My first semester back I excelled immediately. By the end of the semester I had won an award for Best Newspaper Feature for my story on softball player Diamond Lewis.

Since then I have won more awards and written multiple published articles.

As much as I would love to say this time, “I’ve finally got it. I don’t doubt myself anymore. I am confident I can be an accomplished journalist,” that’s not my reality.

I still have moments of doubt.

I still am fearful of failure.

Sometimes I don’t feel like I am good enough and I have to wrestle with these thoughts and feeling daily.

Earlier this semester I almost fell back in to my old pattern of letting personal matters affect all aspects of my life, and essentially giving up.

I had to pull myself out of it.

I am graduating this semester. I have come too far to give up this time. I can and I will.

The difference between then and now is now I believe in myself more. Now I have a solid support system. Now I am building my confidence in myself as a writer and reporter. Now I am practicing patience with myself and self love. Now I am excited to put myself out there. Now, I know that I am capable and deserving of being happy and accomplishing my goals.

My road to EC and back again has been a bumpy one, but I am happy to have been strong enough and brave enough to fight for dream.

I like to say that I am a late bloomer, and I am grateful that my time at EC has allowed me to grow and blossom at my pace.

• Want to join The Union or Warrior Magazine? Come to the newsroom in the Humanities Building in Room 113 and talk to our advisor Stefanie Frith

Campus Corner: Ingredients in organic products are not always healthy or safe

Kariamu Cross

N

owadays placing “organic” on anything means an automatic buy for most health-conscious consumers. I would know; I’m one of them.

Growing up in a household with my mom’s illness of diabetes, restricted the consumption of unhealthy sugary foods and beverages for my siblings and me which meant we had to scour for healthy options that would satisfy our childlike taste buds that yearned for all things sweet.

Luckily for us, we didn’t have to scour too far as we shopped on the bougie side of Los Angeles, primarily Whole Foods, Erewhon, and Coopportunity, where the sweets and treats were all labeled “organic” giving us the

unannounced permission to purchase and consume.

And the purchasing of organic items didn’t stop with food; it extended to hair care products and household cleaning items. Our house was filled with exclusively healthy products deemed by the “organic” printed across its label.

However, not all things “organic” automatically translate into healthy. I would not be making this statement were it not for an environmental course I have taken. This course listed alarming chemical toxins in everyday products, one of these chemicals is parabens.

I’ve briefly heard of parabens before through paraben-free items, yet I never knew why they existed.

Why specifically make a paraben-free product?

Parabens are used as preservatives in products especially in products with a high-water consistency.

Things like lotions, toothpaste, and liquid soap commonly contain parabens. This means that there are likely parabens in the soaps and hand sanitizers here on ECC’s campus.

Parabens are listed under the ingredients of a product with a prefix of methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, isopropyl-, butyl-, or isobutyl. For example, methylparaben could be listed as an ingredient.

Parabens are thought to be endocrine disrupters. Any endocrine disrupter can mess with development within the human body, such as brain development. Parabens are the type of endocrine disrupters to mess with the estrogen hormone.

Moreover, some researchers suggest that parabens may cause breast tumors since breast tumors involve a disruption of estrogen receptors. In turn, some breast tumors can lead to breast cancer.

There’s no direct association between parabens and breast tumors/cancer.

However, there is enough concern for producers and marketers to boast paraben-free on their products.Agencies who federally regulate food (i.e. FDA) don’t share this same concern though— not even for organic products.

For products to become organic, they have to undergo a process. This process includes a fee and inspection.

Among other things, the inspection done by the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires the product to meet the standards of the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.

As the name suggests, this list includes substances that are both allowed and not allowed in organic products. Parabens are not on this list which means they can freely float in any

product, including organic products like the ones sold here on campus.

And parabens do freely float in organic products.

Companies like LUSH, whose cosmetic products are known to be organic, don’t avoid parabens: “Parabens have been used for [many] years with a history of safe human use, which is why we feel confident using them in some of our products in minimal amounts to keep them fresh” a LUSH trainer, Amanda Sipenock, explained to Teen Vogue.

No matter the rationale behind the use of parabens in organic products, it’s still using potentially harmful chemicals in a product targeted for the healthconscious audience.

Producers and companies that use parabens in their organic products betray the trust of consumers by signaling that their product is beneficial to health when it’s not. And the sad part is that we can’t blame them. Well, not legally anyway as it’s perfectly legal for this to occur.

All we can do for now is become more conscious than before by surpassing the alluring label marked “organic” and actually read the ingredients.

— Kariamu Cross, 20, legal studies major crosskariamu2017@gmail.com

NEWS

4 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

May 30, 2019

Best of Police Beat A recollection of the spring 2019 semester’s most intruiging, interesting and alarming police reports.

Fernando Haro

News Editor @ECCUnionHaro Monday, March 4, at 7:15 a.m.

Thousands of dollars worth of tools were stolen from the construction site of the new Administration Building Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 1:20 p.m.

Two people on the top floor of Parking Lot H engaged in an indecent exposure act.

Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 11:06 a.m.

A swastika was removed by Facilities Planning and Services after it was discovered in the Art and Behavioral Science Building elevator.

Friday, March 8, at 11:50 p.m.

An individual with a glass shard in their hand, bleeding from both forearms, walked into the police department and said they wanted to cut their own neck.

Campus police were able to convince the individual to put down the shard and was then transported to the Memorial Hospital of Gardena.

Saturday, March 9, at 12:40 p.m.

Two children were reunited with their families after they were reported missing during the Onizuka Space Science Day at EC. The two eight-year-olds were found near the In-n-Out Burger truck.

Monday, April 1, at 7:50 a.m.

A person was held at gunpoint by police officers in the South Gymnasium men’s locker room after someone reported they had seen a gun.

The person was searched and no weapons were found.

Friday, April 19, at 7:50 p.m.

A driver crashed into a light pole outside the Receiving Facilities Building.

The two people inside the car exited the vehicle after the light pole fell onto the car, exposing live electrical wires.

Saturday, April 20, at 7:30 a.m.

A man suspected of arson was arrested after running through traffic on Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

They were booked by the Torrance Police Department.

Saturday, May 4, at 3:50 a.m.

A man in a stolen vehicle was arrested after crashing it at the intersection of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Marigold Avenue.

He was arrested on several charges.

Front page illustrations -Guitar players by David Rondthaler -Baseball player by Devyn Smith -The Union bell logo by Devyn Smith.

Corrections

The word “mains” was misspelled in a news stories on the May 9 issue of The Union.

“Illustrations” was misspelled.

“Choreography” was misspelled in a photo caption.

“Building” was misspelled in a photo caption.

Professor Angela Mannen’s name was misspelled in a photo caption.

The Union regrets these errors.

Jun Ueda / The Union The new gymnasium at El Camino College undergoes construction on Wednesday, May 29. Construction was delayed after the steel provider, Flores Steel, went brankrupt attemping to expand their business in Mexico. The new gym, located on the Redondo Beach Boulevard side of the campus, is expected to open in before the fall 2019 semester.

Opening of new gymnasium delayed

Construction slows down as provider of steel goes bankrupt trying to expand David Rondthaler

Staff Writer @ECCUnionDavidR

T

he opening of the new gymnasium at El Camino College has been delayed after the company that provided steel for the construction went bankrupt, a project executive said.

Randy Hartman, project executive and VP of project management for Lendlease, a

construction company, said the new gym, which was expected to be finished by April 2019, will be ready for move-in July 2019.

Hartman said the steel company, Flores Steel, attempted to expand to Mexico but “they didn’t understand the process,” lost money and filed for bankruptcy.

However, Hartman said they were able to find a new subcontractor to provide steel.

But the construction workers not having the necessary material

to work caused a delay; a domino effect, Hartman said.

“For example, we didn’t have a column for the buildings and it was hard to continue working without any steel,” Hartman said.

The new gymnasium cost $19,895,548, according to a Feb. 19 Facilities Bond Program presentation that gave an update on the construction projects.

Construction for the new gym began August 2019, according to the presentation.

Construction was funded through the Measure E bond, which authorizes money for the remodeling of EC, Hartman said.

The gym is expected to be two floors with several activities available, including dancing, yoga, basketball, badminton and weights Remo Colindres, Lendlease senior project manager said.

Colindres added that there will be a new sound system, new bleachers, a filming area and windows all around

Jorge Gutierrez, executive director of facilities planning and services for El Camino, said that the windows make for greats views and Murdock Stadium can be seen from the second floor.

“It’s going to be beautiful, it is a state of the art gym,” Gutierrez said. “It will be very nice, and not too many colleges have two gyms.

Visit the online version at eccunion.com for a 3-D walkthrough of the new facilities.

Q&A with former EC student and ‘The Bachelorette’ contestant Melanie Chacon

Staff Writer @ECCUnionMelanie Melanie Chacon: Tell us a little about yourself?

Hunter Jones: My name is Hunter Jones. I’m 24, from Westchester, CA. I grew up skateboarding and loving action sports and videography and editing. And then, my love for skateboarding kind of, I think, led me to surfing, which is now like my full blown passion. I loved the beach growing up, so it was kind of a really easy transition. Surfing is kind of my main focus and my passion.

MC: Can you tell us about your time at El Camino?

HJ: I started going to El Camino when I was 17 or 18. My major was film... So I did EC for two-and-ahalf years. I got my associates degree [at EC] and then I was going to go and transfer to Cal State Dominguez to finish film and video, but I was given an opportunity at the World Surf League to do an internship [The World Surf League is basically the whole world tour of surfing.

It’s like the NBA but for surfing].I got an internship with them for the summer prior to transferring.

I was supposed to transfer to Cal State Dominguez and then they offered me a full-time job, and it was the job I always dreamed of so I took it. Then I quit that job after two years to pursue my own stuff but that’s kind of my path from school to work.

OK, now we want to know the details of your time on ABC’s The Bachelorette MC: Take us through the process from the beginning. How did you become a candidate and what was the vetting process like?

HJ: It’s pretty crazy, but I was actually contacted by The Bachelorette. They said, ‘we have this opportunity, would you be interested?” And I was like, “yeah, I guess so. This could probably work,”. I’m kind of in the right season in my life and it was all kind of at the perfect timing. I never thought it was going to turn in to me being on the show really… they reached out to me on social media and I took the opportunity.

A phone call led to one thing and then the other, and then I was on the show.

MC: Walk us through the moment you received the call letting you know that you were going to be on the show, and who was the first person you told?

HJ: I was expecting a phone call from ABC... When they called me, I was at home and I walked outside because I wanted to take the call to myself... They told me, ‘alright, you made it. Go pack your bags and we’ll be there in a week,’. It was so surreal. I was like, ‘OK, I’m on The Bachelorette, this is crazy’.

For the full Q&A with Hunter Jones visit eccunion.com

Bike thefts continued from page one The Union visited the emptied out channel and found some residents had returned after the displacement, however, they declined to comment on the recent bike thefts.

The EC Police Department sent out an email alerting community members about the increase in bike thefts on Wednesday, May 22.

According to the email, seven bikes were stolen over the span of two weeks but five of the thefts were in the span of one week.

Before May, there was only one reported bike theft.

There have now been eight bike thefts this semester compared to three last in fall 2018, Trevis said.

“Some of our students are purchasing very, forgive me, cheap [bike] locks,” Trevis said.

“And you get what you pay for.”

Trevis said thieves may be looking for locks they can break with accessible tools, including bolt cutters.

But Trevis said what baffles him the most when watching

Melanie Chacon / The Union Former Bachelorette contestant and professional surfer Hunter Jones sat down with The Union at Alondra Park and shared the story about his brief time on the show on Thursday, May 23. Jones was a film major during his time at El Camino College. security footage isn’t the thefts but impervious students walking past the thief who is in the process of stealing a bike.

Photography major Matthew O’neal whose primary mode of transportation is his bike, said he was not aware of the thefts but was scared upon finding out.

“Sometimes I leave money in the pouch the pouch of my bike for bus money,” O’neal said.

Meaning, if it were stolen it would be difficult for him to get back home.

For the full story, visit eccunion.com

Student government elections underway Associated Student Organization (ASO) presidential candidates: -Esteban Espino -Urwa Kainat -Mario Lopez ASO VP candidates: -Victoria Aguilar -Daniel Villanueva Budget: $450,000-plus For results on the the Associated Student Organization election, visit eccunion.com.

NEWS

MAY 30, 2019

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 5

Kevin Caparoso / The Union Bridgette Ramirez, 19, nursing major, works on a class assignment on her laptop at the top floor of a Barnes And Noble on May 11. It is an early Saturday morning and the quiet upstairs section of the bookstore brings Ramirez the solace needed to concentrate on her schoolwork. Besides being a full time student at El Camino College, she balances having a job at a daycare and must manage her time wisely.

El Camino more than doubles online student population

Community colleges across California see a rise in distance education in the span of 6 years Kevin Caparoso Arts Editor @ECCUnionKC

W

hile in line at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Bridgette Ramirez started getting nervous.

She was waiting to ride X2, a steel rollercoaster that spins its passengers in a full rotation mid-air.

However, the rollercoaster wasn’t the cause of her increasing anxiety.

