The Oak Leaf Magazine Fall 2023

Oak Leaf The

Magazine

Decisions

the story behind the majors

Dorm Life

a return to on-campus living

SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE Fall 2023 FALL 2023 | VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 2

Demands

SRJC Cheer fights for respect

Dreamer

a personal DACA journey

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2

28 16

20

14

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Table of Contents Campus Life

Sports

Arts & Entertainment

Dorms: The 30 Second Commute........2

Cheering for Change ...............................20

New Album: The End of Act One.....34

HEP HEP Hooray! ........................................6

Kickin' It with Coach Chaidez ............24

Rap: Atlana Underground Artists .....37

Major Decisions ..........................................10

Wrestling Renaissance ............................26

Top 5 Video Games .................................38

Out and About

Family Matters

Four Great Dog-Friendly Trails ..........14

DACA: Dreaming in Limbo...................28

Getting Wise about SMART ...............16

Alzheimer's: Fading In & Out................32

Advertise with the Oak Leaf Email oakleaf-ads@santarosa.edu for media kit and rates

Clockwise from left: Santa Rosa Junior College cheerleaders fight for a safe place to practice, Page 20. Peek inside SRJC's new dormitory, Page 2. A Dreamer reflects on his childhood in Mexico and his DACA status in the U.S., Page 28. One intrepid reporter explores the Bay by train and ferry, but planes overhead steal her attention, Page 16. Four students across four different majors share how they picked their paths, Page 10. Toby Carter takes you on his favorite dog-friendly trails of Sonoma and Marin, Page 14.

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Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

Editors

Lucas Cadigan-Carranza Michael Combs Rosemary Cromwell Bryan Fructuoso-Zurita Chelsea Kurnick Cameron Romanik Hana Seals Nicholas Vides Peter Morales

Reporters

Jordan Atallah Samantha Carter Erina Corl Jaime Jauregui Max Millan Leilany Sosa

Design Team

Rosemary Cromwell Bryan Fructuoso-Zurita Chelsea Kurnick Hana Seals

TA/Advertising

Mark Fernquest

Adviser

Anne Belden

Special Contributors Will Carruthers Austin Graff

Extra Support Evan Nazarov Javi Rosas Sam Guzman Stephen Howe Jonathan Cangson Oak Leaf Student News Media 1501 Mendocino Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Garcia Hall Fall 2023

Letter from the Editors T

he Garcia Hall newsroom has served as the news hub for student journalists to report news, voice personal opinions and share stories with their SRJC community.

Together, we came to the realization that everyone interprets the world around them uniquely and that every individual has a story to tell. The two of us faced a lot of changes leading into the Fall semester, but we happily took them in stride. We wouldn't have made it here without Anne Belden, our experienced and hardworking adviser, and Mark Fernquest, a ray of sunshine who also serves as an amazing copyeditor. These two, along with many others, helped us cultivate a positive learning environment where no voice goes unheard. As we wrap up this fall semester we want to express our sincerest gratitude and appreciation to all of our reporters and editors who followed us on this bumpy but beautiful journey. To our readers, we hope you enjoy the collection of stories featured in this magazine.

Peace & Love, Bryan Fructuoso-Zurita and Hana Seals Co-Editors-in-Chief at the Oak Leaf

T

his is my second semester with The Oak Leaf and my first at the helm of the Oak Leaf Magazine. Although I've been a freelance journalist for several years, I joined Anne Belden's classes because I was really hungry to be part of a newsroom. It's a tremendous pleasure to work in a bustling office with a large team--something rarer and rarer in the industry.

I'm truly thrilled to share these stories with readers. It opens with three in-depth features that will introduce you to a variety of student experiences.

You'll meet migrant farm workers who got their GEDs through the High School Equivalency Program, residents of the new dorm and an 18-yearold aspiring mechanical engineer. Our Family Matters section features two incredible personal essays, one about what it's like to be a DACA recipient, the other about grappling with losing one's mom to Alzheimer's. There are three awesome sports features — I could go on and on!

There's a joy in creating a magazine — taking care to lay out every page, and knowing that readers will get to behold a physical object. It's been a whirlwind of late nights bleeding into early mornings, but everyone's hard work has absolutely paid off. We were fueled by a bounty of treats from Costco, courtesy of Anne.

I hope all of our contributors are as proud of themselves as I am of them.

Warmly, Chelsea Kurnick Magazine Editor & Lead Designer

IN MEMORIAM

We are saddened by the death of Brandon Richard McCapes, who was Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Oak Leaf in Spring 2018. He was a passionate and talented journalist, and a kind and funny human.

July 11, 1990 - October 7, 2023 1

The 30-Second Commute

New on-campus housing sets SRJC apart among 2-year colleges

By Michael Combs

W

hen most Santa Rosa Junior College students snail through evening Highway 101 traffic, Jayce Kaldunsai strolls through the dormitory hallway of Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall with his pink Paris Hilton pan set and dinner ingredients stacked in his arms. To the left of him, explosions reverberate from the jumbo-screen TV in the recreation room, and above him, pool balls clack followed by a sharp “Yes!” A chorus of murmurs from myriad conversations echo from open suite doors. As he enters the communal kitchen he sees a student carefully removing a steaming pan of brownies from the oven, another straining Thai noodles over the sink and a couple folding soft tacos around shredded beef.

He lays his burden on the counter and thinks to himself, “This is me going off and doing the college thing.”

Kaldunsai, an 18-year-old physical education major, once worried he would miss out on the dorm-life experience when he thought of attending SRJC 2

instead of a four-year institution. He grew up in Placerville, three hours from Santa Rosa, and had his eye on SRJC in high school; his extended family lives in Sonoma County and he has visited the area since childhood. When he learned about the new dorms, he jumped on the opportunity even before applications opened this January.

“I would go on the webpage every single day, refresh, refresh, refresh, waiting for that application to come out,” he said. “The dorms were a big deal for me coming here.”

The new SRJC dormitory promises students affordable housing, a community-building hub and a more immersive college experience than most two year schools offer.

Back in 1965, SRJC became one of California's first community colleges with student housing when it opened the Kent Hall dormitory. The college demolished those dorms in 2003 to make space for more faculty offices, which became Analy Village, according to Kris

MICHAEL COMBS

SRJC student and Resident Advisor for SRJCs Polly O’Meara Doyle dormitory Jayce Kaldunsai maximizes space in his room with a couch and study area surrounded by his carnivorous plant collection under a bunk bed.

Shear, the former Kent Hall manager.

The new Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall offers housing for 352 students, almost five times the 72 students once housed in Kent Hall. Even today, only 12 of California’s 116 community colleges offer student housing.

Quite the social butterfly, Kaldunsai immediately began talking to people and making friends in the dorm. He said he loves exploring Sonoma County and never has trouble finding someone to join him.

“There’s always someone going to Bodega Bay,” he said. “We pretty much go to the city, San Francisco, every weekend. And there’s so many downtowns near here: Windsor, Petaluma, Santa Rosa. Each one has their own little food shops and stuff. Coming from Placerville in El Dorado County, there was, like, one downtown.”

A semester highlight for Kaldunsai was seeing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at Petaluma’s Phoenix Theater in October with dorm friends. All that Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

month, Halloween vibes permeated the dorm as Kaldunsai and other residents, decorated the outside of their doors with pumpkins and skeletons. He plans to decorate for Christmas as well.

The 95,218-square-foot Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall has four stories, each with dorm rooms, kitchens and study areas.

The first floor has a main lobby and common area with a big-screen TV, and the second floor has billiard and foosball tables. Basketball courts sit right outside the building.

Kaldunsai said the recreation areas are usually busy, but his favorite place to socialize may be the kitchen.

“The more people cooking the better, because then it turns into hanging out,” Kaldunsai said.

In addition to studying physical education, Kaldunsai is in the SRJC culinary arts program and likes to teach residents to cook new foods. He said some students are still learning to live on their own, and he even had to teach a friend the intricacies of cooking eggs.

While Kaldunsai sees the dorm as offering the traditional college experience, for some students, dorm-life is a chance to live among new people. Second year SRJC student and math major Crimson Diggs, 22, whose pronouns are they/ them, said the social aspect of dorm life is a drastic departure from to being homeschooled through high school.

“There’s a lot more exposure to other people than before I lived on campus,” Diggs said. “I’ll just be running to the bathroom real quick or washing my dishes and bump into someone and have an entire conversation. This has kind of forced me to overcome my social anxiety, or at least try to work on it [and] to put myself out there and make friends.”

Another perk of living in the dorm is the convenience of hosting non-dorm SRJC friends anytime they are on campus, Diggs said.

Before moving into the dorm, Diggs lived in Sebastopol with their grandmother. Besides cutting their commute to campus, the dorm offers Diggs a

more affordable way to live on their own since electricity, heat and water are included in the rental costs.

“It’s nice to be on my own and be able to afford a place that’s really, actually mine,” they said.

Diggs lives in a single suite and said there is plenty of room without needing to maximize space to make the area livable. They have their own microwave, mini fridge, rice cooker and electric griddle; they prefer to cook in their room instead of using the dorm kitchen. “[I cook in my room] mostly because I don’t have a lot of utensils to cook with and also because there could be a lot of people in there, which kind of stresses me out,” Diggs said. “I get creative. I’ve made scrambled eggs in the microwave and soup in the rice cooker.”

