News-Register September 26, 2022 Issue

Latino leaders share experiences

employees.

“I doubted myself, and I did not know it,” Bravo said.

By Theressa Velazquez Contributing Writer

In honor of Hispanic Heri tage month, North Lake Cam pus Multicultural Affairs hosted “Hispanic Leaders: A Journey of Life and Leadership Through the Ages,” event with local His panic leaders over their journey in life and leadership roles.

The panel was made up of four prominent Hispanic wom en from within Dallas Coun ty and key leaders from Dal las College who spoke about the challenges they faced when seeking success.

Each panelist discussed how higher education helped further their career, shared stories of how they maneuvered through prejudice, racism and sexism to undertake leadership roles.

The panelist said they agreed that good leaders possess key characteristics that help them be effective. Stephanie Elizalde, Dallas Independent School Dis trict Superintendent said that all leaders are authentic and should emulate listening and speaking skills.

Elizalde said a leader is edu cated because they know how to listen and can now use their

voice to connect, empower and lead people.

Despite their financial and social adversities, each panelist found success in their careers.

Elizalde said she doesn’t feel successful in her career because her most significant accom

plishments have been a team effort. She thanked her family, friends, community and col leagues for her leadership posi tion at Dallas ISD.

Monica Lira Bravo, chair of Dallas College Board of Trust ees, District 4, said one of the

greatest struggles that she had to overcome was the inability to believe in herself.

Like most women, Bravo said she felt she had to be 110% on everything. Bravo said she was afraid of opening a law firm. Then she received encourage

ment from her boss, who told her she was ready to be a busi nesswoman.

Fast forward 11 years, and Bravo is the owner and manag ing attorney of Lira Bravo Law, PLLC, specializing in immigra tion and nationality law with 20

Ana-Maria Ramos, State Representative of House Dis trict 102, said she pushed herself to see her “hood” struggles as a blessing.

Ramos, who grew up in East Dallas, said her upbringing helped her in the political world because the hardships she faced growing up gave her a unique life perspective, ultimately mak ing her a good problem solver.

Ramos said that she learned to be proud of her humble be ginnings because it has allowed her to help empower the less fortunate.

Ramos told the crowd that when she ran for House District 102, many people said to her that a Latina could never win that election. That only pushed her to work harder than her competitor and win.

“The beauty of growing up poor is I know how to do it,” Ra mos said.

An audience Q&A followed. One of the questions asked to the panelist was whether any struggled with imposter syn drome. The panelist agreed that there are times each struggled or felt didn’t deserve the posi tion they have.

“If we ever feel like a fraud or undeserving, remember that we have unique gifts and skills that will allow us or have allowed us

Dallas arms students with backpacks

By Heather Sherrill Editor-in-Chief

As of July 18, the Dallas In dependent School District re quires that their students from 6 through 12 grades have a trans parent mesh backpack when at tending a Dallas ISD school. This includes the students on the North Lake campus Early College High School and Dual Credit Students.

This decision was made af ter a Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24 in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers. “Our decision stems from safety recommenda tions made by the district’s Safe ty Task Force and Internal Task Force as well as feedback from students, parents, and the com munity,” according to a tweet released by Dallas ISD.

By being able to easily see the items in the backpacks as stu dents enter the school, campus personnel will be able to ensure

that prohibited items are not in cluded among the students’ be longings. Clear or mesh back packs will also speed up stu dents entering the school at the beginning of the day because opening and inspecting every backpack may not be necessary.

Clear or mesh backpacks for high school students can be about 13 inches wide by 17.5 inches tall and 6.5 inches deep and have a zippered outer pock et.

Students will be able to car ry in their backpack a non-clear pouch no larger than 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches to hold personal items, such as cellphones, mon ey, and hygiene products. Other bags will no longer be allowed.

“At the end of the day if it doesn’t make us feel safer, what’s the point? It’s just a distrac tion,” said A 17-year-old senior at Stoneman Douglas, Robert Bonczek, shared his views about the clear backpacks with VICE News. “Students feel that the in crease in security measures con stantly makes them feel nervous and like prisoners, which tends to take away from their educa tion.”

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak from the North Lake Campus Early College High School, walk to thier next class sporting their new mandated

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

From left to right: Ana-Maria Ramos, State Representative House District 102, Dr. Stephanie Elizalde, Dallas ISD Superintendent, Cynthia Cano Mansfield Digital Marketing Manager, Monica Lira Bravo, Dallas College Board of Trustees District 4 Chair and Diana Flores, Dallas College Board of Trustees and moderator, spoke during the event.

A mother's nightmare becomes reality

Ihave always wanted to be a mother. In fact, there was never a time in my life when I didn’t, until the day I had a miscarriage.

The Reality

However, Aug. 23 changed everything. I had been expe riencing pain in my right arm and leg that slowly became worse. My OB told me to go to the emergency room because she didn’t think it had anything to do with the pregnancy, but she wanted to ensure every thing was OK.

baby was surrounded by red and not moving.

Every hope and dream gone. Everything I had planned, from the nursery to the gender reveal party to our first Christmas evaporated.

Heather Sheridan Editor-in-Chief HeatherSherrill@dallascollege.edu

On July 15, I found out I was pregnant and I was beyond ecstatic. I hadn’t been feeling well, and my husband, Sam, told me to take a test, but he didn’t think I could be preg nant since we had just started to try for a baby.

The joy and happiness of the pregnancy turned to deathly fear and pain. I will always re member everything from those couple of weeks.

We were overjoyed --- I wanted to tell the world, but I knew there were risks and I needed to wait. Instead, I put all that excitement into pre paring for the baby. I instantly changed my diet, sleep sched ule and informed my bosses so that I wouldn’t be doing or lift ing things that I shouldn’t.

The Dream

We made an OB-GYN ap pointment for when I would be six weeks pregnant. A trans vaginal sonogram is necessary this early in pregnancy in order to see the fetus.

That is where they stick the wand in the vagina. You can’t get a normal sonogram until later in the trimester because the baby is still so small it is hard to detect.

I had my first sonogram on July 28, and the baby was grow ing and healthy. It was so tiny, but it was there and that feel ing of laying on the table seeing your baby for the first time is indescribable.

You’re growing a tiny hu man in you, and everything becomes real. My next appoint ment was set for Aug. 29. Sam and I were hoping to bring his daughter Emaline to see her new little brother or sister that day.

Sam rushed me to the hospi tal, and the first thing I told the staff at Texas Health Methodist in HEB was that I was 10 weeks pregnant and I was in pain.