On that particular Saturday that she was at the amusement park, the 19-year-old nursing student had assignments due for her English class. Fortunately, Ramirez was taking her class online so she was able to post answers to a discussion question and complete a quiz on her smartphone right before stepping foot on the ride.

It was the winter session of 2018 and Ramirez had a busy schedule.

She took a psychology class in the morning and would immediately go to her daycare job after. She didn’t have time to attend a class after work so she decided to take English

online.

Balancing school and work is challenging and involves a lot of late nights so the convivence of online classes was enticing, Ramirez said.

“You can make your own time,” Ramirez said. “That’s what I like about it.”

Ramirez benefited from the upward trend of online education community colleges across California saw from 2013 to 2018.

El Camino College more than doubled its online student population growing by 126%, Long Beach City College increased by 89%, Cerritos College increased by 59% and Santa Barbara City College increased by 16%. Overall, California community colleges grew their online study body by 59% statewide, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Data Mart.

Community colleges have a diverse student body ranging from adult learners, working students, or those with families. Having a virtual option provides more access for students, Binh Tran, who oversees the online master’s programs at the

USC Viterbi School of Engineering said.

“The goal for community college is to be widely available for everyone,” Tran said. “This amount of open access leads to capacity problems which could be the reason why they are focusing more on online education.”

EC has been marketing more towards students with irregular schedules who could benefit from distance education, Crystle Martin, director of library and learning resources at EC said.

For Ramirez’s online class, you didn’t have to stick to the professor’s pace and was allowed to work faster¬ or slower–as long as you turned in your assignments by deadline.

Since Ramirez worked at a daycare, she took the opportunity to do classwork when the children were asleep. She was able to squeeze in an assignment or read a couple chapters for class during her time there.

“It was convenient for me because I didn’t have to stop working to take that class,” Ramirez said.

Martin said that distance education at EC is having a huge growth phase and attributes the success to the college’s utilization of Canvas.

Canvas is EC’s official learning management system that conducts and delivers the online material to the college and EC started using it during the winter of 2017, Gema Perez, EC instructional media coordinator for distance education, said.

At first it was piloted by a small group of instructors and classes and was eventually made available to all of EC and Compton College during the summer of 2018.

“We are supporting about 15-thousand students, about 6000 sections, and around 1,500 faculty members, Perez said.

Canvas now has the ability to administer proctored test taking so it will be easier for mathematics and business to transition their classes online, Martin said.

However, there are many requirements before a traditional face to face course is approved for distance education.

“The quality of education should

still be the same if not better online,” Tran said.

First a class must pass a curriculum process for quality control. Then a Distance Education Addendum is completed which details how the course will be taught and changed to work in an online environment.

Before a professor can teach an online class, they must pass an online teaching certification which is offered a couple times a semester.

The training is done 100% online so the faculty being certified have context of what a student would experience when taking their class.

These requirements aren’t the only things regulating the growth of online education because not every class translates well to the internet.

Limitations can include classes that require lab experience or speech classes that need direct feedback from an audience of students and professors.

“In the end of the day it can’t be worse,” Tran said. “You can’t go through all of this–provide online programs or give them access to this community and have a worse experience.”

Martin has taught in an online and face to face setting and said other “pedagogical approaches” must be used for distance education.

“Lots of things are different, you can’t see everyone’s face in the classroom so how you engage with students has to change,” Martin said.

It’s a challenge that some professors like to take on while other faculty choose to teach online because they are early tech adopters, Martin said.

The future of online education will be figuring out the challenges of offering courses that traditionally have a lot of hands on elements in a distant space. Some possibilities are lab kits that could be sent to students to do at home or virtual reality which some med schools are starting to use, Martin said.

“We’ve been working with a lot of the divisions on what the roadblocks are for their faculty to be able to take those classes online,” Martin said. “But the desire for the growth of online is definitely there.”

Distance Education (Internet Based) Full Time Equivalent Students El Camino College Long Beach City College Cerritos College Santa Barbara City College

2,682.99

2,411.14 1,269.46

2,660.77

2017 / 2018 2,665,67

2,107.15 1,081.72

2,376.64

2016 / 2017 2,697.65

2,105.51

1,837.17

1,044.98

1,855.34

1,657.01

877.47

2,297.69 1,663.84

1,274.45

561.06

2015 / 2016 2,489.03

2014 / 2015

2013 / 2014

Kevin Caparoso / The Union Accourding to the California Chancellor’s Office Data Mart, El Camino College, Long Beach City College, Cerritos College and Santa Barbara City College have seen growth in their online student population over the past six years. Santa Barbara City College has the most online students but its growth peaked from 2015 to 2016. EC saw the biggest upward trend. EC increased its online full time equivalent students by 126% while LBCC increased by 89%, Cerritos College by 59% and Santa Barbara City College by 16%.

NEWS

6 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

May 30, 2019

Being undocumented during the Trump administration

California Dream Act applicants triple statewide over last six years despite ‘fear-mongering’ Fernando Haro

News Editor @ECCUnionHaro

W

hen Carlos Paz was a toddler, his father left the family in Guatemala to escape poverty and violence, establishing himself in the U.S. through a series of lowwage jobs.

Paz remembers asking his mother where his father was, only to be told made-up stories that left him yearning for his presence.

He would not see his father again for two years.

It was 2004 and his father saved enough money to pay for a “coyote” that would help smuggle his family across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Smuggler’s helped 5-year-old Paz and his mother travel 2,600 miles from one of the most dangerous areas in Guatemala City, known as Zone 7, to San Diego—where Paz would be reunited with his father.

Throughout the journey, they risked being detained by border patrol.

If they were caught, Paz and his mother would be deported and have to start the journey all over again, increasing the risk of running into assailants, being killed by a stranger or dying of dehydration in a remote borderland.

But during the two-day journey across three countries, Paz’s main concern was his mother’s safety.

“I didn’t have the strength of a man,” Paz said. “There was a lot of people that you don’t know and people can hurt you along the way.”

Two years after arriving in San Diego, Paz moved to Los Angeles where he was consumed by the city he had only seen in movies.

As the excitement wore down, the daunting fear of going to school still outweighed a new start in a new city.

Paz said he had trouble learning his ABC’s and the English language but through the help of his classmates and the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at Vermont Elementary School, he felt like he was raised in the U.S. He assimilated to the culture and was accepted by his classmates.

It wasn’t until he attended El Camino College, and applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the California Dream Act and AB540 that he felt labeled being in several programs just because of his legal status.

DACA is a federal program that grants undocumented people, as young as 15 protection, from deportation for two years and gives them a work authorization, Arlin Gonzalez, advisor at the California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) Toros Dreamers Success Center (dream center), said. DACA is unrelated to AB540, a tuition equity law that grants in-state tuition, and The California Dream Act, she added. “[Undocumented] students don’t understand the difference between their peers and them until college because they started getting restricted unlike their citizen peers,” Gonzalez said. “Counselors don’t know how to help [students that] weren’t eligible because they didn’t have Social Security.”

Students, as early as high school seniors, are encouraged to apply for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. (FAFSA) but must have a Social Security number to do so.

Rosemary Montalvo / The Union Carlos Paz, 21, sits with his Indian Ringneck parakeet Blu and dog Chikis after a long day at El Camino College and working as a mechanic on Monday, May 6. Paz said he owes his success to his father who encourages him to pursue his outmost goals in life.

Undocumented students do not have a Social Security number thus making students like Paz, ineligible for free federal money.

However, in 2018, Paz was one of 9,495 undocumented students in the California community college system that applied for the California Dream Act Application,

California Dream Act applicants

according to a 2018-2019 report by the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), an agency responsible for the administration of financial aid programs for higher education schools in California.

The California Dream Act provides undocumented students or “dreamers” with state-funded grants since they are ineligible for FAFSA, according to CSAC. Since 2014, the number of undocumented students who applied for the Dream Act increased by 6,023 or 36.57%, according to a 2013-2014 report by CSAC.

“

There was a lot of people that you don’t know and people can hurt you along the way.”

— EC fire science major Carlos Paz

Source: California Student Aid Commission report The number of California Dream Act applicants continues to rise. This graph shows the trend over the last six years.

Despite there being support, these students are at risk of deportation following President Donald Trump’s 2017 Executive Order: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interiors the United States, where he expanded the definition of who’s a priority for deportation, according to a 2017 report by the White House.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Paz, who is now a 21-year-old fire science major, said. “All those hours and sleepless nights [studying], it’s gone just like that.”

In 2017, Trump and his

Student citizenship status 2014

Undocumented immigration

-Most undocumented people do not cross the border illegally, instead, they overstay their visas.

-In 2017 700,000 people overstayed their visas.

-In the same year 461,540 undocumented people were arrested by government agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security administration attempted to end the DACA program, according to a 2017 report by the White House.

This put 89,900 DACA applicants in the greater LA area including Paz, at risk for deportation, according to a 2017 report by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“I was waiting at [my front] door like ‘when are [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] gonna come out and say ‘let’s go?’”

Paz said.

But Trump’s attempt to end DACA was blocked by several states, including California.

Undocumented students in community colleges

Due to Trump inducing fear among the undocumented population, students are afraid to share their status in fear that they might be targeted or deported, Gonzalez said.

Several undocumented students won’t apply to government programs, including the Dream Act as they are afraid to have their names on any government

document, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said this creates difficulties in narrowing down specific numbers, limiting the data about undocumented students from each community.

The Union looked at the citizenship status of students from community colleges in the LA area including Cerritos, Chaffey, Fullerton and LA Pierce College, through the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Management Information Systems Data Mart.

The Data Mart is a community college online database, which, under one of its categories, classifies student’s citizenship status in seven sections—U.S. citizens, permanent residents, temporary residents, refugee/asylee, student visa, other and status unknown/uncollected.

The section “other” and “status unknown” includes but is not limited to undocumented students as the definitions provided for the other five sections by the Data Mart do not pertain, meaning the specific numbers for each community college are not available to the public.

Source: California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office

NEWS

May 30, 2019

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 7

Continued from previous page Jaime Gallegos, First Year Experience (FYE) counselor at EC, said data for undocumented students is often non-specific as a way to protect them.

Regardless of the numbers, Gallegos said the programs at El Camino provide resources for undocumented students including ally training workshops for EC staff and high school counselors as a way to raise awareness of student needs.

“Obviously, there’s been a huge sense of fear,” Gallegos said.

“When you have someone in office that like creates that kind of fear, of course, students are going to wonder what their future is going to look like.”

During the fall and spring 2018 semesters, EC’s undocumented students made up less than 2.90% of the total student population, a drop of more than 1% from fall and spring 2014 when it was closer to 4%, according to the Data Mart.

LA Pierce College experienced a similar drop from fall 2014 to 2018 when undocumented students made up less than 3.89% of the student population, decreasing by 0.69% to 3.20%, according to the Data Mart.

Gallegos said there are several reasons why the numbers are these community colleges are decreasing, including, but not limited to, undocumented students who begin to question whether getting an education is in their best interest because if DACA gets rescinded then they will not have the opportunity to work—thus potentially dropping out.

Unlike Cerritos College, whose student government offers undocumented students access to an immigration lawyer through their budget, Gallegos said students at EC are referred to immigration lawyer and EC English professor Jeffrey Jung.

Jung, who has been at EC for 20 years said undocumented students were not referred to him until the Trump was elected president in 2016.

“There was a lot of fear and panic,” Jung said.

“People thought they’d be arrested. [But] fear and panic are always ahead of reality.”

Jung said he talks to students that are referred to him but everyone wants their case to be pro bono or free of charge.

“When it comes to pro bono, everyone wants it but there are some cases that are life and death,” Jung said.

“All students may think they fit the parameters but we also have people w h o

someone is trying to kill them in their country or their spouse set them on fire.”

Instead, Jung said he speaks with referred students about their case and provides them with information.

Jung added that although fear prevents several undocumented students from applying and getting into a program’s system, Trump’s fear-mongering has motivated more people to apply for protection.

“

I would even last a day or two.”

—Carlos Paz

But still, undocumented students can feel like second-class citizens, Jung said. This can increase their level of conformity where they don’t feel like progressing in life if they can be deported, he added.

Gallegos added that because undocumented students might have that underlying fear and instability, allies work closely to provide them with resources and connect them with various legal assistance.

Compared to EC, undocumented students at Cerritos College made up less than 6.03% and 5.35% of the student population in fall and spring 2018 respectively, 1% more, according to the Data Mart.

Similar to EC, there was a smaller decrease in the possible undocumented student population of less than 0.25% between fall 2014 and 2018.

Similar to EC, there was a smaller decrease of possible undocumented student population of less than 0.25% between fall 2014 and 2018.

C e r r i t o s ex p e r i e n c e d a large decrease

between the spring 2014 and 2018 when there was a less than 1.30% drop in the undocumented student population, according to the Data Mart.

Lynn Wang, financial aid counselor and DREAM Club co-advisor at Cerritos College, said students and staff at

Rosemary Montalvo / The Union Paz said his parakeet Blu was expensive, ranging in the hundreds. Paz had to clip Blu’s wings so she does not escape.

Rosemary Montalvo / The Union Paz’s mother prepares her son a steak dinner on Monday, May 6, while the rest of his siblings eat inside. Paz moved to the United States 15 years ago with his family to escape the hardships they faced in Central America.