When they do use the kitchen on the first floor, it is usually clean, they said.

This is most likely because of one resident who often cleans dishes for the

CHELSEA KURNICK

A self-proclaimed introvert, Crimson Diggs said the new SRJC dormitory at Polly O’Meara Hall offers an ideal way to work on their social anxiety and transition away from living at home to on their own, since utilities and maintenance are covered in rent.

Fall 2023

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floor. “I hear the other floors are pretty bad when it comes to dishes,” they said.

One issue Kaldunsai, Diggs and other students complain about is the lack of ventilation in the dorm’s four kitchens because the windows don’t open.

By now Diggs has gotten used to frequent fire alarms.

“I’m just glad it hasn’t gone off while I’m in the shower,” Diggs said. “One [alarm] lasted for a whole hour. They had to remove the oven from the fourth floor.”

Despite making progress in becoming more comfortable in social settings, Diggs has realized some drawbacks to living among so many other students, such as residents not respecting quiet hours, nor each other's property.

“My friend had a skeleton on her door, and someone took it and broke its legs,” they said. “So when I put up my decorations, I had a ghost with legs sticking out and I hooked it from the inside so it couldn’t be ripped off, but someone still ripped off the legs and left them in front of my door. Kids being immature. It’s just frustrating.”

Another issue is insufficient parking.

Diggs said the dorm’s parking lot doesn’t hold enough spots for residents, who then try to park in Lark Hall parking lot on the dorm’s east side, which also fills up fast.

“What really sucks is when I go out and grab lunch and then I come back and the dorm lot is completely full, and then the other one is completely full too, so I’m like, ‘Well, I guess I have to park on the other side of campus to get to my own home,’” Diggs said.

Kaldunsai’s main grievance with the dorm is the lack of available laundry machines. The only laundry room for the 352 students is on the second floor and the 10 machines quickly get backed up. He’s overcome this by doing laundry 4

MICHAEL COMBS

Smoke buildup from students cooking has set off the fire alarms at least five times this semester, with three times in one particularly bad week. When this happens, every dorm resident must leave the building until the smoke clears, which usually takes a half hour.

Jayce Kaldunsai is in the SRJC culinary department and loves teaching other residents in SRJC’s Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall how to cook, even a dish as simple as scrambled eggs.

at 4 a.m., but is aware that other residents may not have that option.

“The problem is when people will take your stuff out of the dryer before it’s done, and stick your wet clothes on top of the dryer,” Kaldunsai said. “I’ve had friends who have had their wet clothes taken out of the dryer and then thrown on the ground, and then it gets covered in dirt and they have to rewash them, but there are no washers open.”

He also thinks the dorm should have more cabinets with hygienic products, like toiletries and period products, for students who need them.

Then there are students, like Hope Peoples, who chose the dorm primarily for the affordable Sonoma County housing over the social opportunities.

Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall rents range from $990 per month for a standard dorm with a roommate to $1,240 per month for a single dorm or $1,550 per month for a two-bedroom, two-bath single.

This approaches half the average rent of a one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartment in Santa Rosa, which is $2,318 and $2,752 respectively, according to Rent.com. The dorm also has four apartments with two single and two

double bedrooms with two bathrooms.

Peoples, 18, chose SRJC for its dental hygiene program, which is ranked seventh in the state.

“If I didn’t get into the dorm, I wouldn’t be able to go to school here. I knew I couldn’t afford anything else,” she said.

She traveled to the SRJC from Crescent City with a friend from high school who also enrolled in the dental hygiene program. They requested to live with each other on the dorm application and are now roommates.

Besides her roommate, Peoples has made other friends in the dorm and said it has been essential to forming a social circle. “I have met people in my classes, but none who I hang out with outside of class,” she said.

One of her dorm friends is Kaldunsai. Peoples said the move-in process for the dorm was awkward, “No one was talking to each other.” However some students, like Kaldunsai, put in the effort to make it social. “He was knocking on people’s doors, talking to everybody,” she said.

In half a semester, Kaldunsai has moved from being a resident in the dorm to a resident advisor, or RA. RAs Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

CHELSEA KURNICK

In addition to icebreakers, Searey said she would like to plan study sessions for the whole dorm.

When Kaldunsai became an RA, he had to move from his first floor dorm room to the fourth floor. Since his move, he’s learned students interact with each other more on the lower levels.

Crimson Diggs likes to cook food in their dorm room, and has furnished their single suite with a microwave, mini-fridge, electric griddle and espresso maker to be self-sufficient.

get their rent covered and, since he was approved for the California College Promise Grant, which provides free tuition for the first two years of community college, Kaldunsai is able to attend SRJC virtually free.

and meeting people from all over,” Searey said.

RA Brin Searey, 21, a second-year business major, started working for Servitas, the dormitory housing developers, in January. She said her position allows her to help other students. It also provides networking opportunities.

“We threw game nights with UNO and Twister, a bracelet-making night and a graffiti night where people wore white T-shirts and painted each other,” she said. “Now things are settling in. Everyone may not know everyone, but they all recognize each other.”

“I love this place – the college culture

Along with the other RAs, she has been running icebreaker events to help the students get to know each other.

“The hallway lights are motion activated,” he said. “I had no idea about that when I lived on the first floor because they were always on. I guess because there’s always some people outside talking or doing something. The fourth floor actually gets dark.”

Robert Ethington, vice president of student affairs, said he is currently working with Servitas on a solution to mitigate the issue with fire alarms.

He is also working with Polly O’Meara Hall management to use the dormitory camera system to tackle problems with student property damage.

The Kent Hall dorm was an integral part of the SRJC community for 38 years. Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall still has some growing pains to work through in its first year, but residents are settling in, and, if successful, it may lead to more SRJC student housing and a new era of community-building in the Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood.

Erina Corl contributed to this reporting.

CHELSEA KURNICK

COURTESY TOM CHOWN

SRJC students protested the demolition of the Kent Hall dormitory (right) in 2003, saying they were the only affordable housing in Sonoma County and the only way they could attend the college. Residents of the new Polly O’Meara Doyle Hall (left) say the same today.

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H E P HHEP E P H o Hooray! oray!

HEP SRJC’ HighSchool SchoolEquivalency Equivalency Program SRJC’ss High

Program empowers two migrant to soar to new heights adults soar to new heights empowers two migrant adults

BRYAN FRUCTUOSO-ZURITA BRYAN FRUCTUOSO-ZURITA

By Bryan Fructuoso-Zurita

The High School Equivalency Program (HEP) offers migrant farmworkers the opportunity to receive an education and get the equivalent of a high school diploma, which they can use to gain employment or begin a college education. HEP graduate Lourdes Jimenez wears a cap that reads Hogar de la Educacion y la Personalidad, Sabiduria, Respeto, Jubilo, Corazon.

M

argarita Garcia, 40, overcame a childhood devoid of formal education, a border-crossing kidnapping and years of working in vineyards. Lorenzo Rivera, 44, grew up in poverty where he walked three hours a day to and from school. They both grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico before immigrating to America. Both immigrants found new lives and pursued careers through Santa Rosa Junior College’s High School Equivalency Program (HEP).

Access to education is often regarded as a vital pathway to success. For many who live outside the United States, getting an education is either costly or not an option.

At SRJC, HEP offers migrant farmworkers the opportunity and support to receive an education and obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma, which they can then use to get jobs or begin a college education. In addition to transitional services like career exploration, resume writing, scholarship assistance, informational workshops and exposure to cultural events, SRJC’s HEP offers academic support and preparation classes to all participating students.

For Garcia and Rivera, both HEP graduates, the program changed their lives. Today, Garcia works as a recruiter for a regional migrant education program that assists migratory children, and Rivera teaches math at Elsie Allen High School. They hope their stories serve as an inspiration to their children, their peers and others who might consider returning to school.

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Margarita Garcia As a child in a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico, Margarita Garcia wondered what opportunities lay beyond the mountains that surrounded her hometown. During her early teens, Garcia realized something was absent in her life: an education. But rather than learning in a school, she helped in the building of one.

“We were students, but not learning; we were constructing. We worked hard, carrying sand for a long amount of time,” Garcia said.

“I always felt that I was missing something. I would read a lot of books, and I began to wonder what other books existed and what other opportunities were out there. The curiosity to want to know more is what pushed me to want an education,” Garcia said.

In 2002, at the age of 19, Garcia migrated to the U.S. On her way, she faced a harrowing experience: She was kidnapped at the border.

It is unknown to Garcia who kidnapped her, but her family had to pay ransom for her release. After being held hostage in a house for three to four weeks, Garcia was finally freed.

BRYAN FRUCTUOSO-ZURITA

Soon after, she decided to move to California. She ended up in Sonoma County, where she embraced a new world. Once settled, Garcia established her own cleaning business and started

COURTESY HEP

She knew that if she wanted a proper education in a proper school building, she would have to travel far to find it.

After graduating from the program, HEP offered Margarita Garcia resources to begin a post-secondary education. She enrolled at SRJC and took ESL, child development and computer classes.

a family of her own. During her second pregnancy, doctors notified Garcia that her pregnancy was high risk and that she needed to work a less physically exhausting job. Garcia stayed at home, but didn’t like being unproductive.