Despite telling them that, every nurse or doctor that came into my room had no idea I was pregnant, and I had to con stantly keep reminding them. All except one nurse who was also pregnant.

I asked her if they would be doing a sonogram because I was worried about the baby. She said: “I am not worried be cause you aren’t bleeding or cramping. The baby is healthy and there is no reason for a so nogram.”

That was the false hope that sent me over the edge. The doc tor came in and said all my tests looked good and there wasn’t anything wrong with me.

They sent me home and I sat in the nursery that night, pray ing my pain would go away but also thanking God that my baby was not in harm’s way.

The next morning, I called my OB to tell them what the ER had said, and they wanted me to come in right away. I was told it was a red flag that they gave me an MRI scan and didn’t do an ultrasound.

I almost didn’t go in because the pregnant nurse had given me hope and told me every thing was OK. Sam made me go in and that is when my en tire world came crashing down.

I remember laying on the table holding Sam’s hand while the OB was talking, I had a gut feeling that she was going to tell me there was a problem. It was at that moment my arm and leg pain disappeared as if it had never been there.

The Nightmare

The OB said the baby stopped growing at eight weeks and there was no heartbeat. Af ter those words left her mouth I was stuck in time, frozen, looking at the screen where my

When she explained what she saw, I saw my baby’s life flash into nothingness, and I just broke. From my friends’ experiences with miscarriages, I remembered her having a sur gery called a dilation and cu rettage procedure.

The OB wanted to talk about next steps, and I told her that I wanted to have one and get this over with, but there was one small issue.

was in my own living night mare.

I questioned everything I had done, eaten or drank in the weeks leading up to this mo ment. Guilt tore me apart. I re member my family telling me not to give up – that I could try again and this wasn’t the end.

I couldn’t even think about another child when I still had my baby inside me. How do you move on from something so tragic?

But then the pain started. In the middle of the night, shoot ing pains worse than period cramps shot up my body and I awoke screaming in pain.

I was officially bleeding. I

ripped out from underneath me.

Two days went by and I was finally back in that office. Un fortunately, it wasn’t as easy as just getting the pills and walk ing out. I had to do another in vasive ultrasound. I cried the entire time she was looking at the baby.

The pain of having an in vasive ultrasound while go ing through a miscarriage was tremendous. Everything down there is sensitive and hurting and then I had to see my baby come back onto that screen. It was the same size as last time and still no movement.

After it was over, the doctor explained how none of this was my fault and that when I was ready I could try to get preg nant again. She finally put the prescription in for the pills and told me it could take up to 24 hours to work and if everything didn’t come out in the first round to take another pill.

Unfortunately, Sam had to work so I was home alone when I took the pill, and I had no clue what to expect. Not even 30 minutes later, I fell to the ground in such pain.

They said it would be worse than period cramps but not this much worse. I’d rather be stabbed or shot than feel that ever again.

I told Sam before any of this that I was not going to flush my baby down the toilet like a goldfish. It was a baby; it was my baby and it deserved bet ter. So, he scooped the baby out of the toilet, and I wrapped the baby in paper towels.

The baby had eyes and their toes and fingers were growing. I held my baby in those pa per towels and cried for what seemed like a lifetime.

We went outside to our gar den and buried the baby that night. I will never forget the pain both mentally and physi cally of that miscarriage.

The Future

The Supreme Court of the United States and The State of Texas has taken not only wom en’s rights to choose whether to have a baby but how they wish to handle if they lose that baby during pregnancy.

Miscarriage is the spontane ous loss of a pregnancy before the twentieth week. About 10 to 20 percent of known pregnan cies end in miscarriage.

D&Cs are banned, the pills will be the next to go and then women will be forced to pass a miscarriage naturally, which for a lot of women is impos sible.

She said the heartbeat bill took those away and for me to get one I would have to prove that I had in fact had a miscar riage and not killed my baby. My OB wanted me to go into another place for a “second opinion.”

That is how she phrased it so that it didn’t sound as bad as proving my innocence. I re member just looking at the lady and walking out of the office. I didn’t even have time to pro cess what my OB had told me, and I was so baffled by it all that I just wanted to go home.

Three invasive ultrasounds, three times hearing your baby has no heartbeat, three times my reality came crashing down on me.

The next step was to see if the baby would pass naturally and if it didn’t in five days I would go back for next steps. That meant I had to sit at home and pretend I wasn’t still preg nant. I don’t remember the days after that last appointment. I

woke up every day crying not just from the loss, but from the pain. I had to process the miscarriage all over again and come to terms with it, just in time to go to bed and wake up the next day to do it all over again.

The End

When Aug. 29 finally came, Sam took me to the OB to go over next steps since the baby hadn’t expelled yet. I was happy about that, because I thought she would give me a pill that would help expel the baby and this would finally be over and I could move on.

However, when we walked into the office we were in formed that the OB was rush ing to an emergency appoint ment. So, we would have to re schedule for later that week. I passed out right there in the lobby. The stress and pain had finally gotten to me, and my last hope of healing was

I had a pallet laid out in front of the toilet with a heat ing pack, ice pack and pads. My friend told me to keep a lot of pads nearby because it was going to be just like birth. For those who don’t know, most women have to wear a diaper after birth because of all the blood.

For six hours I screamed, cried and fought to get com fortable. I kept having to go to the bathroom to poop and vomit. I would pace the bath room and start to waddle more and more because keeping my legs close together became more and more difficult.

Thirty minutes after Sam got home the baby passed. I re member Sam just standing in the bathroom trying to help me in anyway, but there was noth ing he could do. As soon as the baby came out there was in stant relief and I just cried.

I hated my family for telling me the baby wouldn’t be any thing more than a blood clot because it died at eight weeks, so it wasn’t old enough to be anything.

When a woman miscarries, she is walking around with a dead child in her stomach. Eventually they will start to decompose and release toxins that can kill the woman or even make them sterile for the rest of their life.

I am not the first woman to experience such a horrible miscarriage since the laws have changed.

Marlena Stell, a woman who wanted to give her daughter a sibling, spoke to CNN about how she was forced to carry her dead fetus for two weeks af ter a doctor refused to provide medical intervention due to a Texas anti-abortion law. Stell said, “A law forcing women to have children they don’t want is forcing her to consider not hav ing children she does want.”

This speaks volumes for me as well. How can I try and get pregnant again if it means putting my life at risk? All be cause my state won’t give me the healthcare I deserve. No woman who is trying to start a family should have to think about that.