Cerritos started preparing to help undocumented students prior to the 2016 presidential election.

After the election, affinity groups were hosted at several colleges, Wang said, including Cerritos College, Chaffey and EC, where students who identified as undocumented were able to connect with allies who could talk them through emotions or concerns.

However, Wang said that because there is no one way to track who is an undocumented student, besides seeing who submits the Dream Act application, it is difficult to understand each student’s necessities, considering some students’ needs may be different depending on their ethnicity.

“This doesn’t have to be the only thing they identify with, they could also be LGBT,” Wang said. “I think it’s one thing to say as a college that you believe in diversity but provide no financial support or assistance to help that flourish.”

Of the five community colleges reviewed by The Union, only Chaffey and Fullerton College had an increase, according to the Data Mart.

Both colleges had an increase of no more than 0.25% between fall 2014 and 2018, according to the Data Mart.

The increase at Chaffey College can be credited to community awareness, prompting the opening of the Center for Culture and Social Justice, a “safe-haven” for all students, Neil Watkins, Dreamers Club faculty advisor and English professor, said.

Gonzalez, who has been working with undocumented students at several colleges and universities, including Long Beach City and USC said that for a long time and even now, several institutions do not have Dream Centers established like CSUDH that can provide students with resources,

including a safe space to talk about their status.

Gonzalez said she was inspired to work with undocumented students because she comes from an undocumented background where her parents were scared to share their status.

“At a very young age I knew that it was wrong that the media would target our community as certain things and creating stereotypes about undocumented people being this and that,” Gonzalez said.

Like her parents, there are students who are afraid to speak up or share their status to get resources in fear of feeding misconceptions or stereotypes, Gonzalez said.

Because of this, student and community organizations took it upon themselves to provide undocumented students with resources, including funds for DACA renewals, Gonzalez said.

However, Gonzalez said funds are running out for these organizations as there are too many students in need, continuing the burden for students including Paz who have to pay for the $495 DACA renewal every two years or risk losing their status. “[It’s] time to get creative and looking into other ways to pay the fees,” Gonzalez said. “Before Dream Centers, students were still going to college and funding their own education.”

Life while undocumented

Gonzalez said people tend to feel sympathy towards the obscurity undocumented students feel on a campus full of new people.

“Pobrecitos,” Gonzalez said she often hears.

Poor little ones.

But Paz doesn’t feel sorry for himself, he says as he sits at the kitchen table in the small LA home he shares with his two younger siblings and parents.

After a long day taking Emergency Medical Technician classes (EMT) at EC and a shift as a mechanic at an auto bodyshop in Santa Monica where he works with his father, he is enticed by the smells of carne asada and chopped onions that fill the busy room.

As everyone waits for dinner,

Student citizenship status 2018

his sky-blue parakeet, named Blu, slides down an evergreen-colored curtain and squawks at Paz as she perches on his weary shoulders.

“I’m proud of who I am,” Paz said. “Just because I come from poverty doesn’t mean I’m nothing.”

However, Paz lives in fear that Trump’s next move will be the one that sends him back to Guatemala City, a place he hasn’t been to in 15 years.

“I wouldn’t even last a day or two,” Paz said. “I don’t know the streets. I could end up in a bad neighborhood and that’s it for me.”

Trump has said that Mexicans are rapist, criminals and that immigrants are animals.

But Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for her work on immigration Sonia Nazario condemned his actions and comments for the inaccurate depiction.

In her career, Nazario has gone in depth to cover the stories of immigrants seeking a better life in the US. “For a long time [undocumented students] could get a job in the above ground economy,” Nazario said. “That’s the problem increasingly. Now they are facing the prospect of having to work in the underground economy.”

The underground economy includes jobs that pay workers in cash and require no government documentation to get hired, meaning the money goes untaxed.

Paz, who is training to be a firefighter, was denied his dream job of being an army medic last semester due to his DACA status,

making him wonder if his status will get in the way of his career again.

“It feels like a waste of time,” Paz said. “How am I going to reach my dream or goals if someone is not going to let it happen because we’re different from everyone else?”

Not taking it for granted Paz eats his dinner outside alongside his mother and father while his siblings take their plates into the living room.

He reminisces about life in Guatemala where students are not offered lunches in grade school like Paz was given at Vermont Elementary School.

He remembers his grandma’s phone calls, telling him about the teenagers she saw stealing and killing on the streets instead of getting an education.

“Some people don’t understand the struggle,” Paz said. “They’re not grateful.”

That’s why his father emphasizes the importance of school to his children, so that they don’t struggle later in life.

Paz listens.

He said he tries to stay on a straight path at EC while balancing work and a social life, avoiding all trouble as it could mean losing his DACA status.

“Once [DACA] continued it gave me hope,” Paz said. “I can do this.

I can achieve my goals.”

But for now, his eyes red and drooping from exhaustion, Paz is only thinking about studying for his next EMT class.

Resources for undocumented students -https://immigrantsrising.org/ -https://dream.csac.ca.gov/ -https://www.nilc.org/ -https://mydocumentedlife.org/ -https://ideasucla.wixsite.com/ideas -https://www.csudh.edu/dream-center/

Source: California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office

NEWS

8 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

MAY 30, 2019

Construction of a mousetrap leads to majoring in engineering More resources provided for women STEM majors, creates an increase in community colleges Roseana Martinez

Opinion Editor @ECCUnionRoseana

I

t started with a mousetrap.

A mousetrap that would help her realize what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

For Gesenia Grajeda, 23, manufacturing technology major, this mousetrap was her realization of majoring in engineering as she left the art academy to pursue the engineering academy at Hawthorne High School.

Growing up, with her dad being an auto body technician, Grajeda was surrounded by engineering, which she was not aware of until later when it started to help her succeed in her major.

Watching her classmates build the mousetraps in high school would later transition into her life at the same time as balancing her life.

Like building a mousetrap, Grajeda builds her lifestyle as a single mother, who must balance her responsibilities as she takes care of her daughter, takes her classes, as well as runs the Women in Industry and Technology Club on campus.

Though she is the only woman in her machining class, it doesn’t stop her from proving to herself that she can do it, however, she came to a realization that not enough women were joining STEM programs at El Camino College (EC).

Though this became a big issue, in the years she has been going to school at EC she has realized improvement upon more women joining STEM programs and clubs. Over the last five years, more women in community colleges have gotten involved with STEM majors and programs, however, EC is still lower than most community colleges throughout Southern California with men exceeding women in STEM programs and majors.

This has been an ongoing issue of not enough women joining STEM programs, as cultural factors play a role in why more women are not joining, however, community colleges are finding new ways in getting more women involved, as well as having them stay in the programs.

With needing both male and female perspectives in the STEM field, community colleges, like EC are trying to help and support women through the programs offered on their campus.

“We need both those perspectives to see how your technology your developing is affecting people and how you can improve that technology for the people,” Nicole Nahabedian, 19, mechanical engineering major said.

Full-time equivalent students, a

measurement equal to one student enrolled full time for one academic year, in the programs/majors of biological science, mathematics, and engineer and industrial technologies, divided into female and males, in six different community colleges shows improvement on more women in STEM programs.

EC is one college with a low amount of women in these programs as well as Fullerton and Cerritos community colleges, however, their numbers have increased over the last five years. On the other hand, Chaffey, Long Beach, and Santa Monica community colleges have maintained more women to stay in their programs, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Data Mart (CCCC).

Data of women in STEM at community colleges

EC compared to Long Beach has had the same increase in women, with Long Beach having a 13% increase of full-time equivalent women joining the programs of mathematics, engineer and industrial technology and biological sciences within the last five years.

However, compared to Santa Monica College (SMC), EC has had a higher increase of women, but it still hasn’t excelled in passing the men in the field.

Whereas SMC, within the last five years, has only had a 2% increase in women, but they continue to be higher than men, according to CCCC data mart.

Sandra Collins, professor of biology at Chaffey College, went on a year-long sabbatical to understand the gap between men and women in the STEM field and came across the culture surrounding the issue.

She describes this culture as a “societal issue” where women are taught at a young age to excel in science in math, but struggle when they are at a university level because they can’t get promotions or equal pay. This culture hires male scientists over women scientists, and women are paid less and don’t have enough resources to succeed in industries of STEM, she said.

“I think men are so important, I think they are instrumental in being a role model,” Collins said. “I think personally, it has to be a culture change because it’s not just going to happen and it certainly can’t happen if women just complain about it and say it has to get better.”

Why women are not joining STEM Grajeda is part of the Robotics Club on campus, as well as president of the

Rosemary Montalvo / The Union Gesenia Grajeda, 23, manufacturing technology major, builds a robot in the ITEC building in Room 22 on Monday, May 6.

The Robotics Club builds bigger robots depending on the event, however the bigger robots are used for robotics competitions.

Women in Technology, and believes EC as helped her create a safe environment for women. But because of the culture surrounding EC, it is difficult to find women who are willing to stick with a STEM major, she said.

“One of the biggest impacts, I think, is the areas where the schools have been, like the culture,” Grajeda said. “Around the El Camino area, I think we are more middle class, very diverse, very Latino families, but not too many engineers, so the idea of becoming an engineer has to come naturally from the student, rather than their family.”

EC has a large population, however, there are more men than women in the majors of biological sciences, mathematics, and engineering and industrial technologies. Over the span of five years, there has only been an increase of 13% of women joining the programs, whereas men have increased by 14%.

This is true, for there is a higher population of men who join these programs over women, according to the CCCC data mart website.

“Getting exposure somewhere else, that isn’t their family, can be hard because it’s kind of hard to imagine for them doing engineering because they don’t have an example or role model, so the idea isn’t implanted in their head at a

young age,” Grajeda said.

Victoria Martinez, ITEC/Academic and Career Counselor at EC, said that not having a role model at a young age could affect why many women may not join the STEM route. Her solution is for kids to start early and get interested in STEM at a young age. “It could be a couple of variations of things,” Martinez said. “It can also be that women have not had good role models going into the STEM area or know anyone who’s been in the science related areas.”

For Nahabedian that was the case as she grew up with no role model working in the STEM field. Her mom owns a restaurant and her dad is a chef.

Though most of her classes, and even in the Robotics Club, are outweighed by men Nahabedian said growing up she would excel in her STEM classes, but when she came to EC she found her interest in mechanical engineering, which led her to become one of the first female presidents of the club.

In a study on March 2018 by the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), an organization that informs and encourages girls to pursue careers in STEM located in Seattle and throughout the U.S., kids, both female and male, who take STEM courses in K-12 do not significantly differ in their abilities in

Source: California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office

Graph by: Roseana Martinez The number of full-time equivalent female students who took biological sciences, mathematics, and engineer and industrial technology are presented above in the years of fall 2012 to fall 2017. They represent the six different colleges throughout Southern California.

mathematics and science but they do when it comes to their interest in taking STEM subjects.

However, once they approach higher education, the majority of males earn bachelor’s degrees in computer science, engineering, and physics, whereas fewer women get a degree in those courses, according to NGCP report.

“In elementary school and middle school, [women] excel and do really well, but then in college and university level, not enough women get jobs,” Collins said.

With her research from her sabbatical, Collins found out that children in K-12 who were taking STEM subjects were excelling, however, when they entered higher education, women struggled to get promotions and good pay in the workforce as only 24% of women held jobs in the STEM field.

Support offered at community colleges

In Chaffey College Dean of Science and Mathematics Theodore Younglove said this ongoing issue of not enough women joining STEM has declined as more women have joined with the support being offered on their campus.

Chaffey Community College has had more women than men in biological sciences, mathematics, and engineering and industrial technology within the last five years. Compared to the other five colleges, Chaffey has had a 36% increase of more women joining the programs.

Chaffey and Fullerton both had the highest increase of women joining the programs, according to the data reviewed

by The Union. Fullerton College had a 62% increase, compared to EC within the last five years, Fullerton has increased 48% more than EC. At Chaffey, STEM programs “tend to be more heavily weighted towards females,” Younglove said.

With Chaffey being divided into three campuses, Younglove believes there is definitely a cultural effect. Both Chino and Rancho Cucamonga campuses tend to be “an upscale college area” but the campus in Fontana is a more difficult to reach out to, Younglove said.

Fontana is a population where fewer parents have gone to college and “a lot of the college there, we have to make extra outreach efforts for students to consider a lot of the STEM fields,” Younglove said.

“They don’t see it as something they can do necessarily.”

Younglove makes sure he involves parents, as well as the students, by translating videos and powerpoints in both Spanish and English, so they can have a better understanding of the resources provided in the community

colleges.

He believes that if parents understand what is offered at community colleges, more women can join STEM programs and offer their different perspective in the workforce that could help men see certain situations differently.

Nahabedian also believes men play a big role in changing the [cultural] issue as she feels the perspective of women “doesn’t get explored, or can’t really be explored as well through like a solely male perspective.”

With its more recent club, EC is making a change to try to be one of the first community colleges to join the Society of Women Engineers Organization (SWE), which is a nationwide organization to empower women engineers by supporting and helping them find jobs, get scholarships, and get hired on the field on engineering.

“We provide support and we do that in different ways, by meeting usually once a week and talking about different things, we may have guest speakers, we may have workshops, we may go on tours,” Martinez said.