So she enrolled at SRJC Roseland and took GED classes. At Roseland, an instructor introduced her to HEP. To be a part of HEP, Garcia had to take an entrance exam. This made Garcia nervous because it was one of the first times she had ever taken a test.

But, despite her self doubt, she passed the exam and was accepted into the program.

“HEP uplifted me,” she said. “I felt alone for a long time, but this program felt as if I was with family. They helped me emotionally and educationally.

HEP is there for us, to guide us and to motivate us.”

After graduating from HEP in 2015, Garcia continued to study at SRJC, taking ESL and child development classes. She attended classes during the

Conchis Randazzo (left) and Margarita Garcia (right) enjoy the celebration that followed the 16th HEP graduation in the Bertolini Quad on Aug. 24, 2023.

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day and worked at night. “It was hard to divide time I needed for myself and time I needed for my children. There were times where I wouldn’t sleep because I would stay up studying. It was very tiresome,” Garcia said.

In March 2023, Garcia landed a job as a recruiter with the Migrant Education Program, a regional program created to ensure that migratory children who move from one state to another are not penalized for disparities between each state’s curriculum, graduation requirements, academic content and student academic achievement standards.

She is happy to be working with youth at the Migrant Education Program. She

gets to help children who face similar hardships to those she’s overcome.

Lorenzo Rivera

“As difficult as our lives get, never let go of your dreams and your faith. Doesn’t matter if you have to walk, as long as you keep advancing forward,” Garcia said.

Lorenzo Rivera grew up with four brothers and eight sisters in a house without electricity in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Garcia plans to continue her education in hopes of becoming a special education teacher. She also dreams of writing her story to inspire others.

“We have to knock on doors, and if we have to knock on many, then [we] keep knocking until a door opens,” Garcia said.

The dream of becoming a teacher always sat at the back of his mind. He loved learning and was fortunate to go to school, but he had to walk an hour and 30 minutes just to get there.

In 1998, when Rivera was 18, he moved to Arizona and then moved to California, where he began working in the fields and in construction. In 2007, Rivera married and started a family.

Rivera learned about HEP through his wife, who was taking classes at SRJC’s Roseland campus. The program piqued his interest; he took the HEP entrance exam and was accepted into the program that same day.

Rivera enrolled in classes and, after many intensive study sessions, he passed the high school equivalency test and received his certificate.

He was also nominated to be HEP class valedictorian that year.

Most importantly, he gained the admiration of a very important person.

“At the graduation, my son told me: ‘When I am older I am going to be just like you.’ Hearing him say those words made me very emotional, and I love that I can serve as a role model to my children,” Rivera said.

COURTESY HEP

After HEP, Rivera continued to take SRJC classes and transferred to Sonoma State University in 2019. There, he struggled to find a job that would accommodate his school schedule and family responsibilities.

Lorenzo Rivera wants to be a role model to his children. The thought of going through the college system intimidated him but after juggling work, school and family life, he no longer sees it as an obstacle. “Something about me is that I like to finish what I started,” he said.

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“I worked a construction job where I was given permission to have flexible work hours, but my coworkers would look down on me. They blamed me for not being able to finish jobs early or on time,” Rivera said.

Fortunately, while getting gas at a Costco, Rivera met a construction company owner who understood his Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

difficult situation and offered him a job with flexible hours.

Rivera graduated from SSU in the summer of 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mathematics and a minor in Spanish.

Soon after, he entered a credential program to become a teacher. He is currently in the program, but he was granted a preliminary teaching credential for five years.

“Sometimes our sacrifices hurt, and someone ends up suffering. But if we don’t follow through with what we started, then our sacrifices are for nothing,” Rivera said.

Fall 2023

COURTESY HEP

He began working at Elsie Allen High School as a long-term substitute in January 2022 and was officially hired in the summer to be a math teacher for the 2023-2024 school year. Rivera is happy to live out his childhood dream.

While in school, Lorenzo Rivera’s schedule was hectic. His day would start at 2 a.m. and he would work on homework until 6 a.m. He’d then help his wife ready the kids and take them to school. After dropping them off, he would head to work or school and wouldn’t get home until 6 p.m., spend a few hours with the kids, then go to sleep and do the same routine the next day.

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MAJOR DECISIONS Four students on how they found their paths

By Lucas Cadigan-Carranza

“What’s your major?”

That is a common question Oak Leaf reporters ask Santa Rosa Junior College students when we find them on campus and interview them about miscellaneous topics, like their Halloween costume of choice or song of the summer. What’s never asked is why students chose that major. Yet everyone seems to have a story behind it. It can be as simple as hailing from a family of business owners or as complex as having tried out multiple majors before finally finding their true passion.

Sarah Barnett pauses after taking a lab competency exam on catheters.

She says student nurses take many exams before caring for patients.

Sarah Barnett: Nursing

S

arah Barnett’s road to SRJC’s nursing program was full of painful realizations. Barnett, 39, a single mother in Santa Rosa, shares custody of her 4-year-old daughter. Barnett grew up in Southeast Los Angeles but left when she was 17.

She described her adult lifestyle as erratic, having carried over a drug-and-alcohol habit she developed as a teenager.

After attending college in Oregon and becoming an elementary school teacher, Barnett realized in her first year that teaching in a traditional classroom wasn’t for her.

So she traveled, across the United States and abroad, living diverse lifestyles. She taught English in Southeast Asia and then became a motorcycle tour guide in Vietnam. Barnett returned to the U.S. and continued to wander.

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“I kept running around doing — we call them 'geographicals' — where you just keep going to a new place, trying to find answers and solutions to your problems,” she said.

Her life changed when her biological mother, died from alcoholism. “I call her my alcoholic Jesus because she died for me. If she didn’t die, I probably would be dead myself honestly, because nothing was stopping me,” Barnett said.

To avoid following her mother’s path, Barnett returned home in 2018 to her adoptive parents, who helped her get into rehabilitation.

“When I got sober, a lot of things that were real hard for me my whole entire life became very clear,” she said. “One of them was what I wanted to do professionally, which had never been clear.”

CHELSEA KURNICK

The following four students each have a story worth telling.

The rehab programs gave her tools to deal with life issues, and as a result of receiving those gifts, she wants to give them back to others who need them.

“Once I got my confidence back, through getting sober and overcoming these really terrible character flaws, I feel like all the doors are open and everything’s a possibility, when before all the doors were shut,” she said.

She often thinks about what kind of nurse she wants to be.

However, for now, Barnett is focused on gaining experience in different nursing avenues to find her fit. She hopes to find a practice where she can combine her nursing and education degrees with her experiences with addiction.

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

Mandy Miller: Film

F

ilm major Mandy Miller spent a majority of her adulthood not knowing what she wanted to do — until she finally let herself pursue her dream job.

Miller grew up in Sonoma County and embarked on an uncertain career path after graduating from high school in Petaluma. She attended the University of Puget Sound in Washington for two years, then paused her studies, returning to her hometown to work as a retail manager for PetSmart.

Miller then returned to school and pursued a degree in geology at Sonoma State University. After graduating in 2009, she realized she didn’t fit into that field. “Everything was mining, oil and gas, you know, a lot of things I just didn’t ethically believe in,” she said.

“There’s other jobs, but it didn’t quite ever feel right.”

So she returned to PetSmart, eventually opening the Petaluma store and staying there for a year and a half. She changed careers again, taking classes to become a travel agent — until the COVID-19 pandemic discouraged her from pursuing a travel industry career.

The answer, for Miller, was creating soundtracks for film.

“I went, ‘Screw it. I’m gonna do a complete 180 from all the things that I’ve done,’” she said.

Miller looked into SRJC’s film program, ultimately deciding to go for a digital film certificate.

After taking summer classes, she quickly fell in love with filmmaking and realized it was what she wanted to do. ”It felt right. It felt like my heart was where it wanted to be,” Miller said. After completing the certificate in spring 2023, she began taking film studies classes.

Fall 2023

Mandy Miller and two of her friends co-created their own production company PBJB this year. Together, they’re working on their first two short projects.

“Film was not something I pursued when I was younger, and I think that was the thing that kept me from diving into that earlier,” Miller said, explaining she thought only “passionate filmmaker types” pursued it as a career.

“That’s not true. I’ve met a lot of people who [said], ‘Oh, let’s just try this!’ and just fell right in,” she said. “Writing’s a lot of fun. Being on set is a lot of fun.

And so I feel like it was a good merging of all the things I enjoy creatively.”

Miller enjoys the dynamic nature of filmmaking. “Working collaboratively in a creative way with people really appeals to me a lot,” she said.

“Sometimes, I find it’s OK to just take a step back,” Miller said of her windy career path. “The JC especially, I think is a really good tool where people can take a class doing this and take a class doing that and spend a few years to figure out what they really want.”

BYRAN FRUCTUOSO-ZURITA

“I was able to take some time and was really thinking about what I wanted to do,” Miller said. “I didn’t really feel like I connected with a sales job in any way, and so I went, ‘What is my pipe dream job?’”