Full for style and taste and edited for length and clarity.

News-Register Joanna Mikolajczak

News-Register | Heather Sheridan

Garden in Heather Sheridans back yard where her and her husband burried their miscarried baby

Abbott mansplains abortion

Gov.

Greg Abbott told the Dallas Morn ing News that rape victims could take emergency contraception, like Plan B, to prevent pregnancy, even in cases of incest with un derage children.

The staff at the News-Regis ter doesn’t feel that our Gover nor has taken in consideration the effects of rape and incest, the reality, or the fact that since he has been in office, he has done nothing to help arrest and convict rapists.

“By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent pregnancy from occurring in the first place,” Abbott said, ac cording to the DMN. “With re gard to reporting, it to the law enforcement, that will ensure that the rapist will be arrested and prosecuted.”

Women or men who have been sexually assaulted do not like being called a victim. A victim is someone who leaves the scene in a body bag. A sur vivor is someone who leaves the scene broken but still fights ev ery day for their life.

Since Abbott has taken office, the rate of convictions has dropped, and his solu tion is to give women Plan B and have us report it. Ac cording to the Austin Amer ican-Statesman, the rape offense was 38.1% in 2015, when Abbott took office, the rate decreased to 20.3% in 2020.

Have we not been doing that for years? Where is the plan to convict? How are you going to “ensure” every rapist is arrested? Texas has one of the highest amounts of rapes in the country and one of the worst convictions rates.

Tell me you don’t look at rape arrest stats without telling me you don’t look at rape arrest stats. Unfortunately, some edi tors on staff have been looking at the rape arrest for years.

“We want to support those victims, but also those victims can access health care imme diately, as well as report it,” Abbott said, according to the DMN.

While what he says should make sense in a normal coun

try where people care about as sault and have decent health care, in Texas, it takes forever to be seen at a hospital and even longer to get someone to believe you were raped.

Abbott assumes that when you are raped, you are cogita tive enough to think that an in dividual must report the rape and ensure they are medically okay. This is shown by the Aus tin American Statesman num bers, and the hearts of many

Texans fed up with Abbott.

While each person reacts differently when they have been sexually assaulted, our editorin-chief said the first thing she wanted to do was take a show er and scrub the feeling off. If it weren’t for her friends, she wouldn’t have gone to the hos pital first. That experience was scary, unfeeling, and honestly traumatic.

Later Abbott said, “Our cre ator endowed us with the right

to life and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion.”

“This bill ensures that the life of every unborn child who has a heartbeat will be saved from the rav ages of abortion.”

Unfortunately, this bill has made it hard for women who have had miscarriages as well. There is no line in the bill that talks about the differences between abor tion and miscarriages.

So, doctors are now working out of fear of be ing charged and refusing to do a Dilation and curettage procedure or giving woman Misoprostol, which is a pill that induces labor.

It is given to women who have miscarried and can not expel the baby naturally. It usu ally takes 24 hours to finish working and because it is la beled an abortion pill.

Women like Marlena Stell, a Conroe, Texas, woman who suffered a miscarriage last year, according to a report from ABC 13, says the state’s restrictive

abortion law put her into a dan gerous health situation.

Stell miscarried nine-and-ahalf weeks into her pregnancy and was denied a D&C even though her doctors knew she couldn’t expel the baby natu rally.

The heartbeat bill is absurd on so many different levels. Not only do women not realize they are pregnant until at least eight weeks along, they aren’t given a chance to do anything about it and if they are raped or have a miscarriage and dying from it then they are just out of luck.

We are moving backwards in this world. Women have been fighting for their rights to their own bodies for years and we were finally close to hav ing complete control until this heart beat bill came to pass.

I can’t fully blame it on men, because there are women on the board that also signed this bill.

However, the ridiculous al legations of Plan B and ensur ing to arrest rapists is baffling.

The last thing the women of Texas need is another politician telling us what freedom means while taking it to say from us.

NFL Quarterback accused of sexual harassing 24 women

Cleveland Browns quarterback De shaun Watson was suspended for 11 games without pay and fined $5 million after 24 women accused him of sex ual misconduct and sexual harassment.

allegations, said that memo ries still haunt her when she describes the sexual assault during her shift as a mas seuse.

Solis told Watson to leave, but she said that before de parting, Watson left her a message, “I know you have a career to protect, and I know you don’t want anyone mess ing with it, just like I don’t want anyone messing with mine,” Solis said.

Amélie Baquero Managing Editor amebaquero@gmail.com

Watson has played in the National Football League with the Houston Texans and was traded to the Cleve land Browns. His respective career has him ranked ninth in quarterbacks ranking in the NFL, even after he hadn’t played for one season due to requesting a trade from the Texans before the allegations against him became public.

While Watson is a respec tive quarterback, his sexual misconduct and harassment accusation scandal has put him under the spotlight in a cynical sense.

I strongly believe that the Cleveland Browns priori tize football wins over basic morality and risk their fran chise’s reputation.

Two women publicly ac cused Watson of sexual mis conduct during an episode of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”

In this episode, Ashely So lis, the first woman to make

Solis said this scared her because it felt like a threat. Watson still denies the al legations, having conversa tions with Solis and even at tending the massage session. After Solis filed her lawsuit, 23 other women followed suit.

According to the New York Times showed that Watson booked more than 66 massages in a little more than a year which led me to believe that he was going for more than a massage. More over, the same investigation reveals that Watson paid a large amount of money to a spa owner in Houston who connected him to several women for massages.

The investigation from The Times raises questions about his credibility and his trustworthiness.

Sue L. Robinson, the re tired federal judge, oversaw the hearing and found that Watson violated the policy’s provisions by engaging in unwanted sexual contact with another person, endan gering the safety and wellbeing of another person and undermining the NFL’s in tegrity.

Robinson described Wat son’s conduct as “predatory”

and “egregious” and rejected to suspend Watson for an en tire season. Instead, Watson was suspended for six games.

This sentence was too soft on him even after more than two dozen women accused him. Six games were not nearly enough.

“I apologize once again for any pain this situation has caused. I take account ability for the decisions I made,” Watson said in a statement released by the Browns. “My focus going forward is on working to be come the best version of my self on and off the field and supporting my teammates however possible while I’m away from the team. I’m ex cited about what the future

holds for me in Cleveland.”

The NFL appealed Robin son’s ruling that made Wat son agree with the NFL for an 11 game suspension with out pay with a $5 million fine. He also needs to attend counseling sessions by be havior experts, followed by a treatment program.