One of the many things EC offers in the summer is the Northrop Grumman internship program and most women who apply and get interviewed from EC usually end up landing the job, Martinez said.

At Chaffey, Younglove said he got a STEM grant for students to study research projects outside of Chaffey and at other universities and businesses.

“We are doing living lab activities where we use the campus as part of a classroom,” Younglove said. “We also line up partnerships with other colleges and businesses and we get students to apply and go. We pay for the students to go for the summer, we pay their travel and then they go and work for free in various labs.”

Collins said the issue of not enough women in STEM has been improved.

With societal issues stopping women from joining STEM, Collins believes with different perspectives in the field, it could get better.

“It’s this whole idea of diversity, it’s the idea that when you have diversity, if the people think different then they can offer different points of views, different ways of hassling a problem, and seeing a problem, being able to identify things differently,” Collins said.

As for younger generations who dream of pursuing this career, Nahabedian said it won’t be easy, but it definitely is worth it.

“I’d encourage little girls to not be afraid, no matter what anyone else says, to put yourself out there and just go for it,” Nahabedian said.

NEWS

MAY 30, 2019

Q&A about ASD with Assistant Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy at USC Tracy Jalaba

Photo courtesy of Tracy Jalaba

Q: What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?

A: “Autism is a neurological condition that can be defined in a few different ways.”

Q: How is autism spectrum disorder diagnosed?

A: “Through the DSM, basically, it’s looking at deficits in social skills or social communication and aspects of repetitive behaviors or highly focused interests. There’s typically sensory processing deficits that are associated and those are kind of some of the small criteria that are looked at when people are being diagnosed.”

Q: Why syndrome anymore?

isn’t a

asperger diagnosis

A: “The Asperger syndrome diagnosis is no longer a diagnosis because of the efforts made in the last 5-6 years of moving autism towards the spectrum view because its the same diagnostic as someone who has autism, its just maybe they’re higher functioning”

Why is it important for college campuses to have counselors that are trained to work with students with autism?

A: “A lot of counseling involves retrospection, they use analogies to describe ideas and those are things that can be more challenging for people on the spectrum. Other mental health or healthcare professionals, a lot of the time, they don’t have comfort working with these students, in the sense that they feel confident that they know how to meet their needs in the same way as they would maybe other students that have anxiety or depression diagnosis”.

Adults with autism are more at risk of suicide

Suicide among people with ASD has not been researched enough, so it still is not clear what the risk markers are, but it is clear that people with ASD are at a higher risk of having suicidal thoughts and behaviors then the general public, according to “Risk markers for suicidality in autistic adults”, an article written by four reasearchers from the UK in July 2018.

A study conducted in Sweden in 2016 found that the likeliness of a person with autism dying by suicide is 31% while the likeliness of a person from the general population is .04%.

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 9

Students with disabilities continued from page 1 Murillo relies on services offered by EC’s Special Resource Center (SRC), a program designed to help students with disabilities make their way through college.

The SRC offers academic accomodations to all students with disabilties on campus including testing accommodations, note takers, seperate counselors, priority registration, and in-class aids according to the SRC website.

“I need more support, that way I can do well on my classes, that way I don’t stress more,” he said.

Murillo requires extra time for testing, a direct service aid to accompany him to his classes and visits to the psychologist at the SRC. “Well for college it’s really important because if i dont get sufficient time for exams, I need to have more time, especially for reading that way I can get an audio recording of the reading,” Murillo said.

Students with ASD in community colleges

Community colleges began tracking the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the Disabled S t u d e n t Program Services (DSPS) three years ago in fall 2016. Students with ASD made up an average of 11.75% of students with disabilities at El Camino College between fall 2016 and spring 2018 according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Data Mart.

EC has the highest average of students with ASD enrolled compared to Long Beach City College, Rio Hondo College, Cerritos College, and Santa Monica College according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Data Mart.

Although the total amount of students with disabilities at EC is decreasing, the number of students with ASD is actually increasing.

In data reviewed by The Union, it is clear that in the last three years more students with ASD are pursuing a post-secondary education.

About 17,000 American adults with autism pursue a postsecondary education right after high school every year, according to Autism Speaks, an organization that advocates and sponsors research for autism.

“Because we are seeing more and more students on the spectrum, there is now a disability category thats been assigned,” director of EC’s SRC Gary Greco said.

The Chancellor’s Office is in charge of distributing the yearly DSPS budgets to community colleges.

The budget for the DSPS at EC is managed by Greco.

The DSPS budget is “based on our reporting of our students based on the population and the size will determine the allocation that the Chancellor’s Office will provide for us, so I will work within what they give me in my budget here to provide accommodations and

Rosemary Montalvo / The Union Michael Murillo, 20, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a learning disability,and ADHD at the age of 3. services,” Greco said Although Greco states that the amount of money recieved for the EC DSPS budget is based on the size of the SRC population, the opposite has been happening in the past five years.

EC’s budget for the DSPS consistantly increased from the academic year of 2013 through 2016 by an average of 25% even though the disabled student population stayed constant within those years.

Although community colleges have only recently began tracking the number of students with ASD, “accomodations for them have always been made,” Greco said.

The type of assistance that is needed by students with autism varies from person to person and depends on the proactiveness of the student to request accommodations, but sometimes, schools fail to meet every accomodation needed by some students, Tracy Jalaba an assistant professor of clinical occupational therapy at USC told The Union.

“A lot of students that had diagnosis since childhood were getting service in high school and that kind of happens automatically behind the scenes, whereas in college, they have to speak up for support services or accomodations,” Jalaba said.

Receiving extra support from outside organizations Since his diagnosis he has worked with regional centers to help accomodate not only his academic needs, but his daily personal needs.

As soon as someone is diagnosed with ASD, caseworkers begin working on an individualized education program (IEP), a document that deciphers the strengths, weaknesses and the

school’s plan to help the student, according to the Understood team at understood.org.

“They required IEP’s for middle school through high school to discuss about my academic goals that will happen later on in college,” Murillo said.

Murillo is able to have a direct service aid with him during his classes because of the new partnerships that EC is building with regional centers around the area.

He has been working with Family Adult Child Therapy (FACT) since August 2018 to ensure that he gets all the support necessary succeed academically and to better his socialization skills.

Service professionals provide extra support that the SRC at El Camino does not provide, Greco said.

Murillo’s direct service aid, who did not want to be named , meets with him Monday through Thursday during his class times.

“He’s independent for the most part, I just work closely with him on his essays,” Murillo’s direct service aid said.

“

I need more support, that way I can do well on my classes, that way I don’t stress more.”

—Michael Murillo

Murillo’s learning disability makes writing essays a difficult task for him because he is unable to structure sentences correctly, his direct service aid said.

He understands how to structure an essay, but he makes grammatical mistakes, so it is hard to understand what he is saying in his essays,

Murillo’s direct service aid said.

Murillo failed two courses last semester because “the writing was too much,” Murillo said.

The SRC doesn’t offer direct tutoring for students with disabilities. Instead it offers alternative suggestions to help students depending on their strengths and weaknesses in the subject, Learning Disability Specialist Tiffanie Lau said.

At EC, students are referred to the tutors offered by the different departments, while the Disabled Student Services Departments at Long Beach City College and Santa Monica College offer specialized tutoring for students with disabilities.

Murillo often stresses about getting his schoolwork done and studying for exams.

Murillo said he is advised to talk to the pyschologist offered at the SRC or to go to the Health Center on campus whenever he is feeling stressed.

Socializing while on the spectrum

Socializing doesn’t come easy for people on the spectrum, including Murillo.

His biggest worry and fear when he meets new people is that they won’t fully understand what he is trying to say because it is hard for him to speak in complete sentences.

“Throughout my childhood I had several struggles with communicating [with] people because of my autism disability and I didnt know how I looked like, I didn’t know if I was speaking correctly, probably my words are little bit vague so they probably got confused with what I was trying to say,” Murillo said.

An effective form of overcoming his fear of communicating with others is by drawing.

“I used to draw when I was a kid and when some students admired my drawings and decided they wanted to be my classmate friend,” he said.

Students with ASD succeeding in college

Although it is challenging for Murillo to socialize with others, he still describes himself as an extrovert in his personality essay.

Murillo enjoys being social and doing the different type of volunteer work that offered by Family, Adult and Child Therapies (FACT), an organization that provides services and programs designed specifically for every individual and their individual needs, he said.

Volunteer work includes helping at the Salvation Army, going to an “elderly home”, cleaning up trash, and working at thrift stores, Murillo said.

To Murillo, his extroverted personality type is what he said will ensure his success as an ESL teacher in the future, but he knows that to get there he needs to graduate from college.

His parents migrated from El Salvador before he was born in search of a better life for their children and weren’t able to obtain an education. As a result, Murillo always knew that he would get a college education.

Ensuring that students with autism succeed in college has a lot to do with not only the accommodations and resources provided by the college campus, but also spreading awareness about ASD and creating a campus culture that is more accepting and inclusive, Jalaba said.

El Camino College does a good job at accommodating students, but Murillo said that “the one accomodation they should offer, is help with essays for students with disabilties.”

Suicide prevention resources:

1. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1- 8 0 0 -2 73 - 82 55(ava i l a bl e 24-hours every day) 2. The Trevor Project, an LGBT crisis intervention and suicide prevention hotline.

1-866-488-7386 (available 24/7) 3. For hard of hearing, contact Lifeline via TTY by calling 800-799-4889.(available 24/7)

Illustrations by Rosemary Montalvo / The Union

EC’s DSPS student population compared to the annual DSPS budget from 2013 to 2018. EC’s DSPS budget increased while the DSPS student population decreased.

Source: California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office DataMart

NEWS

10 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

May 30, 2019

Federal loans to be available next year

For the first time in five years, students will be offered ‘the safest form of borrowing’ Omar Rashad

Copy Editor @ECCUnionOmar

E

ver since Perla Ruvalcaba graduated from high school, she has worked a part-time job at In-N-Out to support herself and her family.

Money is tight and with the aid she receives while attending El Camino College, Ruvalcaba said she tries to be smart with her finances. But sometimes financial aid and minimum wage earnings are not enough to pay for everything, she said.

Her paychecks go to paying for college expenses—textbooks, tuition, school supplies and transportation—and getting to class requires taking two buses to get from her home in South Los Angeles to Torrance.

Ruvalcaba is one of many EC students who work a part-time job while going to college. Whether to pay for bills or school expenses, students work jobs because they need more income.

That’s not uncommon, according to Laura Szabo-Kubitz, the associate California program director at The Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit public policy and research organization based in Oakland, California.

Taking on a job is a way to pay for an “affordability gap” created by the difference between a student’s cost of attendance and financial aid in the form of grants or scholarships.

Another way to pay for that affordability gap besides working a job can also be in the form of taking out federal student loans.

For the first time in five years, El Camino College will be giving students like Ruvalcaba the option of taking out federal loans to help pay for the cost of college, EC Assistant Director of Financial Aid Kristina Martinez said.

Martinez said some students on campus could benefit from borrowing money to pay for college.

“There are students where maybe getting an extra $5,000 a year can really make the difference of them being able to not have to take on work outside and be able to focus on studies,” Martinez said.

For the last five years, if an EC student wanted to take out a loan to help pay for the college expenses, they would have had to go to a private lender like a bank.

“A lot of times with those loans, they are looking at your credit score and repayment, so a lot of times students need cosigners,” Martinez said. “Their interest rates aren’t locked the same way the federal government is.”

Szabo-Kubitz said having federal student loans available brings the safest form of borrowing to students’ financial options.

“Federal loans are by far the safest form of borrowing,” SzaboKubitz said. “They come with

certain consumer protections that private loans and other types of debt don’t have.”

That includes in many cases fixed low interest rates, incomedriven repayment plans and several different types of loan forgiveness programs, she said.

“I think the upshot is that when students need to cover the gap, they have access to the safest form of borrowing which are federal loans,” Szabo-Kubitz said.

EC stops giving federal loans

Under former EC President Thomas Fallo’s administration, El Camino College exited the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program in 2014, closing off an avenue by which students could receive help in paying for college expenses.

The Union reached out to Fallo by phone. He declined to say anything more than the decision to exit the federal loan program was in lieu of concerns about EC’s cohort default rate (CDR) rising.

CDR is defined by the U.S. Department of Education website as the ratio of a school’s federal student loan borrowers who default on their student loan out of a school’s number of federal student loan borrowers who enter repayment in a fiscal year.

Students who default on their loans are those who haven’t made a loan payment in nine months.

Defaulting on a student loan will make students face legal consequences and lose eligibility to receive federal student aid, according to the U.S. Department of Education website.

“If a student does default, it can obviously have a negative impact on their ability to purchase a home or start a business,” Szabo-Kubitz said. “There are real concerns with defaulting that can have negative

“

Whenever we’re worried about money, it impacts our ability to be successful because you’re worrying.”

—EC Director of Financial Aid Melissa Guess

effects for students.”

Furthermore, if a college’s CDR is or exceeds 30% for three consecutive fiscal years, colleges can receive consequences from the government, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Cerritos Community College Jamie Quiroz said.

“If your default rate gets too high, the feds may intervene, the [U.S.] Department of Education may require you to do a default management plan,” Quiroz said.