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BRYAN FRUCTUOSO-ZURITA

As a neurodivergent person, Gabriela Andrade feels honored to be a registered behavioral technician working with autistic children. She is studying psychology to give others the culturally responsive support she lacked growing up.

Gabriela Andrade: Psychology

A

major event dramatically reshaped the life and interests of psychology major Gabriela Andrade.

“Being Latina, mental health is just not on the radar for lots of other Latinos, especially in my family,” she said.

chology field can now help a variety of people originating from different cultures, races or genders, she said.

Andrade grew up in the Santa Rosa area and was interested in mental health. She is a registered behavioral technician who works alongside children with autism.

After her sister's death, it was profound when Andrade finally found a therapist she could trust. "Really, fundamentally, that was a game changer,” she said.

“What we’ve learned previously is not necessarily applicable to today’s culture,” she said. “It’s a major that is super open to growth.”

Andrade is Latina, queer and neurodivergent. During her sophomore year of high school, when she was almost 15, Andrade’s sister died of cancer. The therapists Andrade spoke to after the death made her angry, seeing her only for the grief she felt. Her sister was the only person who accepted and supported Andrade for who she is; without her, Andrade felt misunderstood and alone.

Later on during high school, Andrade met a therapist who changed her life. Like Andrade, the therapist was a woman of color. She understood Andrade as a person and the struggles unique to communities of color.

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Her sister’s death completely changed Andrade’s sense of who she herself was.

The topic of psychology began to fascinate her, and she found herself wanting to learn more about the subject.

“So as I went through high school, I wanted to do peer counseling. I wanted to help other people and be a listening ear and be a shoulder for someone else to lean on,” Andrade said. “I just gravitated toward wanting to help people and learn. Especially just [to] learn how the brain works.”

Andrade is interested in how psychology changes in response to cultural change. Developments in the psy-

“I wanted to help other people and be a listening ear and be a shoulder for someone else to lean on.”

Andrade offered advice to students struggling with finding a major. “If one thing doesn’t work and you feel like it’s not working, maybe it’s not good to push a bad situation and [instead] try something new that you feel more confident and happy in,” she said.

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

CHELSEA KURNICK

Langley Durham operates a lathe in her machine tool technology class. Using spare time between class assignments, she is cutting a steel rod to precise measurements for certifications through the National Institute of Metalworking Skills.

Langley Durham: Mechanical Engineering

M

echanical engineering major Langley Durham has advice for major seekers. “Try everything,” she said. “If you can see something in your brain that’s like, ‘Oh, that’d be interesting,’ try it.”

Durham was born and raised in Petaluma and is a freshman at SRJC. Despite just starting her college path, she knows exactly what she wants to do.

She is no stranger to machine work, having spent the past four years in the machine shop at Petaluma High School, which she said provided her an excellent education.

At Petaluma High, Durham also took law and 3D animation classes when exploring career paths. However, she didn’t like all the paperwork involved with the law class, and she described the animation class as “brutal.”

Durham has already achieved several accomplishments in the field of meFall 2023

chanical engineering. Through NASA’s High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) program, she sent parts to the international space station. She also has four National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) certificates.

Durham’s older brother inspired her to go into mechanical engineering. When he was at Petaluma High School, she watched him make designs in the basement, and asked questions about what he was doing and why.

Another source of inspiration was her father, a farrier who puts iron horseshoes on horses.

“I was working with my hands 24/7, forging, drilling holes, tapping things, doing whatever I really could, and my dad would teach me as I went along,” Durham said.

Both sources of inspiration combined with her high school machine shop

experience led her to seek a design and construction career, following in the footsteps of her brother.

“I credit a lot of my love for engineering and love for something like this to my family because they really inspired me to just go for it,” Durham said.

She has also thought about biomechanical and biomedical engineering and is still interested in those fields, but she chose mechanical engineering because of the number of job options available in comparison.

Durham feels lucky she figured out what she loves and hopes she can make a living at it. “You don’t have to love what you’re doing but if it can feed your passions financially, then your life is gonna be pretty good,” she said.

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

13

Four Great Dog-Friendly Trails in Sonoma and Marin

By Samantha Carter

H

ikes can be a perfect way to get outside and enjoy the beautiful North Bay Area scenery while staying active. Whether challenging myself physically or finding peace in nature, hiking is one of my favorite activities, however I have a difficult time hiking alone when I know my dog, Toby, wants to join me. So here are four local trails I take my dog to because I know he enjoys them as much as I do.

Spring Lake Loop Hiking Trail 1 A very popular and well-trafficked area for hiking is Spring Lake Park, particularly the Spring Lake Loop Trail. Located in Eastern Santa Rosa, this trail makes for great group hiking since it is a 2.1-mile loop encircling the Lake. Much of the path is cement, so it is friendly for people of all fitness levels.

The trails throughout the park are peaceful and shaded, with views of greenery and cattails bordering the lake. This trail has the perfect amount of shade, and I never felt too exposed to the sun while walking it. My early-evening walk offered a fantastic view of the sunset. As this is a popular, dog-friendly hike, I wasn’t the only hiker accompanied by a furry companion while out there.

2 King Mountain Loop Trail King Mountain Loop Trail is a 3.3-mile moderate hike located in Larkspur. From King Mountain you can hike to Mount Tamalpais, but my favorite route takes about two hours to complete. The fairly steep trail, with an elevation gain of 718 feet, offers a challenging-but-doable level of difficulty for someone who doesn’t hike every day.

CHELSEA KURNICK

This hike also offers beautiful views of Marin landscapes, like the Mount Tam redwoods and the San Francisco Bay itself. This trail allows for many different routes; while it is dog-friendly, it is best-suited for a younger dog who can keep up. Walking this trail definitely makes me feel like I got my steps in for the day.

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Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

CHELSEA KURNICK

Toby Carter, a corgi-French bulldog mix, takes his person Samantha for a walk at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa.

​Bon Tempe Lake Loop 3 Bon Tempe Lake Loop is a lovely and easy place to take a hike. This trail is located in the Mount Tamalpais Watershed tucked away 3 miles from Fairfax. The 4.1-mile hike loops around Bon Tempe Lake, which is quite beautiful and provides pretty amazing scenery. This trail should be easy for most people to complete because it is mostly flat, with some ups and downs.

One-half of the trail is open while the other is lined with gorgeous redwoods. The open side of the trail tends to be sunny, so to avoid the heat, I recommend going early in the morning or at sunset. Dogs are allowed but need to stay leashed. I like to be somewhat cautious on dirt trails, as I think it’s more common to see a snake on a dirt path. When the weather turns colder, I typically see a lot more wildlife while hiking this trail.

4 Taylor Mountain Regional Park & Open Space Preserve Next time you think about taking a scenic hike, consider Taylor Mountain Regional Park and Open Space Preserve in Santa Rosa. This 3.9-mile trail takes about twoand-a-half hours to complete. The route I decided to take was the western route, which meets with the eastern route midway through the hike. The eastern route can be pretty steep, while the western route is much flatter. It’s a moderately challenging loop trail with an elevation gain of 1,322 feet.

Most of the trail is open, exposing hikers to the sun and allowing rain to turn the path muddy during the wetter months. Because this trail is popular for mountain bikers, it’s important to keep your dog close to you. That being said, every mountain biker I encountered was friendly and easily pedaled around me and my dog. This trail provides great views of Santa Rosa, especially from the peak of the mountain.

Fall 2023

15

GETTING WISE ABOUT SMART

By Rosemary Cromwell

My first journey on the SMART Train started at the Downtown Santa Rosa Station in Historic Railroad Square. As somebody who loves trains, I’ve been waiting to ride it, and this story was the perfect excuse to try it out. I rode the train from downtown Santa Rosa to Larkspur and took the Golden Gate Ferry from Larkspur to the San Francisco Ferry Terminal to test the viability of the transit system and share facts with readers.

CHELSEA KURNICK

A railroad crossing between Cotati and Petaluma is where the scenery becomes more rural and natural. It is my favorite section of the SMART train route between Santa Rosa and Larkspur. Due to the frequency of these railroad crossings, the train usually travels at 40 mph.

T

he seats are quite plush and even have armrests, though they are really small and not very useful for resting your arms. Several seats on the train include tables for working, which I tried. The ride was rather bumpy, but not unmanageably so. It took a second to get used to it, but after the downtown Petaluma stop, I had adjusted and the journey grew much smoother.

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it is not exactly a fast way to travel. Each train runs on clean diesel engines with top speeds of 80 miles an hour, but those speeds are only maintained through certain corridors. Trains arrive and depart semi-hourly — the schedule runs on odd hours with one trip heading south from the Sonoma County Airport stop at 2:53 p.m.

The train was quiet, but not empty as some political commentators and opinionated community members would have you believe. A handful of people entered and exited at each stop and lots of riders used the train for short trips.

Ridership data collected by SMART from August 2023 shows that almost 3,000 rides are taken weekly, with 72,171 rides in total that month. Annual ridership saw a dramatic increase in the past year, with 640,099 rides taken from July 2022 to June 2023, compared to only 354,328 in the previous 12 months.