Watson changed his state ment after the ruling.

“I’ll continue to stand on my innocence, just be cause you know settlements, and things like that happen doesn’t mean that a person is guilty for anything,” Watson said, according to ESPN. “I feel like a person has an op portunity to stand on his in nocence and prove that, and we proved that from a legal

side, and just going to con tinue to push forward as an individual and as a person.”

The agreement between the two parties was highly favorable to Watson because he could have gotten a high er and more severe penalty beyond this agreement. This settlement is primarily Wat son paying money for mis takes that he has committed.

He still has his job, did not face any criminal charg es, and even got a massive deal after being traded from the Texans to the Browns.

Even after not playing for the Texans for almost a year, more than four NLF teams, including the Atlanta Fal cons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints, wanted

to trade Watson.

The Browns signed Wat son and gave him $230 mil lion, the highest contract in NFL history.

All these teams complete ly omitted the fact that Wat son was accused of sexual misconduct and even sexual harassment.

The Browns’ prime con cern is making money over values, morals, and prin ciples. The organizations do not care who gets hurt if they can find a way to make more money.

They do not care that more than 24 women got mistreated, harassed and traumatized—all in ex change for money.

AP Photo/Nick Cammett

Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has been accused of sexual harassment and miscoduct of 24 women and agreed to a plea deal.

Photo Credit 19th news

Govenor Greg Abbott holds the Heart Beat Bill after signing it.

An upgrade worth the 'weight'

North Lake Campus renovates Weight room over summer

By Heather Sheridan Editor-in-Chief

Over the summer North Lake Campus renovated the weight room and purchased new equipment for its facul ty, staff and with a valid Dallas College ID.

Some of the new equipment includes dumbbells, kettle bells, stair masters and seven new weight training and fitness ma chines.

The weight room went from 1,600sqft to 2,800sqft. They re moved a wall that separated the old weight room from an unfer tilized space and all the flooring. The walls received a new paint job and weight room flooring was added in along with updat

ed LED lighting.

“We wanted to upgrade the flooring in the space to make the area safe and ready for current, new, and future equipment for the students, faculty, and staff to use,” Damon Washington, Di rector of Student Engagement for Dallas College, said.

Basketball head coach Josh Mills said the machines that were in the weight room were the same ones he used when he attended North Lake, twen ty years ago, according to northlakecollegeathletics.com.

"It was definitely time for an upgrade, and I think every body's excited about that [new equipment]," Mills said, accord ing to northlakecollegeathletics. com.

The upgrades don’t only help currently student-athletes and faculty, but also the recruits that come look at the campus.

“It will be a good recruit ing tool because the students walk in and see a newly reno

vated weight room and it shows that we care not only about the aesthetics, but about training our student-athletes the best we can,” North Lake Athletic Di rector, Gregg Sommers said.

Sommers said he believes that the weight room will also help in furthering their injury prevention as well.

“We need our athletes to be healthy, and to be available in order to help the team," Som mers said.

The Early College High School and Dual Credit stu dents will also have access to the weight room with their Dallas College IDs.

“We require all patrons to wear appropriate workout attire to use the fitness center,” Wash ington said.

The fitness center is from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. There are classes held during that time frame, but there are open gym hours when classes are not in session.

Event welcomes students back

the North Lake Campus aim to bring back campus life.

By Amélie Baquero Managing Editor

The Student Life center orga nized a Welcome Bash event for students, faculty, and staff out side of the A building from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on August 30th

Students, faculty, and staff were offered a free complete lunch when they signed up us ing a QR code.

They had different options such as burgers, hot dogs, pas ta for vegetarians for the en tre, a salad bar, brownie and ice cream for dessert, and lemon ade and water to drink.

There were also some out door activities for entertain ment. These activities included giant chess, basketball hoops and other games.

Steven Benezue, Student Life coordinator for student ac tivities, said that these activi ties were “Easily accessible for students so that they can pass through it when they are going to class.”

Student involvement on campus has declined drastically since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Student Life department, along with other departments at

“We want to get people back to engage more with each other on campus,” Benezue said. “We want students to engage more than one time.”

Student Raissa Umwali said she first heard about the event from a club advisor and was de bating whether she would go or not.

She said that she attended a previous event similar to this one before the semester and en joyed it, so she decided to par ticipate in the welcome bash.

Umwali said that the event was bigger than she expected it to be. “Food always draws peo ple’s attention,” Umwali said. “And games are always fun.”

On the other hand, Umwali said that the audience regard ing the event were people that were already on campus rather than people staying at home. She said that the event felt like it was destined for students to stay on campus longer to meet new people and have fun.

“I think that the purpose of the event was to bring students together in one area so that they can meet and interact with one another,” Umwali said.

The Welcome Bash happens twice a year. One at the begin ning of the fall semester and the other during the spring semes ter.

Benezue said the Welcome Bash event was a success be cause there were more people than expected.

“We ordered a lot of food, we feed 300 people on average, and from all the food that we ordered, we only had seven hot dogs left.”

The Student Life Center will organize more events through out the year to keep students in volved on campus.

One of the events will be the Fall Fest, which will take place on Oct. 18th.

The fall fest will be open to all students, faculty, and staff. It will be like a carnival with fun games, activities, music and food.

Crime Log

July )

Coppell Center - CLOSED

July 6 — Information Report/ Bomb Threat (8:58 a.m. - 9:27 a.m.)

North Lake Central Campus - IN PROGRESS

July 7 — Information Report/ Fire Alarm (4:17 p.m. - 5:42 p.m.)

P Building - CLOSED

July 13 — Fire Drill (9:11 p.m. - 9:40 p.m.)

Coppell Center Building A and B - CLOSED

July 13 — Theft (4:34 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.)

NLC Central Campus - L Building - ACTIVE

July 19 — Fire Drill (8:30 a.m. - 8:36 a.m.)

NLC Irving Center - CLOSED

July 19 — Information Report - Welfare Call (8:28 a.m. - 9:22 a.m.)

NLC Central Campus - A Building - CLOSED

July 19 — Medical Call (8:30 a.m. - 9:34 a.m.)

Central Campus - MacArthur Extension - CLOSED/PARKLAND HOSPITAL

Aug. 3 — Assault/Family Violence (3:39 p.m. - 4:10 p.m.)

Central Campus - L Building - ACTIVE

Sept. 3 — Assault/Family Violence (3:39 p.m. - 4:10 p.m.)