“If it gets really high and continues to be high, they could say you’re not allowed to give out anymore financial aid.”

The Union reviewed data from the U.S. Department of Education website and compared community college’s CDR and found other colleges in Southern California have had a higher or similar CDR to EC.

Omar Rashad / The Union Perla Ruvalcaba does not want to take out a loan during her time at El Camino College becuase she wants to save money. She wants to wait until she transfers to a four-year university before incurring student debt.

Loans by the numbers

• Senate Bill 291 is proposed legislation in the California Senate attempting to raise the amount of financial aid students receive • College seniors from across the nation were an average of $28,650 in debt in 2017, according to TICAS • Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposed an education plan to forgive up to $1.25 trillion in federal student loans

However, EC’s CDR over the fiscal years 2013, 2014 and 2015 were respectively 19.7%, 21.3% and 15.8%, according to the U.S. Department of Education Website.

EC’s CDR trend over those three years were not close to the 30% sanctioning threshold.

Szabo-Kubitz said it would be ideal to not have any students default on their loans “but in terms of the larger picture, 15.8% is pretty far from the threshold of 30% or more for three years in a row.”

About 20 miles east of EC is Cerritos College, a community college with a similar demographic and total student population to EC. Cerritos College’s CDR for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 years closely resemble EC’s: 18.9%, 21.3% and 16.7% from 2013 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Education website.

For all of those years, the difference between Cerritos College’s CDR and EC’s CDR was never higher than 0.9%, yet EC decided dropped out of the federal loan program while almost every college in its area remained in the program. Some colleges had a

Data Source: CCCCO MIS Data Mart El Camino College is the only community college of the five listed above to not offer federal loans to students since over the last five years. Colleges other than El Camino College have been offering federal loans to students in the thousands.

higher CDR than EC and continued offering students federal loans.

Long Beach City College, a community college that has a similar demographic and student population to EC, had a CDR of 24.8%, 28% and 21.5% between the years 2013 and 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Education website, and remained in the federal loan program as well.

Although their CDR was lower than EC’s during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, both Citrus College and Glendale College remained in the federal loan program.

EC has been the only community college in its area to not offer federal student loans over the past few years, Martinez said.

While no form of borrowing is risk-free, federal loans being made accessible to students is important because it is the safest form of borrowing, Szabo Kubitz said.

“I think that having access to federal loans is important,” SzaboKubitz said. “There is research that shows that frontloading financial aid—having more financial aid earlier in college—can be helpful.”

While she has not taken out loans during her time at EC, Ruvalcaba sees how students can benefit from loans, she said.

Loans can be good or bad and it’s important that students find ways to pay them off as soon as possible, Ruvalcaba said.

Loans at community colleges The Union reviewed data for the last five years from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Management Information Systems Data Mart (CCCCO MIS Data Mart) and found that community colleges in Southern California other than EC have been giving out loans in the thousands.

Long Beach City College gave out about 1,300 loans in the 2017 to 2018 academic year totaling a little more than $3 million.

Cerritos College gave out close to 2,000 student loans totaling more than $4.5 million for the 2017 to 2018 academic year.

On the opposite side of Los Angeles, another community college, Citrus College, has a student population of less than half that of EC. Citrus College gave out more than 600 federal student loans totaling over $1.5 million in the 2017 to 2018 academic year.

Glendale College, located just north of Los Angeles, has a similar student population to EC and gave out more than 800 loans in the 2017 to 2018 academic year, totaling over $1.5 million dollars as well.

Community college surrounding EC, even those with smaller

populations than EC, offering federal loans in the thousands indicates there is an interest in them across the board.

And while offering federal student loans at EC is a step in the right direction, students need to approach financial aid by looking at the whole picture of their college career, EC Director of Financial Aid Melissa Guess said.

“Loans can both assist a student and they can harm them in the future,” Guess said.

Guess said it’s important for students to be prepared and to understand their options when taking out student loans. She added that she would never tell students to borrow money if they absolutely did not need to.

“But if we can assist students to be successful by providing this additional avenue of aid while they’re in school, then by all means, absolutely, they should borrow,” Guess said.

Guess also explained that students should not have to worry about finances when attending college, they should be able to only

“

My goal has always been like going to school, getting a degree, graduating and having like a better life.”

—EC student Perla Ruvalcaba

have to focus on academics.

“Whenever we’re worried about money, it impacts our ability to be successful because you’re worrying,” Guess said. “I think it [loans] will allow students to focus on why they’re here and not how they’re going to pay for it.”

Although Southern California community colleges besides EC have been offering loans and respective students are taking them out, Quiroz recommends waiting to take out loans until later in college or transferring to a fouryear university.

“I don’t encourage students at the community college level to take loans,” Quiroz said. “It would not help them to incur any debt, it’s only going to hurt them.”

Quiroz added that if students do take out loans, borrowing only the amount they need rather than the loan amount offered is a smart way to go.

Quiroz said that loans can be beneficial for students but waiting until they are needed before taking one out is a way to save as much money as possible.

“It’s only kind of a last resort when it’s between dropping out of college and actually finishing, then sometimes it is necessary,” Quiroz said. “When students are able to pay back their loans, they can see

it as a positive.”

She also said that understanding financial aid options are incredibly important and that students should be taking advantage of as much grant money from the federal government as possible before considering loans.

She said financial literacy workshops at Cerritos College help students understand the different types of loans and what they require.

Waiting until it’s necessary

Although the CCCCO MIS Data Mart indicates that federal student loans are being offered to and taken out by students at colleges surrounding EC, students like Ruvalcaba do not want to take out student loans while attending community college.

Ruvalcaba said she feels dissuaded from taking out loans because her fear of having debt in the future is brought on by knowing many of her friends and relatives are mired in repayment plans years after their college graduation.

However, her situation is a little bit more difficult, she said.

“Since both of my parents are undocumented immigrants and both of my parents have medical conditions, [they] can’t work,” Ruvalcaba said. “So, regardless, that’s why if I take out a loan, I know I wouldn’t be able to pay it off.”

She said her father wakes every morning at 5 a.m. and finds work in construction while her mother babysits every day. Seeing them struggle has made getting an education more important to her, she said.

“Going to school just means becoming a successful person and helping my parents,” Ruvalcaba said. “My goal has always been like going to school, getting a degree, graduating and having like a better life. It’s like becoming someone.”

And while paying for college can get difficult, she is determined to find ways to make it work.

“I’ve struggled but now I’m here,” she said. “But I’m also proud of how far I’ve come.”

Furthermore, the volume of students at surrounding colleges taking out loans can mean that students at EC are also interested in them as well, history major Bryant Manjarrez said.

“It shows a lot of schools are offering [loans] and people are actually taking advantage of it,” Manjarrez said. “If [a loan] were to help someone, then obviously it should be pushed for. The fear of having a loan should always be outweighed by what you gain.”

ARTS

MAY 30, 2019

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 11

David Rondthaler / The Union John Barry, 18, guitarist and singer (left), and Ben Tyrrell, 20, guitarist and singer from the band Alinea rehearses at Barry’s garage. They are preparing for the band’s peformance at the Beachlife Festival at Redondo Beach.

20-year-old music major finds camaraderie in rock band Southern California based band Alinea reaches 240 thousand plays on Spotify for their song ‘She Doesn’t Get It’ David Rondthaler

Staff Writer @ECCUnionDavidR

A

fter rehearsing a song, John Barry, an 18-year-old guitarist and singer, checks off a song from a list.

Barry quickly turns around with a puzzled look and poses a question to his bandmates.

“How long did that song take?”

Barry asks.

“Oh, I forgot to record the song,” Ben Tyrrell, 20-year-old guitarist and singer who was supposed to keep track of each song’s length says.

Tyrrell takes out his phone and opens up a recording app and then places it on a counter next to where they were playing.

“I think it was about three minutes and 10 seconds,” Lance Meliota, 18, drummer, says.

“Let’s just re-do it,” Barry says.

Shannon Ennis, 20, bassist, didn’t seem to care and neither did Meliota.

“Make sure you are recording this time,” Barry says.

Tyrrell is a music major at El Camino College and is also part of the band Alinea. He hopes to one day to make it as a musician.

At an early age, Tyrrell was exposed to music from his parents.

“On my way to my first day of kindergarten my dad played ‘Man on the Moon’ by R.E.M., I loved listening to it to even though I didn’t know what they were saying,” Tyrrell said.

As a child, Tyrrell said he remembers playing the piano, clarinet, and alto sax but didn’t keep playing the piano and the clarinet. Tyrrell kept playing the alto sax as he grew up.

During middle school, he started to really get into music and was listening to bands like Weezer, Blink 182, and Bayside.

In high school “I took classes like jazz band and concert band but nothing about music and the history of it,” he said.

The last two years of high school Tyrrell went on to become a drum major. The drum major is someone who conducts the marching band.

“This was something that fell in my lap, I didn’t try to become drum major but I’m happy I got the opportunity,” Tyrrell said.

During the summer before his senior year, Tyrrell took guitar lessons and his teacher told him about a band that was looking for a bassist.

He jumped on the opportunity but he hesitated when he met the band members Barry and Meliota.

“I wasn’t too sure that I would fit in with the band,” Tyrrell said.

Barry remembers Tyrrell being shy and couldn’t even tell them that he sang.

“The first time we met him he was really quiet and timid. His mom told me he sang, which was weird but seemed like he was scared to overstep his boundaries,” Barry said.

Tyrrell was moved to guitar when their bassist came back from vacation, and also sang with Barry.

After getting accustomed to both Barry and Meliota, Tyrrell started to be more comfortable with the band.

“I really felt at home with this guys and knew that we had something special,” Tyrrell said.

Their first performance together was “crazy” said Tyrrell, he hadn’t felt anything like it.

Following the performance, the

whole band “couldn’t stop talking about how much fun it was” Tyrrell said. “It was insane, fun, and felt like so many people were there watching.”

Months after Tyrrell joined the band, Ennis, a childhood friend of Tyrrell’s, joined the band after their old bassist left.

“You realize how much you don’t know someone,” said Ennis about being in a band with Tyrrell, “He was very shy and different at school. Ben is very fun to play with and he is very creative in ways we can change things in songs.”

On top of meeting up with an old friend, there was no family or friends against him joining the band said Tyrrell. “If anything they were supportive and wanted me to do what I love,” he added.

With that though, it is very hard to balance school, friends, and family, and the band he said.

“It’s tough, especially with other music studies but when we get together to perform or practice, it’s my favorite part of the week,” Tyrrell said.

Tyrrell is not only in Alinea but he is also a part of the jazz concert band at EC and has had a great time being a part of it.

“It has given me the opportunity to play some new and interesting tunes as well as performing alongside other musicians. All of whom I have plenty to learn from,” Tyrrell said.

The band has really bonded together, with Ennis and Tyrrell knowing each other for years and Barry and Meliota have been friends since elementary school.

“It feels like we are a family with us knowing each other for a long time and how similar we are in personality,” said Barry.

Barry explains that the band is united by how much they love music and their want to play professionally.

“We play as a team, we don’t compete against one another. We are just competing with other bands, not with each other,” Barry said.

The band produced a song and released a song on December 18, 2018, it was titled “She Doesn’t Get It.” Over the course of six months on Spotify, the song has about 240,000 plays/listens. Tyrrell thought the process would be different.

“I thought it would be this long process to get to that many people to listen to our song. I still wonder why people even listen to it,” Tyrrell said.

The band performed their newest song on the Torrance Parade Float in the Rose Day Parade.

Tyrrell said playing on the float was different compared to their other gigs.

“It was nice to perform in front of a lot of people, it was different to look out and see soo many people,” Tyrrell said.

Meliota was taken back when the parade first started but soon after was comfortable.

“It was shocking to see so many people watching you perform but after a while, you settle in and just play,” Meliota said.

Barry is confident the band can start producing it’s own music.

“I see us releasing our own music and much faster also even producing our stuff,” Barry said.

Tyrrell agrees with Barry that the band is destined for success.

“If we continue on our path, I know we will make it pretty big and I’m not worried about it,” Tyrrell said.

David Rondthaler / The Union Shannon Ennis, 20-year-old, bassist from the band Alinea rehearses for the band’s set at Beachlife Festival. Ennis is long time friends with the band’s guitarist Ben Tyrell and is the most recent member to join.

12 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

Features

MAY 30, 2019

Jose Tobar / The Union Photojournalism instructor Gary Kohatsu has been a part of the journalism department at El Camino College as both a student and instructor for a period spanding over 30 years, and has been quietly preparing to transition out as he officially will be retiring in June. He has remained an active reporter, photojournalist and editor for publications like the Gardena Valley News and the Culver City News, seen here covering the Culver City Car Show for CCN on Saturday, May 11.

Photojournalism instructor set to retire Photojournalism profesor Gary Kohatsu paints a picture worth a thousand words.

Jose Tobar

Staff Writer @ECCUnionTobar ifty years after his father was the subject of a tragic news story, El Camino College photojournalism instructor Gary Kohatsu finds himself in the spotlight of his own news story — only his tale ends on a quieter note.

Just past midnight on Feb. 4, 1969, the day he was to start high school, 14-year-old Gary Tadashi Kohatsu learned that his father was severely injured.

