UCLA STOMP Conference Open to StudentsAll

HAZEM ELWARY Reporter @HazemElwary

The event will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bus transportation for Pierce will leave at 7 a.m.

The Career and Transfer Center (CTC) encourages students to attend the mass conference where representatives of the nine UC’s will be present.

According to Transfer Center Director Sunday Salter, even if students are not contemplating transferring to a UC it is inspirational and beneficial to be at the conference.

Counselor Assistant Rosa Medrano encourages all students to visit the center in the Student Services Building for help.

into it, stick with it, start making a portfolio.”

Sinco said it is important for journalists to start adapting to every type of media to keep up.

“Journalists have kind of become targets,” Sinco said. “The print media has struggled adapting with mass media.”

Pierce College adjunct instructor of media arts David Blumenkrantz has known Sinco for about eight years. He admires the attention to detail that Sinco applies to his projects, such as the documentary following Miller.

“The dedication that he has, to spend two years on a story, and just be willing to embed himself in that life of a marine, for example, and to be there with him and his wife in the most intimate moments,” Blumenkrantz said. “That takes a lot of dedication, you have to visualize what the story has to be.”

Blumenkrantz said that Sinco has a classic style in regards to his photojournalism.

“He's a classic style photo journalist,” Blumenkrantz said.

“His compositions, his framing, the moments that he captures, he's just got a great eye. A pure photojournalist.”

At the end of the lecture, students had the opportunity to ask questions. One Pierce student asked Sinco if he would do another documentary, to which he replied, “Definitely.”

Pierce student Nicolette Atoori is taking Journalism 251 and photography classes, and attended the speaker series.

“It was a really nice event, it was my first time knowing about [Sinco] and seeing his photographs,” Atoori said.

Pierce student Nader Soussi is also in Journalism 251 and thought it was a great lecture.

“I was familiar with him and his work,” Soussi said. “Just the effect that it has on the subjects lives is amazing.”

Sinco said he hopes to see the news media continue to do what they do because he believes it’s really important to have that freedom of the press in today’s industry.

“It’s the First Amendment. It’s not exercised by everybody as far as freedom of the press,” Sinco said. “Sure we all have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, but I think now you’re on a privileged and special position when you’re working on a newspaper, radio or television station. In the news station, because very few people get to exercise the freedom of the press, and you need to take that responsibility very seriously because you’re one of the few who’s able to do it for the rest of the people who can’t.”

Sinco said the challenge today is to find where to not only get published, but to get paid.

“It’s a lot more difficult than it used to be, because it’s not the same as it used to be. Even back 20, 30 years ago when I was getting into it, it wasn’t easy for me,” Sinco said.

“You have to find any kind of avenue to get published, whether it’s online, or in print, or photographs, images, videos, or the written word, people want stuff for free. The internet is all about free, but it cost money.”

Sinco hopes to inspire future journalist adapting to an industry where everything is almost free.

“If you’re a young journalist, you’re going to be forced to do stuff for free every once in awhile, but at some point, you have to say look, ‘I’m actually putting work into this. I need to get paid,’” Sinco said. “It's difficult now because the environment is all about free, and as I said here, there are not as many newspapers as there used to be.” Sinco mentioned that photographers now have to adapt to social media and writers have to adapt to photography. Learning a new skill benefits them.

“Sure, it’s bad that all of the staffers and students are dropping out and forcing you to do more work, but I don’t think it’s bad for you to learn more,” Sinco said. “Capture the moment. It takes time to do something like this.” was a positive one.

“So far, all the feedback from professors has been great,” Bass said.

In fact, Bass said that Proctorio convinced one of her colleagues to start writing letters of recommendation for her online students.

“Now that she has had access to Proctorio,” Bass said, “she has been able to better get to know her online students and feels confident enough to write recommendations for them.”

As for students without webcams, Bass is working with the library to set up potential times when Proctorio students can come in and use the computers.

“We've had so many students go to this event, who were never thinking about a UC, leave there 100 percent sure they're applying to a UC,” Salter said.

Participants will hear motivational messages from UCLA speakers and have a tour of the campus. They will also have an opportunity to engage the speakers at a UC Panel and Resource Fair.

Students can choose from a variety of workshops that introduce them to culturally relevant resources and information, including admission presentations, financial aid and scholarships, and other transfer student resources, with admission representatives available for support.

Mentors will be available to guide students and may remain in touch with them for any additional help after the conference.

The STOMP Conference is one of many events the CTC urges students to attend. Guidance

“We have mentors here to help you with any help you can think of for college admission, whether you're applying to private, out-ofstate schools, UCs, and CSUs,” Medrano said. “Even for students who are now transferring and are coming up with questions, let's say CSUN will ask you to do something on your portal, we can help you log in to your portal and do everything on your to-do list.” Jacqueline Flores, history major, will be transferring to CSUN next semester. Although she admits she never visited the CTC during her time at Pierce, she urges other students to go to save time and have a clear idea of what classes to take.

“I've never been to the Transfer Center, sadly,” Flores said. “I would encourage other students to go to have a better sense of where they want to go career and school wise. I would've saved more time and transferred sooner if I did that.”

Students interested in attending the STOMP Conference are still able to RSVP until Thursday at the CTC in the Student Services Building.

Students who miss this deadline can show up outside of the Student Services Building at the drop-off and pick-up roundabout at 6:45 a.m., the day of the event, to be added given openings are still available.