Central Campus - L Building - ACTIVE

PANNEL

to contribute to society,” Cynthia Cano, Mansfield’s digital marketing manager, said.

Diana Flores, Dallas Col lege Board of Trustees and event moderator, told the crowd to get over imposter syndrome. Flores said that in

DALLAS

Continued from page 1

However, Maxie Johnson, Dallas ISD Trustee said, “We need to advocate for safety. Backpacks are a start, it’s not the answer, but it’s a start for safety.” There are rules when it comes to the backpacks, the plastic must be complete ly transparent and should have no color.

American history, Hispanics were relegated to labor work only, and many Chicanos have fought for our right to access professional, political and leadership positions.

“Get over imposter syn drome,” Flores said.” Be cause there was a time in this country that no matter how smart you were, how hard you worked, you could not

The district has purchased a clear backpack for each student in middle and high school. The clear backpacks provided by the district were distributed by the schools before the start of the new school year.

“I will do whatever I can for any parent in my district to make sure their kid has a backpack,” Johnson said.

Dallas College North Lake Campus has become

have access to positions, to a college education, to any thing.”

Other key takeaways from the event were to be true to yourself, know where your ethics and morals stand, have the ability to collabo rate with people regardless of your differences and make sure to self-treat before tak ing care of others.

the home of Early College High School Students and Dual Credit Students. A pro gram that provides students support and curriculum that will help them achieve their high school diploma and up to 60 semester credit hours toward associate or bacca laureate degree. We reached out to the NLECHS principal, Sam Eppter for comments but they did not respond.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Administrative Clerk Grace Umba uses the new weight room equipment to pass time between classes.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

North Lake students got free burgers, pasta, hotdogs, salad, brownies and ice cream.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak North Lake students playing Connect 4, football, basketball and giant chess at the welcome bash event.

NLC party brings the heat with food and games for students

News-Register | Amélie Baquero

Steven Benezue (left), Debra Jenson (middle) and Mara Dillman (right) were the organizers of the welcome bash event.

Welcoming international students via speed friending

campus on Aug. 24.

By Amélie Baquero Managing Editor

A significant percentage of students at the North Lake Campus are international students. Most international students came here alone, without knowing the lan guage, the culture, and most notably, anyone on campus.

It is hard for a newcomer to get to know new people outside the classrooms, and as a consequence, they can feel lonely and depressed.

That is why Multicultur al Affairs organizes events specialized for international students to make them feel welcome. This includes the “Speed Friending: A Net work for Succeeding at Dal las College” hosted at the

The event was created for new students to make friends outside the classroom. Led by Lau Lai Ping and Laura Rosen of North Lake’s Mul ticultural Affairs, both spoke about campus information services.

Students did activities and interacted with each other. The main activity was speed friending, which is a deriva tive from speed dating.

Speed friending is an event where individuals are paired off for short periods, and they get the opportunity to talk, answer some ques tions, make a connection and possibly spark a new friendship.

Sanskriti Karki was one of the students that partici pated in this event. Karki is a sophomore at Dallas Col lege but said this is her first year at North Lake Campus after transferring from the Brookhaven Campus.

Karki said that one of the reasons why she transferred was because she heard that the North Lake Campus was bigger and that more events were happening at the campus, and people were more involved as well.

“They give out a lot of in formation and had speakers, who gave an overview of the campus loca tions and people who can help you and you can talk to,” Karki said.

Karki said her favorite ac tivity was hearing different student perspectives and the culture shock.

“When we were talking

around in a semi-circle and heard from everyone’s differ ent perspectives, especially from the cultural shock be cause we could all relate to it,” Karki said. “It is always awkward at first, but later it got comfortable, and the conversation flowed better.”

Karki said it’s always nice when you go somewhere new and already have friends or know people there.

Karki said that she didn’t attend college events at first because she was afraid to feel awkward or an outcast. She also said that this might

be one reason why students don’t want to get involved.

“I believe this will also help me get involved in other activities around campus, like clubs and organizations, for example,” Karki said.

NLC Library promotes services

event.

Event organizers used Ka hoot for interactive questions and explained the testing center services.

department provides. The es tablishment of the department is still a work of progress.

By Amélie Baquero Managing Editor

The Learning Commons Open House event took place in the L building, Sept. 7-8. The main focus of this event was to promote and inform students about the different resources and services available to them on campus. These services in clude the testing center, tutor ing, and learning commons.

Organizers had multiple games such as trivia games, col oring sheets, a Kahoot, a scav enger hunt, a bingo, and an in formation table to promote and inform about the department

“The purpose of this event was to inform students about the learning commons services. Since we are a new department, we needed to get the word out,” Vanessa Rangel, NLC library and testing center specialist, said.

Learning Commons services help students, the goal is for any staff member to be able to help students either through direct help, such as tutoring, or indi rect help, such as a referral to advising or other parts of the college.

While the Learning Com mons and testing center are not new at North Lake, Rangel and the staff want to spread the ser vices the Learning Commons

“I think that we are trying to get to where it is so convenient for students to just walk in the area and have everything they need,” Rangel said.

Rangel said that all of the de partment areas have been busy. She said the academic coach ing and the online tutoring had been a great hit.

The department also held a meet and greet with the staff and faculty from North Lake Sept. 8. Rangel said most faculty and staff asked questions about academic testing.

“Academic testing is mainly where faculty have questions,” Rangel said. “...We want to make sure that they know what to do and how to react if students have questions.”

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Librarian Patrick Durkee hands out information to North Lake students about Learning Commons and the different recourses available on campus.

News-Register | Amelie Baquero NLC students engage in conversation at the speed friending event our culture shock and the challenges of moving to a new country.

New Criminal Justice Club learning to defend the law

By Amélie Baquero Managing Editor

The Criminal Justice and Pre-Law Club is open to stu dents wanting to pursue a ca reer in criminal justice, law, political science, or any stu dent that shows interest in those fields. Since the club is relatively new, it is balanced between the two campuses, North Lake and Brookhaven.

This means that there is only one club for two campuses, and students from Brookhaven and North Lake can join.

The club was first estab lished in the Brookhaven Cam pus and it has now expanded to the North Lake Campus. David Griggs has been the advisor of the club for many years and has seen its development over the years.

Griggs said that the club was formed in 2015 in Brookhaven. There, the club grew and be

came popular among students interested in law and criminal justice. In 2016, the club won an award for Outstanding Inde pendent Organization.