Larry Yoki Kohatsu, 47, was shot twice during an armed robbery that was carried out at a World Oil gas station in Santa Monica, where he was working the graveyard shift.

The elder Kohatsu died two hours later in a Santa Monica hospital after succumbing to his injuries, leaving him and his younger sister to be raised by their mother.

When he read an account of the murder in the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Kohatsu’s fate as a journalist was sealed.

He felt “the power of the written word” in the story with the headline: “Man Killed, Patron Shot In SM Holdup.”

“It had such a big impact on me that someone could write a story about my father. Somebody that never met him,” Kohatsu, 65, said. “It was so wonderfully written that I think that was the seed that was planted in me.”

Kohatsu, who had up until then been an adamant track and field buff and runner, used to idolize “legendary high school runners of the ‘60s” even dreaming at times of running in the Olympics, but learned how the loss of his father would take its toll on him.

“A large part of my psyche was damaged by my dad’s death,” Kohatsu

F

Jose Tobar / The Union El Camino College adjunct professor Gary Kohatsu on assignment for the Culver City News at Veteran’s Park covering the Culver City Car Show on Saturday, May 11. “I’m usually trying to get three elements out of the photos,” Kohatsu said.

said. “From day one in high school, I could no longer compete. I was deftly afraid. No confidence. But I still dreamed of regaining both my running ability and confidence.”

He competed in cross-country during his sophomore and junior years with “horrific results,” when an injury to his ankle while playing basketball “mercifully ended” his athletic pursuits.

While still recovering from his injury, one of Kohatsu’s friends showed him his dad’s new Pentax camera.

I saw that camera and it was like ‘Wow’, ‘that is amazing,’” Kohatsu said. “[My friend] brought the camera to school for a track and field meet and took the pictures that would alter the course of my life. I was invigorated.”

He would never perform as an athlete again, but after saving for a year he managed to purchase his very own Pentax camera in 1971. It was through photography that he found a way to stay connected to the sport he loved so much.

Throughout the 1970s, he freelanced as a photographer for the Track and Field News magazine, while honing his skills as a writer for the Jade Screen, a martial arts fanzine.

Then in 1981, he enrolled at L.A. Harbor Community College and finally at El Camino College in ‘84 to study journalism. No longer in doubt about what his career path would be, Kohatsu put theory to practice as both photographer and writer for the EC Warwhoop, now The Union.

“By then, I wasn’t looking to test the waters on anything anymore,” Kohatsu said. “At the time, I was definitely thinking journalism. So I got as much out of it as I could. It was a great experience.”

He studied photojournalism at Cal State University, Long Beach, but earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1990. By then, Kohatsu had already started his journalism career in 1989, when he was hired as a photographer and sports writer at the Gardena Valley News.

GVN Editor-in-Chief Robert Murray introduced him to Jolene Combs, adviser of the ECC journalism program. Throughout the 1990s, he worked with the Combs and co-adviser Lori Medigovich, providing internships to many of the best Warwhoop staff writers and photographers.

During this time, Kohatsu also took a refresher journalism course in Combs’ program in 1992-93. In 2002, he returned once more as a student to take the very same photojournalism class that he now teaches.

As for his students, most had no idea that this would be the final semester they’d enjoy under Kohatsu. But for those like Rosemary Montalvo, 20, the newly appointed photo editor for The Union at EC, the brief time spent under his tutelage will be recalled with affection.

“I will always think of his class as what shaped me into the photographer that I am,” Montalvo said. “He instills confidence in you. And seeing how passionate he is about photojournalism, it moves you.”

He considers himself the type of workaholic who hasn’t taken more than a day off since 2006, to a fault at times. So much so, that it eventually affected his marriage, leading it to eventual divorce in 2007.

“He’s definitely a workaholic,” Kohatsu’s ex-wife Judy Senter Rubin said. “He devotes a lot of energy to his work...It didn’t leave much time for us to spend together as a family in that respect. And that’s difficult on any relationship.”

After a 12-year stint as an adjunct photojournalism instructor for EC, Kohatsu is ready to retire in June, marking both the end and the beginning of a huge chapter in his life.

“His retirement will be well deserved after all the work he has done, you know,” Rubin said. “He is a very dedicated professional, and on a personal side, he has a very good heart, and is a very good man.”

Reflecting over the years, he’s worked to prepare future photojournalists, he has embraced the cyclical nature of the journalism department where students and staff often come and go.

And, he’d readily like others to adhere to a Bob Dylan line in “Things Have Changed” when it comes to how he’d like to effect his exit strategy in June that simply reads: “Please] don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through.”

“It’s been rejuvenating,” Kohatsu said. “Every semester, to work with new people, new ideas, and a new focus. That’s what I’ll miss most. But I don’t feel sad about leaving. Now, I’m just looking forward to the next thing”

Elena Perez / The Union Showing his commical side, Gary Kohatsu photojournalism instruct holds his phone with a displaying headshot of himself. After 12 years of teaching at El Camino College, Kohatsu is set to retire.

Features

MAY 30, 2019

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 13

International Student Club provides home away from home

Organization aims to promote diversity, share ideas and connect students from different countries Anna Podshivalova Staff Writer @ECCUnionAnna

International students often get lonely upon arriving to a foreign country. The International Club of El Camino College helps them find friends and feel at home even while being thousands of miles from family.

“There is a whole world out there,” the president of International Club Julio Tena said.

The International Club welcomes all students to join the organization. The club aims to promote diversity on campus by connecting students from different countries, according to the website.

“It is a club where students can meet regularly with each other and make connections among themselves,” Tena said. “Students can come and join the club whenever they want, they can just walk in to any meetings.”

Alice Sun, the club’s vice president, added that the international club is striving to create an international platform for students to exchange and share ideas.

“The club’s meetings and events are meant to connect international and local students in an effort to explore what we have in common and learn about our diverse perspectives,” Sun said.

One does not have to be a foreigner to join the club: local students are welcome to get involved.

“I am not personally an international student, but I am very interested in international affairs,” Tena said.

The club’s meetings take place every Thursday, from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Social Science Building, Room 127. According to the club’s website, during the meetings, in addition to socializing, students have an opportunity to engage in various extracurricular activities on and off campus that allow them to learn about different cultures.

“In club meetings we usually make announcements about events and participate in activities that relate to international backgrounds,” Tena said. “We try to include everyone. We also play games and invite guest speakers who come and talk about things like stress and student issues.”

The International Club is working closely with the ECC International Student Program and other organizations to ensure achievement of their goals, according to the website.

Becoming a part of the club’s cabinet is one way to make a difference.

“I became the club’s president by reaching out about an opportunity to become a cabinet member,” Tena said. “I came to every cabinet meeting and tried to find a position for myself.”

The vice president is also very involved in the club’s affairs.

“I became the vice president of the International Club this semester, because our former vice president got an internship opportunity, so she was not able to handle the extra-curriculars on campus,” Sun said. “I think, becoming a VP is a great way to show my support to international students and help them achieve their academic goals.”

The International Club embraces the differences between cultures and helps build friendships, allowing club participants to develop their social, organizational and academic skills.

“Community college is really great, but a lot of the time you don’t have people to talk to outside of class,” Tena said. “So we want to create a community where people can get to know each other, be comfortable and share a common experience.”

Students can reach out to learn more about the club via website, Instagram, events or email.

“I found out about the club though Rush week,” Stephanie Gonzalez, communication studies major said. “I really wanted to join a club this semester.”

Jaime Solis / The Union

Bolortsetseg “Crystal” Tamsagbaatar plans the crystal layout on her leotard project on Friday, April 12. She said the crystals are one of the most important parts because they let the wearer “shine while they move.”

Leotards were too expensive, so she created her own Jaime Solis

Staff Writer @ECCUnionJaime

T

he yellow crystals glimmered as sunlight from the window ran across the table, setting the crimson leotard aglow.

Bolortsetseg “Crystal” Tamsagbaatar’s eyes, squinting with intent, scan the leotard on the table as she ponders the placement of more Swarovski crystals throughout her design.

“Bolor means crystal in Mongolian,” Tamsagbaatar said.

“Together with tsetseg, it means crystal flower.”

She drew inspiration for her brand, Crystal Leotards, and the general designs for her products from her name but she would have never imagined herself as a leotard designer eight years ago.

Tamsagbaatar is from Mongolia, where she said she lived a comfortable life with her young daughter Khuslen “Molly” Tamir, as the manager of a department store.

However, in 2011, Tamsagbaatar decided to migrate to the U.S. with her daughter.

“I was thinking about my daughter’s future,” Tamsagbaatar said. “It’s a better life for her here.”

Soon after arriving in the U.S., Tamir, who practiced contortion between the ages of three and seven in Mongolia, delved into rhythmic gymnastics when she turned 11.

“I was watching the Olympics and saw the rhythmic gymnastics,” Tamir said. “And I was like ‘I wanna do that’.”

Tamir’s natural flexibility as a contortionist got her accepted onto a team where she learned the basics and soon she was ready to compete in the Level 4 Region 1 Rhythmic Gymnastics competition.

But she didn’t have a leotard to compete in.

Her first leotard was a handme-down that cost $250, simple but pretty with shades of pink, Tamsagbaatar said.

There were bits of purple and black that flowed through the body while neon-yellow and hot-pink flourishes adorned the sleeves and torso.

“It was used by my coach’s daughter,” Tamir said. “I was a little nervous but it wasn’t that bad.”

Tamir won first place in her competition and continued to compete, winning several more including the All-Star award at the 2018 LA Cup Rhythmic Gymnastics Invitational and first place at the 2018 Western Regional Championship.

However, as she continued to compete, she would need more leotards, eventually custom ordering one from Russia.

That was the last leotard Tamsagbaatar would buy for her daughter.

“It didn’t come how we wanted and my mom got mad,” Tamir said. “So she was just like, ‘oh, I can just make this myself’.”

Tamsagbaatar went on to make her daughter the leotard she originally envisioned: a purple and nude colored leotard adorned with crystals that followed and highlighted her daughter’s figure and a white branched pattern, also flowered with gems, on the

front that would make her look like a crystalline bloom swaying with the wind.

From then on, Tamsagbaatar decided she would design any leotards her daughter would wear during competitions.

“I thought it was pretty cool,” Tamir said. “The other girls on my team were definitely shocked that my mom made my leotard.”

Despite having no prior experience making clothes, her passion for clothing helped her develop the skills needed to make her daughter’s competition leotards.

“I love fashion and I’m always checking how the clothes I buy are made,” Tamsagbaatar said.

“I learned by seeing the clothes I like and figuring out how I can make it.”

As Tamsagbaatar continued to create for her daughter, she flourished in her designs and style, even getting attention and some commissions from others.

“The girls on my team wanted my mom to design their leotards,” Tamir said. “Even the coaches.”

Her success in designing leotards has extended even to a state level, getting larger projects including a commission to design a competition leotard for the California Miss Majorette Baton Twirling Championship Competition.

Regardless of her success, Tamsagbaatar decided to enroll in the fashion design program at El Camino College in an effort to improve her craft.

“I wanted to learn more about the professional patterning and professional sewing industries,” Tamsagbaatar said. “And I wanted to get my fashion design major to

be seen more professionally.”

Something Tamsagbaatar was eager to get more experience in was making costumes.

“Competition leotards are like show costumes,” Gayle Baizer, adjunct professor of fashion illustration at EC, said. “They’re not for a casual or classroom setting like regular leotards.”

Baizer has designed leotards for various clients in the past outside of the competitive realm, such as the Los Angeles Ballet Company.

“Is it body-flattering, is it functional, is it going to work well,” Baizer said. “Those are things you have to take into consideration.”

When designing her leotards, Baizer avoided crystals and extravagant accessories, things reserved for garments with specific purposes like a competition leotard.

“I would be afraid if someone were partnering or something in a class setting and the crystals got stuck on someone’s clothes and ripped the leotard, or god forbid someone falls on the crystals,” Baizer said. “But you can interpret a costume any way you want, sequins, feathers, crystals.”

While Tamsagbaatar may not use feathers or sequins, gems are a major piece on her designs, often using between 3000 and 4000 Swarovski crystals on some of her larger projects despite how time consuming it may be, because it is important the leotard wearer shines while they move.

“My dream is to open a studio for my leotards and support young girls who might not be able to afford a leotard,” Crystal said.

What started as a hobby became a career for professor

Computer informations instructor and IT professional fascinated by computer systems, programming, hacking, creating games Kealoha Noguchi

WARRIOR LIFE COMING SOON

Staff Writer @ECCUnionKealoha As a 10-year-old boy, he was hooked on technology when he would play games and draw on his family’s Apple IIGS computer.

The computer was fairly new, only two to three years old but it was his new phenomenon.

Now, standing around sixfeet tall and stands upright. He is wearing glasses and has short hair. He is dressed in beige slacks with a white unbuttoned shirt at the top.

Khai Lu, 39, is a computer informations instructor at El Camino College. This is his second semester teaching at El Camino, his third semester teaching overall. He previously taught at Long Beach City College.

Lu teaches computer informations classes at El Camino.

He teaches the intro class, an advanced database programming class, pc maintenance class, advanced Microsoft excel and soon to be a cloud computing class.