Time for some quick facts. SMART stands for Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit. The R stands for rail and not rapid, which makes a lot of sense if you’ve ever ridden the thing because

The journey through Santa Rosa, Cotati and Rohnert Park is filled with suburban scenery and is unremarkable, but once you reach Petaluma, the views improve. Rolling hills

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

ROSEMARY CROMWELL

The United States Navy’s Blue Angels practice their skywriting above the San Francisco Bay during Fleet Week. These pilots provided excellent entertainment during my ride from Larkspur to San Francisco.

and farm fields replace the backs of warehouses and newly constructed housing developments.

and stopped riding, and I bought a ticket at one of the kiosks that every station has.

After the train left the downtown Petaluma station at 220 Lakeville Street and rumbled towards Novato, I moved to the next car and spoke with Cyndi Potter and her brother who rode with their 95-year-old father. They choose SMART because of its accessibility features as well as the views. They said they could easily get their father’s wheelchair onto the train and store it while they rode. The group said they miss the concession carts the trains once had.

This was a mistake, but it gave me insight as to how I will buy tickets in the future. Potter was correct to endorse the app.

The user interface is clean and minimal, and you can buy a ticket with your credit card or Apple Pay. You simply select your starting point and destination, and the app calculates the fare. As an adult, the maximum fare is $15 for one day, meaning once you hit that amount, you won’t pay any more.

“You could buy a beer, you could get a drink, and I think they stopped that before COVID,” Cyndi Potter said.

They were also happy to see the new SMART Connect shuttle program, which will take you from the Sonoma County Airport stop at 1130 Airport Boulevard to the airport itself, covering the half-mile distance between the two.

You can also plan a day trip with the SMART shuttle and take it to various wineries and breweries in the area around Windsor and the airport, a great option if no one in your group wants to drive. Since the Potter family are all over the age of 65, the round trip for three people cost $18.

For the final leg of my trip, I took the Golden Gate Ferry from Larkspur to the San Francisco Ferry Building for a late lunch.

A trip on the ferry from Larkspur to the city is $14 for adults, and $7 for people over the age of 65 or youth between ages 5 and 18. Children under 5 ride free. The ferry ride is always scenic and smooth sailing across the bay, but this time two unusual sights added to the experience. A person on a Jetfoil surfboard rode the wake of the ferry near Larkspur. This surfboard hovers above the water using hydrofoil technology like how the Golden Gate Ferry reaches its top speed of 36 knots.

When asked for advice for anyone skeptical or unsure about the train, Potter said, “Just get the app and go for a ride.”

Midway through the 30 minute ride, planes spiraled through the sky, coming within 100 feet of the boat. The famous Blue Angels, a non-combat team of United States Naval jets that perform skywriting and complicated aerial maneuvers, were putting on their annual show. The planes dove towards the city and put on a spectacular performance.

Potter emphasized that she swore by the SMART app, and it’s easy to see why. I think I may have overpaid during the journey because I paid the conductor on the train who walks the car with a credit card reader accepting payments, but I also used my Clipper Card to tap in and out when I started

I am only patriotic on a handful of occasions: when the Olympics or World Cup comes around, when a European “person” talks trash on the internet, on the Fourth of July and when the military-industrial complex rolls out its high-flying supersonic advertising. The Blue Angels managed to stir

Fall 2023

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CHELSEA KURNICK

A single SMART train car travels through the rural crossing between Cotati and Petaluma. My return journey on the train was filled with riders, including two boy scouts who sat across from me while I worked at one of the tables on the train. They got on the train in Marin and left at the downtown Petaluma stop. This area of the train route seemed to have the most riders entering and exiting.

some sort of patriotism from deep within me that day.

While at the ferry building I had an excellent lunch of *checks notes* just ice cream. That wasn’t for a lack of options; the ferry building has a whole host of options from barbecue to burgers and at least two ice cream shops. Yet I am a slave to my passions, ice cream being one of them, and the soft serve was delicious.

My trip home was equally scenic, though uneventful. The train cars were much fuller with commuters and day-trippers. I bore witness to what the train looked like at its most efficient. A handful of people entered and exited at each stop, handily beating traffic on return to Santa Rosa.

All in all, I would consider my journey a success. I learned all about SMART by riding it, I ate some really tasty ice cream and now I have an article I can publish. I learned about how

easy the train is to use — very; how fast it is — relatively; how many people use it — kind of a lot; and how useful the service will be for me — somewhat.

SMART is not a perfect transit system; it is not a fast way to travel and there are a limited number of stops, so getting to and from a train requires planning. With the awkward arrival and departure times, your trip needs to be specially planned around the SMART train unless you want to run the risk of a long wait time at a station.

The future looks bright for the system, with expansion to Windsor and Healdsburg already underway. Hopefully we will live to see a full expansion to Cloverdale. There is also another planned Petaluma North SMART Station, which would drop students at 320 Corona Road, which is about a mile from the SRJC Petaluma campus, a distance the SRJC hopes to cover with a bus or shuttle.

My adventure by the numbers

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Expenses

SMART round trip Santa Rosa - Larkspur: $10.50

Ferry round trip Larkspur to SF: $16

Ice cream for lunch: $9.86

Timetables

Earliest weekend train from Santa Rosa: 7:27 a.m.

Latest weekend ferry from 16 ferries each way SF w/ train connection: weekdays; 8 ferries each 5:45 p.m. way on weekends

Distance Traveled

By rail: 40 miles each way

By ferry: 19 miles each way

Total: 118 miles round trip

Total: $36.36

19 trains each way on weekdays; 8 on weekends

➸

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

Fall 2023

19

Cheer is a physically demanding sport. Constant conditioning and weightlifting prepares the team to pull off elaborate stunts, basket tosses and flips.

Cheering for Change struggle and success define the Santa Rosa Junior College cheer team’s fight for safe practice accommodations and respect from administrators, coaches and faculty.

Writing and Photos by Hana Seals

R

oughly two-dozen cheerleaders gathered on SRJC’s Bailey Field as head coach Dori Elder led her team in practice for their halftime routine. The field was nearly pitch black and it was 50 degrees outside, unusually cold for a September evening.

Cheerleaders, dressed in their practice uniforms — T-shirts sporting “SRJC Cheer” and small spandex shorts — shivered and rubbed their arms. They were freezing, and it was too dangerous to toss each other in the dark.

Elder ended practice early, due to the unsafe and uncomfortable conditions.

Though relieved to get warm, the team was also disappointed to miss crucial practice time.

When the Santa Rosa campus’s Tauzer Gym closed for renovation at the start

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of 2023, SRJC’s sports teams temporarily lost a crucial venue for practice, making it more important than ever for teams to book the available spaces on campus.

The cheer team booked Haehl Pavilion on Fridays and the football field on Mondays and Wednesdays for practices, but numerous times the cheerleaders arrived to find other sports teams practicing during their allotted hours.

That night in September, the team was practicing on Bailey Field with no accommodations from the school’s administration. The lights that illuminate the football field during games were off and field bathrooms were locked.

Throughout 2023 coach Elder has advocated for a safe and consistent practice space for her team. She spoke to Director of Student Life and Engagement Zach Maranda, Athletic Director

Matt Markovich, former SRJC President Frank Chong and several staff members. Elder said her concerns went unaddressed, and the cheer team was left hanging.

Spirit Pepping up the crowd at sports games and showing up for events is just a fraction of what cheerleading is about.

“Cheerleading is a combination of things,” said Amber Fields, former SRJC cheerleader and current assistant coach. “It’s acrobatics, which is involved in stunting. It has elements of tumbling, and it also has elements of dancing.”

On top of learning 50 sideline cheers, Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

the team engages in endurance training, body conditioning and weightlifting.

These hours of practice prepare them for lifting one another into pyramid formations, holding stunts and everything else the sport entails.

said her life revolves around cheer.

“My cheer schedule comes before my school, work, everything. I put literally 100% of my being into the sport,” she said. “I just love doing it. And I love to perform. And I love my teammates.”

The cheer season, which involves performing at home football games, both men’s and women’s basketball games and other college events, can span almost the entire year. The better the basketball team plays, the longer the cheer season lasts. “We have our tryouts in April, and our season goes until about February or March,” Fields said.

The cheer team has a uniquely symbiotic relationship with other sports, since most of their performances take place at sports games. The team represents the spirit of the school. Elder said she tries to instill values of respect and professionalism into her cheerleaders and expects them to uphold school spirit both in and out of uniform.

“I just love doing it. And I love to perform. And I love my teammates.”

Members of the team commute from all over Sonoma and Marin counties.

“I have a cheerleader that comes from Tamalpais,” Elder said. “I have one that comes from San Rafael. I have three that come from Sonoma.”

Piper Lefson, co-captain and team flyer,

Fields said she learned a lot of lessons from being a cheerleader that she uses in her everyday life.

“I told the cheerleaders: ‘I don’t care what skills you get out of this, cheerleading-wise, I care that you’re a better person coming out of this and that you’ve learned lessons that will help you in your future professions.’”

Beyond cheering at games, the team brings spirit to SRJC at club days and other events they’re asked to attend.

“We try to be involved, and we want to

get other people involved,” Lefson said.

struggle Since Elder began coaching in 2019, she has pushed for an established practice space for her team.

Elder said the cheer team has been flexible about working with the school to find a practice space. They’ve used Tauzer Gym, Haehl Pavilion, a gym on the Petaluma Campus, the SRJC football field and even the parking garage.