The club has pretender with another organization to host events and bring keynote speak ers to present and debate con troversial and current problems regarding criminal justice and

law. These include the death penalty debate and the gun pol icy debate.

In spring 2022, the club or ganized a trip to Dallas Crimi nal Justice Courts in Downtown Dallas. There, the students got to explore the building, talk to judges one-on-one, and even witness an actual criminal trial.

The trial was the Chemirmir

NLC Club Fair

case, where serial killer Billy Chemirmir was accused and later convicted of a sentence of a lifetime in prison without the possibility of parole. This was a big opportunity for students to be introduced to the world and reality of the Criminal Justice field.

In addition to these activi ties, the Criminal Justice Club also assembles an annual trip to London. London, England, has a captivating criminal history and has become a fascinating study destination for Criminol ogy students.

The students got to go to the impressive Criminal Courts, explore the city and learn more about criminal justice. Griggs said that he hopes that the stu dents can go to London this year. It has been hard to orga nize the trip ever since COVID hit.

Victoria Bauer recently joined the club last semester. She is a computer science major but she said that even though the club is not related to her fu ture career, the club piqued her interest. “I first heard about the club during my government

class because my teacher was promoting it. I found it inter esting and appealing so I went to one meeting”, she said. “We did some entertaining activities with the club,” she said,” like the trip to the courts and the pre sentation with the guest speak er.”

Tiara Cooper is an expert on gun violence, mass incarcera tion, and racial justice. She talk ed about the issue of gun vio lence in the United States.

“My favorite one was when we had a guest speaker Tiara Cooper talking about gun vio lence. I liked it because it was

more than just one person pre senting the topic, it was more like a conversation and we all got the chance to express our selves,” said Bauer about her experience as a member of the club.

She said that the club is not only for students majoring in criminal justice and law but that the club can also give you an other perspective on other con troversial themes that affects us these days.

She said that this can open your mind and make you think about how this affects you personally every day.

Dallas College News Briefs

Monkeypox is a rare dis ease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. With in the same family of viruses that causes smallpox, mon keypox symptoms are usual ly milder and rarely fatal.

If anyone has a confirmed case of monkeypox, or sus pect you have been exposed, please complete a self-report ing form on eConnect, via our Positive Infectious Dis ease Reporting Form.

A member of the Business Continuity Office will con tact the individual to gather additional information, pro vide you with resources, dis cuss isolation and address your questions.

The College has updated the public health webpage with the latest information on monkeypox.

Dallas College Upgrades Food Pantries

With a Capacity Build ing grant of $23,000 from the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) plus over $7,000 in funding from the Dallas Col lege Foundation, Dallas Col lege’s Student Care Network has amplified its ability to serve the needs of food-inse cure students and communi ty members by fall.

Under the grant, refriger ators were installed this week at Dallas College Richland, Brookhaven and North Lake campuses, allowing for stor age and distribution of per ishable food. Three of Dallas College’s other campuses — Cedar Valley, Eastfield and El Centro — already have cold storage facilities.

“Through partnerships

with leading local organi zations like NTFB, we are able to provide our students with critical support that helps keep them on track and working toward a better future,” said Josh Skolnick, executive director of Dallas College Foundation.

In addition, the grant al lowed Dallas College to purchase and install a bar code and inventory system to track the impact of the food pantries and implement strategies to meet communi ty and student needs.

Food pantries are open and available to students five days a week.

Flu season is around the corner

Passport Health in col laboration with Dallas Col lege Health Services will hold employee flu shot clinics Oct. 11-26, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at all seven campuses.

Flu shots are free for all Dallas College employees with accepted insurance. Also, examine your insur ance card to confirm a pri mary care physician (PCP) is listed.

Passport Health will also offer additional vaccines — such as pneumonia — at no charge with insurance.

North Lake will host in Room H-205.

Dallas College’s Hispan ic Heritage Month To Hon or Latinx Culture Through Free Events Open to the Community

Dallas College will host a series of panels during His

panic Heritage Month.

“Afrolatinidades: A Cel ebration of Black Empower ment and Advocacy in Latin America”

Thursday, Sept. 27, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

This interactive conver sation facilitated by Dr. Ta lia Weltman-Cisneros will explore creative spaces that empower and celebrate AfroLatin American identity and culture. Discussions will in clude social justice projects that have championed calls for empowerment across Black communities in Latin America as well as how the creative arts celebrate and uplift Black history and iden tity in Mexico.

Hispanic Identity in the Arts” Monday, Oct. 3, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

This panel will comprise representatives of various artistic genres. The discus sion will include the local Hispanic identity in music, dance, and visual and per forming arts.

Hispanic Community Leaders Panel, Thursday, Oct. 13, 11:30 a.m.

To close out Hispan ic Heritage Month, Dallas College board trustee Diana Flores will moderate a pan el of regional leaders from government, economic and nonprofit organizations. The session will highlight His panic community members’ contributions as a socioeco nomic and political force in the region as well as the lead ership and professional jour neys of panelists.

Preregister can be found online through Dallas Col lege.

The Criminal Justice and Pre-Law club is now in North Lake

News-Register

| Joanna Mikolajczak

Leticia Laranjeira and Janset

Aydogdu speaks to student about Phi Theta Kapa.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Jasmine Castillo and Madeleine Cornejo at the Psi Beta North Lake College Chapter table.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Multicultral Affairs Department, Lau Lai Ping, speaks to a student about the club fair.

Photo courtesy | Brookhaven Campus

From far left: Hanna Seay, Deputy Director of Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty with Criminal Justice club members and advisor David Griggs. (far right)

Photo courtesy | David Griggs

Criminal Justice club members having lunch after visiting the Criminal Justice Courts.

Faculty Profile : Josh Mills

Bringing experience to the hoops

North Lake highers new head basketball coach

By Heather Sheridan | Editor-in-Chief

Thenew head basket ball coach, Josh Mills comes with extensive training not just as a community college coach, but as someone who has trained NBA stars.

Mills started out as a vol unteer assistant coach to help Head Coach McGraw back in 2003 until 2007.

Mills first paying coaching job was at Highland Communi ty College in Kansas during the 2008 season.

Highland is a town of about 500 people. Mill said that there are no stop lights; just one blinking light and the only food you can get outside of the caf eteria was gas station pizza.

Mills said during the sum mer, coaches would go to Las Vegas and train professional NBA players. They did this for two years.

Mills trained about 60 play ers each year. He said most of the players he trained are either retired or coaching.

“It was a neat experience to see their level of commitment to their bodies and to their train ing,” Mills said. “It was interest ing to see what working towards being in the NBA meant.”