He graduated from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Before teaching, Lu was an Information Technology (IT) manager at UCLA before becoming an IT professional at the Kuwait

Cultural Office in Century City.

As an IT professional he builds, designs, and maintains information systems.

He enjoyed playing with technology as a hobby but never thought he would love it enough to find a career path in it. He always thought he was going to be a professional in the medical field.

“At a young age I was exposed to a lot of computer systems, programming, hacking and playing with devices just getting them to work [but] I thought I was going to be a medical professional,” Lu said.

Born in Culver City, Lu attended West Torrance High School, where he fell in love with the technology world. Lu took a computer science class in tenth grade and his teacher, Mr. Thompson, gave students leeway to make and do what they wanted.

“Mr. Thompson encouraged us to be creative and gave me a lot of freedom to explore programming,” Lu said. “That’s where I discovered it was a really fun hobby for me, it wasn’t even something I was thinking about doing professionally.”

In the computer science class, there was a student that was making his own games and Lu wanted to learn. Lu said the student was the smartest in the class so he asked him and the

student agreed to help Lu create his own games from scratch.

“I used a TI-85 [calculator].

I was making my own games in class,” Lu said. “ We would have to program the device using a special programming language to create a program you want whether it be a game or a new calculator or something useful.”

Lu made card games, tetris-like tile games, and 20 questions. He said he never finished making a complete game because once he played it, there was always something he wanted to add or something he needed to fix.

“I would take somebody else’s thing, figure out how they did it and put my own changes to it,” Lu said. “It’s these little projects you make over time, you’re not going to make millions off of it but you can never lose that knowledge.”

The new course that is being introduced to El Camino is being taught by Lu is the cloud computing class. Cloud computing is using computing resources over the internet to complete a project or to run your system or application.

“Cloud computing is revolutionizing how we create websites and how we do business on the interne and it used to be expensive,” John Yeressian, real estate professor said. “Everyone’s heard of the cloud but Amazon,

being the giant it is, is able to drop the prices to run cloud computing.”

The cloud computing class is in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is one of the more popular classes offered at El Camino, Yeressian said. The only other local college that offers this AWS cloud computing class is Santa Monica College.

“Amazon is one of the big movers in the cloud computing world because they have the funds to direct the future of cloud computing,” Yeressian said. “I feel like everyone should feel more secure. Eventually everything will be up in the cloud, like we wont even need to have hard drives anymore.”

There are 83,000 job postings that are associated with cloud computing. There are another 5,000 that list AWS cloud computing as a skill. There is a high demand in jobs for people that know AWS cloud computing, Lu said.

“If I wasn’t leaving [for UC Riverside] I would definitely figure out some way to take that class,” business major, Cole Tewiki, 23, said. “Not only is Amazon taking over sales but the internet in general, having that [AWS cloud computing] as a skill could earn you much more money now and later in life.”

FEATURES

14 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

MAY 30, 2019

Men’s basketball coach hopes to impact players’ lives

Robert Uphoff trains athletes by putting them through a grueling strength and conditioning program Ryan Farrell

Special to the Union @ECCUnionRyanF

C

oach Uphoff’s faded grey hat shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked across the field at his team.

One by one they took turns squatting down to clutch a 400-pound tractor tire and, with a grimace and sudden burst of power, lifted it off the ground and flipped it over. The exhausted players repeated the motion again and again.

Men’s basketball coach Robert Uphoff, 42, began his seventh year with El Camino this season and said the tire flips were designed to condition and reprimand.

The team issue: two players had not turned in their grades, so instead of practicing basketball, the whole team suffered through the tire flips.

“On academics, we promote accountability,” Uphoff said.

In his office, duffel bags and basketball shoes formed a small pile.

Angled away from his computer, the tall coach leaned into the chair and shared his thoughts about the physicality of his program, the influence of social media on teamwork and the difficult realities aspiring elite-level athletes face.

He said he tells prospective players, “you need to understand that you are going to be pushed harder than you ever have before and, if that’s not something you’re comfortable with, then you are going to be miserable here.”

Forging a resilient team is one way the coach has been combatting selfish trends in sports, something he attributes to a generation influenced by social media.

“We are used to social media conversations and text messages; that face-to-face stuff is still uncomfortable. Even picking each other up and being positive with one another is abnormal nowadays,” Uphoff said.

In an athletic atmosphere where criticism and positive reinforcement have become mutually exclusive, Uphoff sees potential for the Warriors to grow.

“Providing encouragement and dialogue, this is something we are lacking,” Uphoff said.

He said making shots will always command most of the attention, but added other important areas of the game are overlooked.

“There’s no, ‘Hey, great job, I appreciated you taking that charge or diving on that loose ball,’” Uphoff said.

But in order to cultivate teamwork, Uphoff has the team run through loose-ball drills where the player who dives on the ball and recovers it is supported by everyone around him.

“Diving on a loose ball and taking a charge is a sacrificial act and you need to appreciate that,” Uphoff said.

Some players don’t agree that social media has had a negative impact on teamwork.

“I think social media does help on the way we give effort and the outcome of things,” guard Rashon Crutcher, 19, said.

But guard Jason Woods, 19, said Uphoff’s teamwork exercises have helped.

“I think the loose-ball drills help us on aggressiveness and it helps us to show teamwork and know how to pick each other up when we are down,” Woods said.

In preparing athletes for physicality, Uphoff puts them through a grueling strength and conditioning program.

“When I got here, I was scrawny, no doubt, coming into my freshman year I was getting bullied on the court. Now, going through his weightlifting program, I felt myself get stronger, wanting more contact, instead of evading it,” point guard, Oshiua Alston, 20, kinesiology major said.

Guard Darius Alexander agreed when he said he gained about twenty pounds of muscle since joining the Warriors basketball team.

The gauntlet is demanding both physically and mentally. Uphoff’s players are expected to work hard despite facing the difficult truth that they will most likely never play on a Division I or NBA team.

“Everybody’s goal when they come here is to transfer to a Division

Ryan Farrell/ The Union El Camino Men’s basketball coach Robert Uphoff, 42, addresses his team before practice on May 6 in the EC North Gym. “Providing encouragement and dialogue, this is something we are lacking,” Uphoff said.

I school,” he said.

Many talented players with NBA dreams are told plainly by Uphoff that statistics tell a different story.

He is honest with his players because he values truth above all else. Players are expected to accept their statistical reality, adapt and succeed.

Uphoff has a fierce drive to win at El Camino despite a poor record of five wins and 23 losses last season.

“There is this mentality that failing is bad; but if you don’t grapple with your mistakes, then you don’t figure out what you can do better next time,” Uphoff said.

Hence, Uphoff has widened his definition of success to include more than winning.

He added the basketball program is an opportunity for his players to earn an education and return to help their community in some capacity.

“More than wins, I am hoping that I am impacting their lives and character,” Uphoff said.

Ryan Farrell/ The Union El Camino Men’s basketball coach Robert Uphoff, 42, speaks to Warriors players on the PE & athletics field on May 6.

Tabletop Gaming Club allows students to meet new people

‘Dungeons and Dragons’ game nights promotes culture and imagination through fantasy role-playing Daniel Pineda Special to the Union ECCUnionDan

Daniel Pineda / The Union The Tabletop Gaming Club hosts game nights for the fantasy role-playing game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’. They meet every Friday at 1 p.m. in the ITEC Building.

To read more stories and watch videos visit eccunion.com

He sits at the large table, behind the four-panel screen depicting a ferocious red dragon. Across from him are five students staring idly at the player-token-covered grid; each with a set of different-sided die and several sheets of paper.

His party’s mission was to go and find out why trade was put to a halt with the local Kobold tribe.

“They go in and do the normal exploration,” Ethan Crawford Droesch, 21, said when recounting his first time campaigning as an official Dungeon Master. “There they find Kobold Alchemist that uses acid and fire, and even made a potion that was basically a beefed up steroid.”

Crawford Droesch, a computer science major at El Camino College, never fully expected to gain interest in Dungeons & Dragons until about

two years ago in the spring semester.

He said the way he happened to join the Tabletop Gaming Club was through a chance encounter.

“The Tabletop Club is full of a group of friends that basically made the club first,” Droesch said. “Where I was hanging out was basically right next to them. So I ended kinda, like, going into the group; and when I came into the group, I started going to the club meetings.”

The same year he joined, Droesch said the club began hosting game nights for the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. During this time, he had a key interest in the game, but didn’t know where to officially begin.

“They were like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna start doing Dungeons & Dragons,’ and I was like, ‘Oh. I have never made a character.’ Had interest, but never made a character,” Droesch said. “They told me, ‘Well, we’ll get you a piece of paper right now and start you up.”

The first character he ever created

would be one he remembers to this day: A Fighter-Class Kobold named Kilil Peacot.

After regularly attending the club meetings, and obtaining a bigger interest in the game, he began to transition into one of the club’s official Dungeon Masters.

“It was a slow transition,” Crawford Droesch said. “But ever since ElCo started, I had a lot more time.”

He also believes that the club, altogether, is different when comparing it to other clubs on the aspect of what it’s about.

“This isn’t like a bash on the other clubs,” Droesch said. “But for our club specifically, we just bring in people who have interest or have nothing to do. We pride on having our club meetings being completely optional.”

This open aspect, he said, is what he likes about the club the most; that the club also makes it easy for people who are either not good with socializing or are just new to the EC

and don’t know a lot of people.

Currently, Crawford Droesch is attending his third year of EC with the hope of transferring to a university by next year. He said he also plans to change majors from computer science to psychology.

“I’m planning on transferring to either UC Irvine or UC Santa Cruz,” Droesch said. “Dominguez Hills is another solid one.”

Until then, he said he will continues as the Tabletop Club’s president.

He said he also does not know if Dungeons & Dragons will continue to be held by the time he steps down, but expects it to still be a weekly event members of the club can take part of outside of meetings.

“It’s all on her,” Crawford Droesch said, referring to the future president of the club, psychology major Kess Tanino. “But D&D is just one of those things that helps bring a lot people together, and brings a lot of imagination. Which is a little bit harder to find a little later in life.”

SPORTS

MAY 30, 2019

EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION 15

Strong start at state championships not enough for the Warriors Baseball team defeats San Joaquin Delta, Orange Coast en route to final game; Orange Coast defeats Warriors for title David Rondthaler

Staff Writer @ECCUnionDavidR

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he El Camino Warriors were one of four teams to advance to the final stage of the 2019 California Community College Athletic Association baseball state championship in Fresno, CA. The other three teams to make the trip were the San Joaquin Delta Mustangs, Orange Coast Pirates and Sacramento City Panthers.

The Warriors’ first game at John Euless Ballpark in Fresno, California, was against the San Joaquin Delta Mustangs on Saturday, May 25.

The Warriors scored in the top of the second inning, starting the game with a 1-0 lead.

But the Mustangs would strike back later in the same inning with a solo home run from right fielder Vinny Bologna to lead off the inning.

Warriors starting pitcher Jimmy Galicia said he was mad after giving up Bologna’s home run.

“I was just trying to throw hard but that wasn’t working for me,” Galicia said.

Galicia walked the next batter and gave up a single. He hit the next batter after that.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Mustangs third baseman Kevin Fitzgerald hit a sacrifice fly to give San Joaquin Delta a 2-1 lead.

Mustangs catcher Thomas Greely bunted and sent a runner home, extending the Mustangs’ lead to 3-1.

Warriors coach Nate Fernley said it was very uncharacteristic of Galicia to give up a home run, a walk and hit a batter.

“It was just a bad series of batters from him,” Fernley said.

In the bottom of the fourth inning the Warriors cut the Mustangs’ lead with a Beserra solo home run over the left field wall.

Beserra said he saw the pitcher throwing a lot of fastballs, and was looking for it.

“I knew he was challenging with the fastball and challenging the team with it,” Beserra said.

With runners on first and second and one out in the sixth inning, Warriors utility player Logan Young entered the game to pinch hit for catcher Brendon Casillas.

Young hit a line drive and one run scored, tying the game at three. Warriors shortstop Taishi Nakawake brought in another run, giving the Warriors a 4-3 lead.

The Warriors added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

With the victory, the Warriors were one win away from advancing to the championship game. Rain in Fresno on Sunday, May 26, caused all games scheduled that day, including El Camino’s bout versus the Orange Coast Pirates, to be moved to Monday, May 27.

When the game began, the Warriors wasted no time and put runs on the board early against the Pirates. El Camino defeated Orange Coast 8-2.

In the bottom of the first inning, Warriors starting pitcher Aaron Orozco hit a ground ball and scored the first two runs of the game.

“I was trying to get myself some leeway so when I go on the mound I can be dialed in,” Orozco said.

Warriors coach Nate Fernley said when the Warriors get runs early, it puts pressure on the other team.

“They know they won’t be able to score too many runs on us so they start getting too big and get underneath the ball,” Fernley said.

However, the Pirates answered in third inning when right fielder

Devyn Smith / The Union Warriors infielder and right-handed pitcher Spencer Long slides home versus the Orange Coast Pirates on Monday, May 27, at John Euless Ballpark in Fresno, California. Long had one hit, one run and two strikeouts in four at-bats.

Davis Delorefice brought in a run.

