Lariat
SADDLEBACK & IRVINE VALLEY COLLEGES’ STUDENT NEWSPAPER
VOLUME 46, ISSUE 16
Day of Silence loudly protests the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community discrimination
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On the
WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2013
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Community and students bring struggles to light Sarah Santoyo
News Editor
“I do still have my moments when life seems to be getting a bit more than I can handle, but now I just don’t handle it. Things tend to work themselves out. Depression is hopelessness and it’s really sad to me how many people really haven’t heard, don’t know how much hope there is, how many good things there are in the world. And I was one of those people. If you’ve lost a loved one, all I can say is try to be forgiving. It’s really not a nice place to be.” Mark Wooldridge, then 20, gave this speech at a suicide prevention walk twoand-a-half weeks before he took his life on Oct. 26, 2011. His mother, Nancy Wooldridge, spoke about his battles with mental illness and coping with the aftermath in an intimate discussion at Saddleback College for Psychology Week, hosted by the Psi Beta and Psychology club, on Apr. 15. Wearing Mark’s button-up shirt and a silver heart necklace filled with some of his ashes, Nancy shared the story of Mark’s illness and the ultimate consequence of ‘death by suicide.’ “I do not use the term ‘commit suicide’ because those of us involved with suicide prevention think it’s a little silly. Would you commit cancer or commit diabetes?” Nancy said. Regardless of the severity of his illness, she never imagined Mark’s suicidal thoughts would take his life. “Imagine Man of the Year at Trabuco Hills High School, Eagle Scout... all these great things going on in his life, great relationship with his brother, with me...I never in a million years would’ve thought he would actually go through with suicide,” she said. Mark’s mental struggles were apparent as early as anxiety over potty training. “He had depression back to elementary school and I can remember that first moment and I know it’s when bipolar was setting in,” she said. “I was afraid to leave him alone because he was, in the terms of suicide prevention, ‘more than sad.’” In addition to depression, Mark’s bi-
polar disorder made it harder to cope with daily life. “Bipolar disorder is more prone to suicide than depression,” Iman Moujtahed, 22-year-old director of events cabinet, said. “The rollercoaster of emotions creates more suicidal tendencies.” After graduating high school in ‘09, Mark went to Northern Arizona University. The struggles of life and college drove him to seek an outlet, marijuana. Nancy attributes the drug to the decline of her son’s mental health. “Marijuana is a mind-altering drug,” she said. “To a depressed brain, a sick brain, it prohibits the brain from creating and retaining serotonin.” When he came home from college, Nancy prohibited smoking in the house. “I took away his marijuana on a Thursday night, and on Sunday night, he told me he didn’t want to live here anymore,” she said. “And by ‘here’, he said ‘I don’t mean this house.’” The next day, Mark took his first attempt at suicide. His brother, Scott Wooldridge, left to see his girlfriend, but returned for condoms. He walked in and interrupted Mark’s attempt. “Safe sex saves lives,” Mark said humorously, retelling the incident during his aforementioned speech. The police took him in as a 5150, involuntary psychiatric hold, where he was given care from the public health system. “We learned about the public health care system and I know they’re doing the best they can, but it sucks beyond any possible sucking,” Nancy said. The doctor assigned to him was out of the country, so Mark had multiple counselors and was dealing with withdrawals from marijuana, manifesting in anger. Nancy enrolled him in a double-diagnosis program in an effort to save him. When he returned from treatment, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for Mark’s recovery. “His brother left for the Navy, and it gave me a year with my son,” Nancy said. “We watched TV together and we laughed and we talked and I got to make coffee for him in the mornings and breakfast on Sundays. We found out that we not just loved each other, but we liked each other.” See LIGHT, page 3
Career Center guides engineers toward success Steve sohanaki
Staff Writer
The Career Center at Saddleback College hosted a workshop for aspiring engineers on Wednesday, April 16, featuring Saddleback Math Professor Frank Gonzalez. “The sooner you know what kind of engineering you want to do, the better, because you can start taking the specific courses you need,” Gonzalez said. “The four main branches of engineering are civil, electrical, chemical and mechanical.” Gonzalez explained the subdisci-
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plines of those four branches. “Chemical engineering is in very high demand,” he said. “Many chemical engineers have jobs lined up even before they graduate and get paid very well.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean wage in 2013 was $103,340. “The demand for environmental engineers is also rising,” Gonzalez said. “Joining OC Bridge 2 Engineering at Saddleback is a great way to start working towards an engineering degree.” It is a program that receives federal grants to help students become engi-
neers. Gonzalez gave students ways to better their computer programming skills. “[They] are important no matter what type of engineer you want to be,” Gonzalez said. He mentioned Saddleback’s close ties with the computer science department at University of California Irvine. “The head of our computer science department is from UCI,” Gonzalez said. To provide an outlet for engineering students, Saddleback began a robotics club this semester. Robotics involves constructing, designing and operating
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robots, and is directly related to engineering and computer science. However, mathematics is a profitable alternative career. “Math majors always rank in the top 5 most satisfying careers,” Gonzalez said. “Many of them get jobs as actuaries and make great salaries.” Actuaries calculate the financial impacts of taking risks. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for actuaries in 2012 was $93,680. “The number one employer of mathematicians is the NSA,” Gonzalez said. “The agency that spies on Americans and everyone else.”
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Everyone in the room burst into laughter. MVHS senior Nicholas Francke said he wants to pursue a degree in computer science. “Programming really appeals to me and that’s what I want to do in the future,” Francke said. Seena Taravati, another MVHS senior, said he wants to obtain a computer engineering degree and help change the world. “I like the creativity side of computer engineering,” Taravati said. “It’s also a great chance to help progress humanity.”
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