At the beginning of summer 2022, Elder and Nick Hill, club sport adviser at the time, established a practice schedule.

The SRJC cheer team is very tight-knit; the cheerleaders regard each other as family.

Hours spent practicing together have proven crucial to building team spirit.

Fall 2023

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Cheerleaders practiced for three-hour evening stints Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Tauzer Gymnasium.. “So then all of my cheerleaders have rearranged work schedules and school schedules around that [practice] time,” Elder said.

Yet at the beginning of the Spring 2023 semester, when the district announced Tauzer Gymnasium would undergo a renovation, the hard-earned schedule disintegrated.

Less than a year after establishing a stable practice space, college officials told the cheer teams that they had to change again to accommodate the campus. “I’m supposed to struggle like this for three to five years, trying to figure out where these poor kids can have safe practices with mats and the things that they need,” Elder said.

Sarah Laggos, the college’s interim director of strategic communications, government and public relations, said Tauzer Gym’s closure limited available space for many campus activities.

“Intercollegiate sports have priority for space usage,” Laggos said.

Sports schedules are released on short notice, causing scheduling complications for practice and game space. “[This] requires shifts in previously available spaces for scheduled games.”

Cheer is not recognized by the California Community College Athletic Association as an intercollegiate sport. Instead, it is classified as a club sport. Club sports fall under Student Services at SRJC. Although the team is a dedicated group of student athletes, their status as club sport puts them at the end of the list. “The cheerleaders are the last people that get consideration for anything,” Elder said.

“The treatment of the cheer team is really disappointing. The amount of disrespect and the lack of support we are given is truly disheartening,” said first-year base Brylee Aubin.

“Football, they have the football field. Basketball, they have Haehl gymnasium. Soccer, there’s a soccer field. Softball, there’s a softball field. There is no specific place for cheer,” Elder said.

Practicing complex and dangerous stunts, tosses and flips requires a wide area with soft mats, Elder said.

On Oct. 10 the cheer team brought their concerns to the Board of Trustees meeting for the second time this year.

Elder told the Oak Leaf she said she wanted the cheerleaders to speak from emotion, to show the trustees their hurt and disappointment. “We don’t have the space of our own to practice as needed,” Aubin told trustees. “Yet we are expected to be at and perform at many school events.”

Lefson told the trustees, “I’m tired of being disrespected by the school.”

To the Oak Leaf, Lefson said the past three semesters have been negative enough that she’s decided to transfer to a different school next year in pursuit of a college that values its cheer team more. “I hope that everybody who comes to the JC after me as a 22

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

SRJC cheerleaders act as a pillar of school spirit and happily show support to every event they are asked to attend. cheerleader can have a better experience than I did,” she said.

Though the semester was painful for Lefson and her teammates, administrators heard their anguish and are finally taking steps to ensure a brighter future for SRJC cheerleaders.

Success One day after the Oct. 10 meeting, Student Life and Engagement Director Miranda called Elder to offer a new location where the cheer team could practice: at the Public Training Safety Center on the SRJC Windsor campus.

Elder said Dean of Academic Affairs Josh Adams heard the concerns the team expressed and contacted Maranda to offer the space. The Windsor campus has a gym with a rollout mat, which will suit the team’s needs.

Fall 2023

The cheer team will practice there from 7-8:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

happen. And we have amazing facilities throughout the county that could be more accessible.”

“SRJC is happy to support the cheer club’s practice needs through the gym at the Public Safety Training Center,” Laggos said.

Elder is relieved that administrators finally heard her team. “This time I really feel it, and now people are … taking notice,” she said.

When asked about the team’s quest to find an appropriate practice space, SRJC President Dr. Angélica Garcia said: “We all think that the Santa Rosa campus is where everything needs to

Assistant coach Fields, who has been involved with SRJC cheer since 2015, said this is the first major step she’s seen the college take to prioritize the cheerleaders.

“This is the first time that the school has actually stepped up to actually provide even a safe space for them,” Fields said. “It’s really nice to see that the school might be coming around to the team. I love every aspect of this team and I just wish that they got the recognition that they deserve.”

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AN INTERVIEW WITH SRJC WOMEN’S SOCCER COACH CRYSTAL CHAIDEZ

CHELSEA KURNICK

By Jaime Jauregui

I

KICKIN’ IT!

n her fourth season as head coach of the Bear Cubs, Crystal Chaidez said she is using all the lessons she learned from her time playing for Sonoma State University and semi-professionally to “solidify my coaching style.”

Coach Chaidez began coaching soccer at Santa Rosa Junior College as an assistant in 2005 and was also an assistant coach at Sierra College from 2011-2013 and SSU from 2013-2015. She credits the head coaches she served under with helping shape who she is as a coach.

The Oak Leaf interviewed coach Chaidez ahead of the team’s second round playoff match-up with Las Positas and asked her about team building, season highlights and what it’s like living in a soccer-centric household.

Note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OL: You were a soccer player for many years. How has your playing career shaped you as a coach?

CC: It’s hard to kind of change from a player mentality to a coach mentality.

That was the biggest thing for me to learn.

In my mid 20s, I moved to Sacramento for four and a half years, and I kind of stopped playing soccer to focus on my coaching career. That was helpful, because I got to focus on who I was as a coach and who I wanted to become as a coach versus who I was as a player.

I think it really helps me to still be playing. The game has evolved so much…the different shapes and the different formations, philosophies, styles and new rules. Being true to who I am as a coach, but also open to new ideas and evolving with the game of soccer, [while] still playing and Watching it at this level is very helpful.

OL: What are some keys to success in building a team chemistry and bond between players in a short period of time, since junior college students are 24

often on the team for two years or less?

CC: That’s the hardest part, especially as a coach — you get attached to [players] and you want to see them grow and develop. Then you gotta let them fly the nest, and you’re so excited, but you also want more time with them.

We usually take an overnight trip somewhere. This year, we did an overnight camping trip in Spring Lake, and I was so blown away at how awesome they are. I was a little nervous to take so many girls camping just for a night. By the time I got there, they had their tents set up; it was really cool to see.

You want to focus on the soccer field, the soccer stuff but [team building] is really such an important piece of developing a program and getting ready for a season. Sometimes doing team building is more important than going on the soccer field.

to see the players invest in themselves and each other. We had a very tough schedule this year.

Last year we focused on teaching the game of soccer, just “knowledge, knowledge, knowledge,” and this year we got into practices, and I got to challenge them. I got to be creative as a coach and get them into drills and training they’ve never experienced before.

I’m really proud of this group to see them go through ups and downs and trust me as their coach and [trust] the whole process and trust their team. I think that’s where we’ve had success the past few weeks. We’ve worked really hard and they’re not going to stop.

Nothing fazes them. I’m the one secretly over here being super nervous, and they’re like, “We got it.”

OL: What were some of this season’s highlights?

OL: I’m interested in your evolution as a coach. What are some valuable lessons you learned or things you are doing differently compared to your first season here at the SRJC?

CC: It’s been such a blur but also really exciting. The biggest thing for me is

CC: Don’t talk to any of my alumni because they’ll say I’m soft now. When Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

I first came here as a head coach, 10 years ago, it was a chance to put together everything I learned from my coaching at different levels. I really wanted to have a program where players can come in, they can be respected…I want to make this a safe place for any female to take a chance on themselves and us.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is adaptation. I’ve had to adapt as a coach every single year — especially from the pandemic, different personalities, different levels coming in every year. What I committed to is just making sure that whatever group I have coming in, I need to adapt and coach to what I have in front of me.

OL: Your team had a remarkable streak of clean sheets in six consecutive games, a total of 540 minutes when no opponent scored. How did your team find its stride?

Bear Cubs defender Elisa Vega takes a shot at Diablo Valley’s goal at their Oct. 24 game. Though she did not score any goals, she, along with other defenders, managed to prevent Diablo Valley from scoring.

PETER MORALES

They are not going to just learn soccer; they’re going to learn life lessons and teach themselves that they can be amazing, powerful young women.

CC: I think it’s a little bit of everything. I sat down with my coaching staff; I value their opinion, and I trust them.

And then I had to do some self-evaluation as well and really look at the team. You get to a point in the season where [something] was working for a while, but [now] clearly it’s not. Are we going to continue on and see what happens or are we going to make small adjustments?

We went to a stopper sweeper [formation], which helped us immensely. It’s such an old-school style. All of a sudden we were like, “OK, this is working.” We’ve obviously reaped some rewards from both sides, from me being open minded and making small changes to them being open minded and really going “All right, if this is what we need to do to be the best team and best program on the field that day, we’re going to do it.”

Teammates help Bear Cubs defender Marisol Vargas up after she tumbled and scored the team’s fifth goal against Diablo Valley on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023 at Santa Rosa Junior College.

PETER MORALES

You could be the best coach and [make] the best decision, or it could be a complete failure.

OL: Soccer is a very big thing in your family. Like you, your husband played soccer at Sonoma State University, and now you both have careers teaching the sport to others. Do you plan to pass your love of soccer down to your kids?

My 7-year-old son loves to play on his own. I want my children to be happy and find — whether that is some other sport, music or anything — that they feel the passion and the love for something just as much as I do soccer.