Pirates first baseman Murphy Stehly then hit a line drive off the glove of Warriors third baseman Matt Beserra and tied the game.

The Warriors broke the tie when Orozco hit a line drive up the middle and brought in a run, making the score 3-2 Warriors.

The Warriors’ lead extended in the sixth inning when shortstop Taishi Nakawake brought Orozco home. The Warriors’ lead increased to 4-2 but they wouldn’t stop there.

Four more Warriors scored in the eighth inning. Nakawake scored a run with the bases loaded.

Devyn Smith / The Union Warriors outfielder Joseph Borges runs to first base versus the Delta Mustangs on Saturday, May 25, at John Euless Ballpark in Fresno, California.

“I just want to help the team anyway I can when I’m up [to hit],” Nakawake said.

Warriors right fielder Jerry Granillo scored two more runs.

And to finish the game 8-2, Warriors first baseman Spencer Palmer hit a fly ball to left that had enough hangtime for another score.

The Warriors advanced to the championship game, and the Pirates defeated Sacramento City to advance themselves.

El Camino needed just one win to capture the title. The Pirates would need to win twice.

The Warriors and Pirates played Game 1 of the championship on Tuesday, May 28. The Pirates won by a score of 7-5, forcing a winnertake-all Game 2 later that same day.

With a walkoff run in the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates won Game 2 8-7 and the 2019 CCCAA baseball state championship.

Despite the loss, Warriors coach Nick Jones said the Warriors coaching staff couldn’t be more proud of how the team did this season.

“This team has been through more adversity than other teams.

Especially with a death of a teammate, Sladen,” Jones said.

“They rallied around each other and Sladen, and just kept fighting.”

Jones said his takeaway from this season was to never take a moment for granted.

“We [the coaches] try to make [the players] better baseball players, but you never know when your last moment will be with someone,” Jones said. “Couldn’t be more proud with how they handled with what they have gone through.”

Devyn Smith / The Union Warriors infielder Jerry Granillo walks back to El Camino’s dugout following a strikeout against the Delta Mustangs on Saturday, May 25 at John Euless Ballpark in Fresno, California. In five at-bats, Granillo totaled one hit and two strikeouts.

Warriors men’s tennis team ends season 8-7 Warriors football team gearing up for 2019 Six players from El Camino compete at state championships, two doubles pairs advance as far as Round of 32

With season beginning late August, El Camino coach Gifford Lindheim says this season’s team ‘looks very competitive’

Jun Ueda Staff Writer

Jun Ueda Staff Writer

@ECCUnionJun

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he El Camino Warriors men’s tennis team sent players to the California Community College Athletic Association Men’s Tennis State Championships after finishing the regular season in late April.

Warriors players Hollard Choi and Trey Vasquez advanced to the Round of 64 in the CCCAA men’s tennis singles championships.

Teammate Connor Davis was eliminated in the Round of 128.

The pairs of Choi and Stephen Whitman, as well as Davis and Vasquez advanced to the Round of 32 in the CCCAA men’s tennis

doubles championship.

Teammates Andre Dinh and Seitaro Tanaka were eliminated in the Round of 128.

The Warriors began the season with four consecutive losses but ended the season with six wins in seven matches, compiling a final record of 8-7.

The Warriors’ four-game losing skid at the beginning of the season included losses to Saddleback, Fullerton, Orange Coast and Riverside from the span of February 7 to February 21.

The Warriors picked up their first win of the season on Tuesday, February 26 when they beat Victor Valley 7-0.

“We had a good season, and although it was a rough start, as the season progressed we improved”,

Warriors coach Steve Van Kanegan said.

The Warriors won four matches by the score of 9-0 this season: two versus Mt. San Antonio and once against Victor Valley and Santa Barbara.

Trey Vasquez, a sophomore who graduated from Redondo Union High School, was voted the most valuable player by the team.

“His improvement throughout the season was very impressive”, Van Kanegan said.

Pleased with the work ethic put in the by the players, Van Kanegan said he is optimistic for next season.

The Warriors tennis team is 14-9 versus conference opponents since 2017.

@ECCUnionJun

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fter a strong 2018 season, the El Camino Warriors football team is preparing for its 2019 season.

The Warriors ended last season with an 8-3 record and were riding the waves of an eight-game winning streak up until the first round of the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Regional Playoffs, where they played against Riverside City College and lost 6324.

Riverside and Bakersfield were the only teams to defeat the Warriors during the 2018 season.

The Warriors’ eight-game winning streak was punctuated with a 49-24 victory against LA Harbor on September 15, 2018.

The Warriors scored 51 points in an October 13, 2018, win against San Diego Mesa.

One of the Warriors’ eight wins was a forfeit from Fullerton College.

“We had a successful season last year and we’re trying to build off that for this coming year,” Warriors coach Gifford Lindheim said.

The team began offseason training back in March, and has been meeting every Monday and Wednesday since. The Warriors are looking to add more incoming players from transfers and high school students who have recently graduated.

“With the players that are coming back and the players that are transferring over, the roster looks very competitive,” Lindheim said.

Some players to keep an eye on include offensive lineman Victor Arteaga and defensive players Lancelott Manuleleua, Justin Martz and Ryan Nixon.

“As a program, we want to beat our rivals, win the conference championship, and play for the state championship,” Lindheim said.

The Warriors’ season kicks off in late August.

The Warriors football team finished the 2018 season with an 8-3 record.

SPORTS

16 EL CAMINO COLLEGE UNION

Hall of Fame welcomes new inductees 14 former El Camino College student athletes, 1950 football team round out the class of 2019 Melanie Chacon

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Sports coverage for El Camino College athletics available on ECCUnion.com

Houston Texans sign former EC wide reciever

Floyd Allen spent one season with El Camino, transferred to University of Mississippi Devyn Smith

Sports Editor @ECCUnionDevyn

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he Houston Texans of the National Football League announced the signing of former El Camino College Warrior and undrafted wide receiver Floyd Allen on Monday, May 20.

Allen said it was a blessing to sign with the Texans.

“I have faced a lot of adversity in my life and I’ve chased every opportunity to make my dreams a reality,” Allen said. “It feels almost surreal to finally be here.”

Warriors football coach Gifford Lindheim said he was thrilled about his former player’s new opportunity with the Texans.

“He’s a talented guy,” Lindheim said. “I think when the organization watches how hard he works and how much he cares, they are going to have the same feelings towards him that we do at El Camino.”

Allen attended EC in 2016 and played in two games for the Warriors that season, totaling three receptions for 40 yards while registering one tackle and assisting two others on defense.

SCORES AROUND CAMPUS

BASEBALL

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Orange Coast

8

El Camino

7

(10-1)

Staff Writer @ECCUnionMelanie s Frank Sinatra played softly in the background of the room, small groups of people, old teammates, family and friends all began to trickle into El Camino College’s East Dining Room to honor the class of 2019.

El Camino celebrated its 29th edition of the Athletic Hall of Fame on Thursday, May 23, where thirteen individuals and one team selection, the 1950 football team, were inducted.

According to the El Camino website, the Athletic Hall of Fame honors athletes, coaches and other distinguished individuals for their accomplishments in athletics and for their support of the athletic program.

Members of the class of 2019 include athletes from nine different sports from 1950 to 2013.

Rochelle Esparza, Warriors women’s volleyball standout, was the South Coast Conference Most Valuable Player in 1997 and 1998.

She was named to the All-State Team in 1998.

“At first when I found out [about the induction], I was like, ‘Oh it’s cool, it’s no big deal’ then my husband was like, ‘It’s such a big deal,’” Esparza said. “It feels cool, it’s pretty amazing.”

Esparza, who is going through the recovery process from brain surgery earlier this year, came from New Mexico with her family to accept her plaque.

Charlie Brown was a two-time pole vault state champion for the Warriors in 1976-77.

“It was a special time… I have some great memories of us practicing out there.” Brown said.

“Even in the old facilities that we thought were pretty good in the ’70s but don’t look anything like the facilities now.”

Brown still holds El Camino’s

MAY 30, 2019

(8-3) OCC wins state championship

May 28, 2019

SOFTBALL

PLAYOFFS

Fullerton

4

El Camino

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(4-1)

(3-2) FCC wins series 2-1

May 11, 2019

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

El Camino Melanie Chacon / The Union The newest members of the El Camino College Athletic Hall of Fame were inducted and honored Thursday, May 23, in the East Dining Room at El Camino College. The Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2019 includes 14 inductees and one team. pole vault record with a mark of 17 feet 4 ¼ inches.

“I was very flattered. Surprised after all of these years,” Brown said on being inducted.

Chun Young-Shin is the first female tennis player to be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

“First of all, I was surprised because I just did my best during my time [at El Camino],” YoungShin said. “I wasn’t sure I deserved the award.”

Young-Shin went 19-2 in singles competition in 2013 and helped lead the Warriors to the South Coast Conference Championship.

She advanced to the semifinals at the CCCAA State Championships and won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Sophomore Player of the Year Award.

Erica Shaw, Warriors women’s water polo and swimming standout, earned First Team All-Conference

and All-Southern California in water polo in 2007 and 2009.

“It was a really great experience, I just love El Camino and the opportunity it gives you to play a next-level sport,” Shaw said. “My coaches were really awesome and I had great teammates so it just made my experience so great.”

Shaw, whose father, Steve Shaw, is the current women’s basketball coach at EC, currently ranks second in school history in the 50yard backstroke (28.03); third in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.42); and third in the 200-yard backstroke (2:13.64).

She earned All-American honors in the 50-yard and 100-yard backstroke in 2007 and 2009.

During the ceremony, each new member spoke on their time at EC. “This is where I grew up. This is where I learned to be a good student athlete,” Lawanda Cabell-

Simmons said.

Cabell-Simmons won the 1984 state championship in the 400-meter race.

“My foundation was so strong that [after transfer] they made me captain right away at USC, and that’s because of El Camino College,” Cabell-Simmons said.

Members talked about coaches, teammates, teachers and counselors that were positive forces in their lives.

Vic Buttler was an All-American and All-Southern California selection as a member of the Warriors baseball team in 2000.

He was drafted in the 14th round of the 2000 MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates and played eight years in the minor leagues.

“Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m not afraid of hard work and that’s because of what I learned at El Camino,” Buttler said.

Warriors women’s badminton team finishes season 5-4, second in South Coast Conference EC sends four players to South Coast Conference Championships due to injury Anna Podshivalova

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May 17-18, 2019

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Matt Arruda

10,000M CCCAA State Championships

5th May 17-18, 2019

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Carson Bix

1500M CCCAA State Championships

2nd May 17-18, 2019

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD Pitts/Woods/Mates/Workman 1600M Relay CCCAA State Championships

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Qwintin Workman 400M Hurdles CCCAA State Championships

3rd

May 17-18, 2019

2nd May 17-18, 2019

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Qwintin Workman Long Jump CCCAA State Championships

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Staff Writer @ECCUnionAnna

arriors badminton players Lauren Ritter and Sunya Ungar qualified for the South Coast Conference Championships taking place at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club on Friday, May 3.

During the doubles quarterfinals, however, Warriors badminton coach Steve Shaw said that Ritter fell over. She continued playing after being treated, and she and Ungar won the match and qualified for state championships.

The El Camino Warriors women’s badminton team finished the 2019 regular season with a 5-4 record. They finished second place in the South Coast Conference of the California Community College Athletic Association. First place Pasadena City College had a 9-2 record.

“We improved well this season,” Warriors coach John Britton said.

“It’s good to see.”

After Ritter and Ungar qualified for state championships, Britton said that Ritter broke her ankle and had have a cast. As a result, she had to withdraw from the championships.

Warriors badminton players Christina Johnson and Angela Vargas-Gonzalez replaced Ritter and Ungar for doubles in the tournament.

Johnson and Vargas were eliminated in a preliminary matchup before the first round of the doubles bracket and made it to the first round of the consolation bracket.

Ungar was ultimately eliminated in the first round of the singles

CCCAA State Championships

53 (5th)

El Camino

CCCAA State Championships

2nd May 17-18, 2019

9 (24th) May 17-18, 2019

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Samantha Ealy

Triple Jump CCCAA State Championships

7th May 17-18, 2019

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Kyja Free

Discus CCCAA State Championships

8th May 17-18, 2019

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Aliyah Grissett

Triple Jump CCCAA State Championships Anna Podshivalova / The Union Warriors badminton player Miyu Kawaguchi playing a singles match versus the Compton College Tartars on Friday, March 15, at El Camino’s North Gym. The Warriors defeated the Tartars 17-2. championships, but made it as far as the second round in the consolation bracket.

“All of the girls are freshmen and hopefully they come back next year,” Britton said.

Johnson said that if all the players return next season, they will have a strong season.

“This year our record was 5-4,

and I think next year we will be better.”

Warriors badminton player Miyu Kawaguchi said that the season was easy, but that Pasadena is a strong team.

“We are a good team and we can win next time,” Kawaguchi said.

Next season starts January 2020.

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Jay Rhambo

Hammer Throw CCCAA State Championships

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Savannah Sehenuk

8th May 17-18, 2019

6th May 17-18, 2019

7th

500M CCCAA State Championships May 17-18, 2019 Scores Around Campus retrieved from eccwarriors.com