The players Mills was train ing were doing a lot of work to make their dreams come true. He said they were very disci plined in diets, training and staying motivated.

Mills motivation started when he was in Bowie Middle school. After school he would go to the Senter Park Recre ation Center and tune his skills.

“That is when I started to fo cus on basketball,” Mills said. He played all the way through high school and came up to North Lake after school to practice his moves.

That is where he met Coach McGraw, the head basketball coach who retired this past spring.

After high school Mills went to the University of North Tex as, but was told to come play basketball at a junior college.

“So, I came back here to North Lake, because Coach

Tim McGaw had wanted me to come play for him,” Mills said.

However, when Mills sent his transcripts in he didn’t re alize he had a failed anatomy class and was ineligible.

“Because of that Coach Mc Graw had me help him out by being a volunteer coach,” said Mills. “ I have been a coach ever since.”

After his first job at High land Community College, Mills traveled all over the Untied States coaching.

He worked at Independence Community College for two years. Mills had a pretty good team, a lot of division one play ers.

During the summers there he coached a summer high school team that re ceived the number two player in the country.

“I think we had ten guys on the team and nine of them went to division one and that helped me get in touch with other coaches that wanted to recruit our players,” Mills said.

It helped him build a re lationship with the other coaches and then after my second year at Independence, one of the coaches liked him enough Billy Gillispie to hire him at Texas Tech.

Gillispie and Mills didn’t do too hot and Mills ended up getting fired. Mills earned a life long friend and a men tor in Gillispie.

Mills was hired by Florida Gulf Coast University, where he said the students would show up to class in bikini tops and shorts, or muscle shirts and he didn’t understand what was happening.

“They were going to class like this and there were no classes on Fridays. I had never see this at a college before,” Mills said. “It definitely felt like a party type school.”

Then he got picked up at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He had one student, John Collins, who is now in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks. Mills said he was a real

ly athletic and dedicated player.

The last school he worked at before taking a break from coaching was Ranger College. He was helping Coach Gillispie when he had got sick at the be ginning of the year.

Mills took over as head coach for the rest of the year and was burnt out on being a coach.

“I tried different jobs. I did personal training, medical de vice sales and then I ended up needing to get back into coach ing,” Mills said. “It’s like a sick ness almost. It’s because it is a lifestyle, if anyone likes coach ing as a job, they won’t be suc

el. “A lot of it is outworking peo ple,” Mills said.

However, he sees himself replicating more of Coach Gil lispie in practice with intensity levels and similar drills.

“Picking the players is some thing that Coach McGraw and I have perfected over the years,” Mills said.

The way the coaches and Mills pick their players and get their teams together is to start out by talking to people.

He has reached out to 175 kids this season and touched based on their interests and if they are wanting to come to North Lake or not.

the team and school versus oth er distractions.

With Mills being the only full-time coach, it makes it dif ficult to stay on top of their ac ademics and the details he is used to with having worked at big universities.

Mills said, “At those places each of us on staff had about four players we were in charge of and you had to know when their assignments are due, make sure they are getting them turned in.”

Mills makes sure they get tu toring or the help they need to succeed and not fall behind.

He has to keep the players healthy and eligible to play.

Mills tries to do that here and even though it can’t be done at the same scale, he has real ly good assistants that come and help him when they can.

“They have been a huge help at keeping everything organized so that we can stay on top of the students,” Mills said.

He personally rec ommend what classes to take to his incoming freshman for their first semester. So that most of them are in the same class at the same time and it helps him help them be successful ac ademically.

“They get noticed by their ability to play basketball and then it goes into their academ ics,” Mills said.

Mills said discipline and stu dent decision making is also something recruiters look into.

Mills said recruiters usu ally ask, “‘Are you able to pass classes?’ ‘How are you with your teammates off and on the court?’ ‘Are you smoking or drinking and does that hinder your play ing ability?’ ‘Are you really into girls and that distracts you? Are you really into video games and does that distract you?.’”

The recruiters look into all of that because they are going to pay these students to be on their team essentially.

“There is a lot of money in volved with these students and the coaches make millions of dollars,” Mills said. “Coach [Danny] Manning made two million dollars a year. Coaches can get fired if these students fool around and mess up, so they really focus on who to pick for their teams.”

Mills said, “North Lake is a great location and that makes it easier to get players.”

He doesn’t find taking Mc Graw’s place intimidating be cause he is up for the challenge, and is confident because he has learned from McGraw, and he doesn’t feel like he is going to fail.

cessful because it is a lifestyle not a job.”

Mills said that you are inter twined with players. Not just with their academics, but their health, diet, where they are go ing to go to school, professional careers and even their personal lifestyle to an extent.

He missed the best and worst parts of coaching, so he moved back to Dallas and started a decorative and staining con crete company while coaching at North Lake with McGraw again.

Mills was very fortunate to learn from Coach McGraw on how to be successful at this lev

He then narrows it down to 20-24 students. From there He can get about 15 of them into classes together.

There are other coaches that don’t take that same approach, but Coach McGraw was so suc cessful that Mills wants to fol low in his footsteps.

“When students are in dorms on campus you know where they are at all the time, but when you don’t you assume they are doing what they are supposed to be doing,” Mills said.

However, with the filtering process he tries to figure out who would be a good fit. Then figures out who is focused on

His number one goal is to get these guys scholarships to fouryear schools.

Mills said some students don’t get scholarships but they get scholarship level players and then go play against scholarship schools.

Last year, the team beat nine out of thirteen scholarships teams and this year they go again ten teams.

Those games against the scholarship schools are what these four-year schools want to see.

Mills sends the film to the coaches to try and get the play ers recruited.

Mills is not sure if he will win four national champion ships that McGraw won during his time with the team. He is however, confident that he can bring our team to victory.

“Coach Mills has been an assistant at North Lake for six years,” said McGraw. “He al ready has been a big part of our success and he will do a su per job as the head coach. I am proud of him.”

To follow Coach Mills and the Blazers go to Twitter @Josh_ mills and @NorthLakeNBB.

“I am really happy to be here,” Mills said. “I grew up here and went to school here. So, it feels good to have every one come to watch my team and these students’ success.”

Blazers fought till the bitter end

Coach Gonzalez gave clear directions to the players that could be heard from across the field. He screamed to players, “Relax, relax. Keep it and pass it.”