Cameron Romanik contributed to this reporting.

Fall 2023

Bear Cubs forward Diana Bustos poses for the camera following the team’s victory against Diablo Valley on Tuesday, Oct. 24. She, along with other players, were highlighted as a part of the team’s “Sophomore Day.”

PETER MORALES

CC: I have two sons. One is 11 and the other is 7. The 11-year-old plays a lot of soccer. When he was 3 ½, he would sit on a ball for the entire practice at Sonoma State, just watching. That’s just who he is; we never pushed it, and that’s been his internal drive.

25

WRESTLING RENAISSANCE

By Cameron Romanik

O

n a warm night in London this summer, an estimated 80,000 wrestling fans packed into Wembley Stadium, setting the record for paid attendance in the history of professional wrestling.

Less than five years before the show, in November 2018, the sport hit rock bottom, when four wrestling legends competed at WWE's Crown Jewel show in Saudi Arabia.

In what can only be described as one of the worst pay-per-view matches in the WWE’s storied history, Shawn Michaels and Triple H faced the Brothers of Destruction, the Undertaker and Kane.

COURTESY MCPHAIL CC0 1.0 UNIVERSAL

During WWE’s “attitude era” of the 1990s, these four wrestlers were some of

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the sport’s most important competitors, largely responsible for bringing in an average of 5 million weekly viewers in to Raw, WWE’s flagship show in 2001.

However, by the time of the November 2018 match, the four men were much too old to be wrestling. For nearly half an hour, they bumped around the ring at a snail’s pace, barely pulling off their signature moves.

In the 17 years since 2001, WWE’s viewership had dropped by nearly 67%.

At the same time, WWE was facing significant problems outside the ring, including criticism for its decision to hold the show in Saudi Arabia just a month after 15 Saudi agents killed Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey.

Luckily for fans, a wrestling renaissance was on the horizon. Only two short months after WWE’s disastrous Crown Jewel contest, All Elite Wrestling, commonly known by its acronym, AEW, was launched.

American businessman Tony Khan, together with his billionaire father Shahid Khan, founded the alternative to WWE off the back of an independent show called “All In” in September of 2018. The show featured some of the biggest free agent stars in wrestling and drew in 11,263 fans — the largest nonWWE crowd since 1993 — to the United Center in Chicago. The show sold out in less than 30 minutes and the Khans were quick to use that momentum and fan interest to create a wrestling promotion and get it on TV. Tens of thousands of fans watch on as Chris Jericho wrestles hometown favorite Will Ospreay at Wembley Stadium on Aug. 27, 2023 in London, England.

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

For the first time in decades, WWE had a legitimate competitor on cable television. Like World Championship Wrestling in the 1980s and ‘90s, this competition led to a jump in TV ratings, live attendance, mainstream appeal and earnings for performers.

WWE, there is now at least 12 hours of professional wrestling every week on major cable TV, the most in the industry’s history. So far in 2023, an average of 6.5 million viewers tuned in each week–-the highest viewership in more than 20 years.

AEW introduced its first television show, “Dynamite,” in October 2019, four months after announcing a deal with WarnerMedia to put its weekly show on TNT on Wednesday nights. Shortly after, WWE moved their developmental show, NXT, to those same Wednesday nights, believing they could kill AEW.

Competition has also led to higher salaries and more favorable deals for talents. Not only have wrestlers earned more, but they’ve been able to move from company to company and negotiate better deals for themselves.

Huge names like Cody Rhodes, Adam Copeland and Jade Cargill have successfully leveraged competing offers and signed with the competitors to get more money and more opportunities to be on television.

This battle over ratings became known as the Wednesday Night Wars; Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics documented the differences in the ratings of both shows and which key demographics AEW was winning.

“AEW dominated with younger viewers,” Thurston wrote, “[in the 18 to 49 year old demographic], AEW led on 74 of the 75 nights.” With NXT moving to Tuesday nights, the ratings and interest in both shows only increased. Fans who wanted to be able to watch both shows could now easily do so. Renewed competition led to other benefits as well.

For the past 18 years or so, WWE had acted as a monopoly, buying out and ending competitor’s promotions, ultimately hurting the industry as a whole, with only WWE profiting monetarily.

The return of corporate competition has benefited fans and wrestlers alike.

Since AEW started broadcasting in 2019, the company has added two more shows, one on Friday and one on Saturday, named “Rampage” and “Collision” respectively. Combined with Fall 2023

2023 saw growth in the professional wrestling business for the first time in more than 20 years. While business growth and monetary value is important, the real winners of the competition between WWE and AEW are the fans who love this art form and the performers who make it all possible. Giving fans an alternative to WWE has proven to be the answer to what only a few years ago seemed to be a dying industry. But this time the competition is too big to fail.

With a rise of interest in televised programming, this has also been a record year for live attendance.

AEW started to gain momentum at the start of this summer, in large part due to the unlikely on-screen friendship between top stars Adam Cole and AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman. The two became fan favorites with their weekly skits on “Dynamite” as well as becoming tag team champions of sister promotion Ring of Honor.

Oak Leaf reporter Cameron Romanik enjoys the AEW “All In” wresting show at Wembley stadium on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023 in London, England.

The addition of “Collision” on Saturday nights gave AEW more TV time to tell even more stories as they started to gear up for their upcoming pay-per-view event at London’s legendary Wembley Stadium. The show’s card featured a rare match from the icon Sting and a showdown between multi-time world champion Chris Jericho and young phenom Will Ospreay, which proved to drum up more than enough excitement to nearly fill the over 90,000 capacity stadium on Aug. 27.

Speaking at a post-show press conference, co-founder Tony Khan said, “The original ‘All In’ five years ago was the largest independent pro wrestling show of all time. Today…

AEW ‘All In’ is the biggest pro wrestling show of all time period.”

WWE has also had significant success in live attendance in 2023, mostly due to top champion Roman

COURTESY BENJAMIN CURL

This marked the first time two major wrestling shows had gone head-to-head on the same night and time slot since 2001. “Dynamite” slowly but surely drew viewers away from NXT. Less than two years later, NXT was forced to move to Tuesday nights on the USA Network when the NBC Sports Network shut down. WWE never admitted that the ratings decline played a factor in the scheduling change, but it was clear to fans who followed both companies that it was beneficial to both shows for them to have their own time slots.

Reigns and his “Bloodline” storyline, which saw Reigns turn heel to embrace a darker side of his character and stake his claim as the tribal chief of the Anoa’i family, whose most famous member is none other than The Rock.

This, coupled with captivating new stars like LA Knight and Rhea Ripley, and the new creative direction of Paul Levesque, AKA Triple H, has led WWE to break dozens of its own records in live attendance at venues across the country, with press releases announcing each new record as well as record quarterly earnings in 2023.

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COURTESY MAX MILLAN

SRJC student Max Millan (center) has always had a warped identity, feeling insufficiently Mexican due to living in America for the past 20 years, while also feeling insufficiently American because of his DACA status. Here, in 2002, his mom Linda sits on the stoop of their Mexico City home watching Max and his cousin Frida.

DREAMING IN LIMBO MY DACA EXPERIENCE

W

e often underestimate the power individuals wield over us and their command over our destinies. For me, as a DACA recipient, my status has been tested by such power and control time and time again.

President Barack Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012 to provide immigrants who arrived in the United States when they were young with protection from deportation and a two-year renewable work permit. Through this program, I obtained, for the first time, a shield from the ominous threat of deportation.

Since its inception, DACA has come under legal threat several times, including when President Donald Trump attempted, but failed, to permanently end it in 2017. Its most recent threat occurred in September, when Andrew Hanen, a District Court judge from Texas, ruled DACA unlawful. His deci28

By Max Millan sion left the program open for current applicants like myself, but the fates of hundreds of thousands of people hinges on an eventual final verdict from the Supreme Court.

Would I stay in this country if my family were deported, or would we leave together? Should I confide in others about my status? Should I make my immigrant experience public?

In both situations, as an immigrant and one of nearly 600,000 DACA recipients — colloquially known as “Dreamers” — the control of those in power over my life and destiny has left me feeling numb. While I may be protected from deportation for now, that protection can be snatched away at any moment, and with it, any aspirations I have. Where I live and my ability to legally work and attend school hinges on DACA’s existence. Such an unpredictable legal status has left me trapped in a state of perpetual limbo.

Is college worth continuing if my eligibility to work remains in doubt?

This status has led me to ask myself serious questions:

I was born in Mexico City 22 years ago.

In my earliest memories, I am surrounded by my extended family — a congregation of cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents.

How would I answer questions from authorities if my status reverted back?

Numbness and internal worries lead nowhere. And for every person like myself privileged enough to speak out and benefit from DACA’s protection, millions of other immigrants are not only unprotected from deportation, but may be unwilling to speak out. And for that reason, I’d like to share my story.

Personal Perspective

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

I remember visits to Cancun with my grandparents — my joy at catching a starfish in my bucket at the beach with my cousin, my bravery at petting a baby shark and taking a horseback ride along the beautiful, sandy beaches.

In kindergarten, I was rewarded — or rather bribed — for my academic pursuits with a pet poodle named Pelucha, so I would stop running home from class when my mom dropped me off.