By Amélie Baquero Managing Editor

The North Lake Blazers soccer team lost against the Brookhaven Bears on Sept. 20, 0-4. The loss to Brookhaven marks their third loss this sea son.

The game started going back and forth between the two sides of the field, with both teams playing offense.

For the first half, the Blazers played offensively well, waiting for a counterattack, but in the second half, players ran out of energy and an injury changed the game.

“The players ran out of en ergy from running behind the ball,” head soccer coach Adrian Gonzalez said.

The first half was full of ac tion, with Bears’ Meleni Loren zo and Blazer Semya Chancel lor having chances to score the opening score.

On several occasions, he gave directions in Spanish to defend the goal.

“Que no se meta a la por tería” he said.

The Blazer team is young and is still learning to reconstruct and reinvent the team.

“We are trying to reconstruct and reinvent the team,” Gonza lez said. “This year, we have 17 new players who are freshmen and just came from playing in high school. We are in the pro cess for next year.”

An open shot for a goal came from a cross from Blazer Alys sa Gutierrez to Chancellor, who outran Bears Bailey Clark.

Chancellor had a shot on goal, but the ball ended up to teammate Nevaeha Cescenas who could not connect with the ball, and the Bear’s defense cleared it out.

Chancellor ran through the right wing for a shot blocked by the Bears goalkeeper.

In the 30th minute, Bears’

Whitni Newbill scored the opening goal from a connect pass play from Kaley Robison and Aliyana Obregon.

The Bears closed the first half up 1-0.

One injury play complete ly changed the rest of the game and resulted in Brookhaven dominating the match.

The Bears got a corner kick during the second half’s early stages. When the ball was ele vated towards the penalty area, all the players were waiting to hit it with their heads.

Two players collided during the set piece. One Blazer player was accidentally hit by another player’s shoulder.

Unfortunately, the player could not continue playing and had to leave the field. She suf fered a minor injury, but the team felt the loss of the player on the field.

In the 56th minute, the Bears got another corner-kick player. Bears Gissell Solis took advan tage of the opportunity to score the second goal for the team.

Minutes later, Solis scored another goal from a corner kick delivered by Kaley Robinson, making the Bears go up 3-0.

Nearly at the end of the match, the fourth goal arrived as Bears Alexa Bezpalko kicked the ball from the right side of the field, and Blazer goalkeeper Jaqueline Serratos could do to block the shot.

The game ended in a 4-0 loss.

“I am proud of the team be cause they never gave up. They stayed in the game and contin ued fighting,” Coach Gonzalez said. “There was a big differ ence between the first and sec ond half.”

“We definitely need to work

on fitness and technicalities, but I am still proud of the team be cause they were confident and never game up,” Gonzalez said.

“They stayed in the game and continued fighting.”

North Lake Soccer team lost against the Brookhaven Bears

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Head Basketball Coach Josh Mills runs his team through drills to prepare for the upcoming season.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Blazer Semya Chancellor (13), runs past the Brookhaven defenders.

TEMPUS FUGIT Art Reception

House of dying characters

By Heather Sherrill | Editor-in-Cheif

her with the stone.

Fans have long waited for the next install ment of Game of Thrones and on Aug. 21 their wish was granted.

The first episode of House of the Dragon was aired on HBO MAX. It comes with no great surprise that visually the show was stunning. Every detail was as fine-tuned as the original show.

However, the five episodes that are currently out for the season have been slow to show their true potential.

The beginning of most shows begins with introducing all the characters and slowly showing us their story and who they are.

The big difference between Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon is we do not get that chance to see the growth with these characters before they are killed off.

Instead, character devel opment is centered on cer tain characters as they travel through life. This includes some skips in time. Two years here, four years there.

This shows the audience how certain points in life are impor

tant without letting us feel for the tertiary characters involved in the lives that we need to pay attention to.

Some of these tertiary char acters have long ranging conse quences though.

For example, in episode five, we light the way, there are many deaths to characters that were brought in seconds before they died. The first one being Prince Daemon Targaryen’s (Matt Smith) wife, Lady Rhea Royce (Rachel Redford).

From what I have heard about A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, she was only mentioned for a couple pages and was killed in a hunt ing accident with no context.

The writers of the show wanted to leave the viewers guessing if Daemon killed her or was trying to talk to her be fore she fell off her horse.

When viewers thought, Dae mon was just going to leave her on the ground to die from the fall, she baited him, calling him a coward.

So, he picked up a stone and beat her to death or, so we are led to believe. Because the scene cuts at him walking towards

The show made her seem like a strong woman and the character development could have been wonderful, but she was only on screen for three minutes.

It was refreshing to hear someone talk to Daemon the way she did only to find out she was not above his sinister plans. And that was the end of that character.

There are big names in GOT lore as well. Names such as Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Al cock) and Queen Alicent High tower (Olivia Cooke).

We want to know these characters and what makes them tick. Just as we learned we wanted to from the original Game of Thrones.

On the other hand, we had eight seasons to learn and love these characters. This show wants us to rush through it. We need to feel for Rhaenyra on day one and Alicent on day two.

Ultimately, since it still is Game of Thrones, this is lead ing up to a showdown on the highest order.

The Queen (Alicent) is an other character who has had an

extremely slow character devel opment. This episode we final ly see her grow a pair of balls and interrupt the Kings speech wearing a green dress and her head held up high as she walks to her seat through the crowd.

Green is the color of her people when they decide to wage war on someone.

The viewers can see her fam

ily on the side as she walks by all in green as well.

All in all, House of the Dragon is trying to be as cun ning as Game of Thrones but is missing vital chances in mak ing this show its own standing show.

The House of the Dragon just seems to have the same houses vying for power and the same weird looking dragons that show up occasionally, to remind the viewers it is about Dragons too.

Maybe it is because there are three more spin offs in play al ready and they just want to air a show to make money, or they really think this is a good show.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak “Dance of Life”2020 in acrylics and inks on canvas by Allison Gillies.

Courtesy of HBO MAX

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) walk back to camp after fighting a wild boar in the forest.

Viewership may be rising but the hopes for the show are falling

Halloween

Black Adam

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

(L-R top) Jennifer Pilon, Allison Gillies, Kate Jenkins, Brett Dyer, and Tommy Wright. (L-R bottom) Lisa Gabriel, Herb Mitchell and Kim Phan Nguyen.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak

Lisa Gabriel and Tommy Wright during art reception.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak Byron Black taking to students about perspective in art.

News-Register | Joanna Mikolajczak Artist took a funny photo in front of Kate Jenkins’ photos / story triptychs.