When I was 4, I knelt before a portrait of Jesus Christ my abuelita had in her home, praying for a baby brother. Some time later, I was ecstatic at my parents’ announcement that they were expecting another son.

Within my extended family, I never felt lonely, out-of-place or like I didn’t belong. This radiant aura of welcomeness and sense of community swaddled me and made me feel safe. I remember always feeling protected.

Cookouts, birthday parties and open-air markets, or tianguis, captured the spark and spirit of Mexico for us. Gazing into the eyes of the friends we made here and listening to the symphony of their laughter felt no different than being among family in Mexico.

As a member of this hospitable community, I thrived. I graduated from Casa Grande High School and then attended Santa Rosa Junior College, where I am pursuing a career in public health as a proud first-generation college student.

Most fortunate of all, I was accepted as a DACA recipient.

My success was a blessing. But something often obscured by Dreamers’ success stories is the impact on our parents. Family means the world to my mom and dad, and I’ve been lucky to inherit this trait from them.

But because family means so much to them, it was crushing for my parents to say goodbye to their parents, siblings and cousins in Mexico. For undocumented immigrants in the U.S., leaving home is often a permanent decision; returning to our native country to visit means risking never returning to our home in America. Because of this, our last time face-to-face with family in Mexico was nearly 20 years ago.

What my family lost in being able to look upon the faces of those who they grew up with, they found in phone calls. Calling family in Mexico was a refuge from the pain of not having them at our side.

Sweet and sacred phone calls. Phone calls on our birthdays. Phone calls to say, “Feliz Navidad.” Phone calls to discuss political issues or earthquakes

I don’t remember saying goodbye.

In search of a better life and education for their two young sons, my parents made the decision — like so many families before us — to immigrate to a new country.

We did not speak the language. We did not know the culture. It was just the four of us together — two parents and their 5-year-old and 1-year-old sons. As much a team as we were a family.

Ricocheting from low-paying job to low-paying job, we moved around Sonoma County, living in cramped apartments in Santa Rosa, Healdsburg and Petaluma. Surrounding those ever-shrinking apartments, the vibrancy of local Hispanic Sonoma County communities re-energized the familial connection we longed for.

Fall 2023

COURTESY MAX MILLAN

The shift in quality of life for my parents was profound. In Mexico, my mother worked for tax authorities and my father worked in law enforcement; in America, upon arrival, my mother flipped burgers and my father worked as a produce clerk. Gone were the days when we could rely on the family we lived with to help with expenses. My parents’ wages alone had to be enough for us to survive.

Max Millan perches atop the iconic local Woodstock statue at Snoopy’s Home Ice in Santa Rosa in 2007. Since arriving in Santa Rosa in 2006, Max has been proud to call himself a Bay Area resident and revel in the culture and community of his new home.

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traveling with 50 DACA recipients to Mexico to provide tools to cope with the negative effects of being undocumented by focusing on mental health, cultural training and ancestral herb healing.

COURTESY MAX MILLAN

These projects are among methods Guzman initiated to support immigrants. In the absence of congressional actions to provide DACA recipients with pathways to citizenship, Guzman felt urged to act. “That we often choose to ignore what is in front of us is a choice. I choose to acknowledge it and contribute to the best of my ability,” he said. “As long as you remain in silence, nobody will listen. You must pick up the microphone or the pen and let your emotions out.”

Since Alex Millan (right) was born in 2005, Max (left) and his younger brother have been inseparable. Alex’s goofiness, charm and bullish determination exhilarate and exasperate Max.

or local news updates. Phone calls that always ended with my grandparents blessing me with a “Que Dios te bendiga.”

Both of these losses were crushing, yet my parents rarely cried before my brother and me. Cultural standards prevented them from showing their children excessive emotions, yet their despair was palpable.

“Every individual should be able to succeed and be given the support to do so,” said Rafael Vazquez Guzman, SRJC humanities & religious studies professor and advisor for Movimiento “Every individual should be able to succeed and be given the support to do so,” said Rafael Vazquez Guzman, SRJC humanities & religious studies professor and advisor for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, MEChA for short. “As a 15-year-old, I migrated to this country due to economic and safety reasons. I want every individual who came here like myself to find the support I didn’t get. Some individuals helped me later, but the isolation and fear I experienced when I first arrived, I do not wish it to anyone.”

My parents’ strength always amazes me. I continue my education because of their sacrifices. Their everlasting endurance inspired me to reach out to individuals not only with expertise on immigration, but who have endured and triumphed.

Guzman is also the executive director of Líderes del Futuro Avanzando, an immigration services nonprofit organization that helps immigrants and refugees from Latin America with referrals, consultations, travel, status renewals and scholarships.

These individuals included a professor, a community activist and an immigrant service coordinator knowledgeable on immigration and the services and resources available for students at SRJC.

Líderes del Futuro Avanzando is currently researching the effects of COVID on undocumented students with Dr. Monica Cornejo of Cornell University.

Next spring, as part of their “Sanacion y Cultura” advanced parole program, Líderes del Futuro Avanzando plans on

These conversations were integral to our sense of family. But because of how far apart we were from each other, deaths of family members stung a thousand times over.

My mom’s dad, my abuelito, died in 2019 after suffering from dementia. My dad’s mom, my abuelita, died in 2021 from health complications.

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The Advocates

Guzman acknowledges the fear that immigrant students may face, but encourages them to push forward. “Write to your congresspeople. Let them know how you feel about the subject and demand the passage of the Registry Act. You can call or email your representative. Become involved. And if you can, donate to organizations that support this population,” Guzman advised.

Like Guzman, fellow SRJC faculty member Beatriz Camargo also feels a duty to contribute. She is director of student outreach, onboarding and international student programs at the Undocu-Immigrant-Dream Center.

“It's really been my mission to make sure that everybody can see themselves in a big dream. Even if they don't achieve that dream, they're going to go a long way if they're [reaching toward a] goal,” she said.

Camargo’s SRJC journey began over 20 years ago with her participation in the migrant education program, Adelante, which evolved into working with Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, Puente and the High School Equivalency Program, which assists migrant farm workers with obtaining their GEDs. In fact, 10 years ago, Camargo was a founder of the HEP program.

A self-described “one-stop shop” for undocumented students, the Dream Center provides assistance with DACA renewals, workshops, financial aid and free or low-cost legal support through Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

VIDAS, a non-profit immigrant legal defense organization. It offers HEP graduates a nonresident tuition exemption through California AB540, which allows them to pay the same rate as California residents to attend SRJC. Despite such programs for students, Camargo acknowledged the challenges undocumented students face.

“It’s easy to feel trapped in this confinement of opportunities,” she said.

“But having the confidence to speak with someone that looks like you and telling them your story, it opens up the conversation.”

While proud of the Dream Center’s services, Camargo believes more support is needed.

“It would help to have more staff providing services like visual and in-person support at other sites, where there's definitely students who are undocumented and need support,” she said.

Despite challenges in staffing for the Dream Center, Camargo remains committed to SRJC students because of her personal connection to the college.

“You know, the JC, it’s like my second home,” she said. “I really feel like it’s got a magic. And I think that it’s not just in its beauty of a campus, and its trees and all the new buildings that are beautiful too, but it’s a lot in the staff.”

Karym Sanchez, SRJC alumnus and North Bay Organizing Project lead organizer, also felt a call to action. Like Camargo and Guzman, Sanchez grew up undocumented.

Sanchez helped found North Bay Organizing Project as an SRJC MEChA representative, and he would later work to establish the Latinx Student Congress and MEChA chapters across high schools. At NBOP, he is currently involved in advocating for immigrants, tenants, farmworkers and local community members.

“My advice would be to organize, organize, organize. Put pressure on people.

Tell your stories publicly. Make people feel uncomfortable with the fact that this is going on,” Sanchez said.

His own immigrant experience taught him the importance of advocating for the rights of undocumented people.

“We have to tell people these stories, if not, they’re just going to remain in the shadows,” he said.

That fight continues for him, particularly in working with undocumented students and DACA recipients. “I think one of the things that DACA students have to remember is that DACA wasn’t won because politicians have good hearts,” he said. “They gave us that because we fucking forced them to. We were holding rallies all the time, and we were holding marches, you know, we were getting organized and pressuring them to give us something."

Never give up.

Continue fighting.

These are the resounding messages I have heard, not just from my parents, but from the advocates fighting for immigrants. Growing up as an immigrant, I felt an obligation to maintain a vow of silence over my legal status, even from my closest friends. But that way of thinking doesn’t bring about the justice and change that millions of immigrants in this country seek and deserve.

We carry the dreams of our ancestors on our shoulders in our struggle. For me, my abuelita and abuelito — who everyday I wish I could still call — are eternally by my side. All their dreams, goals and aspirations live within me.

The path forward is through honoring their sacrifices.

A better future is possible, for Dreamers and undocumented immigrants hiding in the shadows. It starts by carrying the torch of hope into the abyss of uncertainty. This hope will remain inextinguishable if we continue to dream and advocate for a better future for ourselves, our loved ones, our community and those who came before us.

That’s the path I intend to take. I hope others will too.

First-gen Santa Rosa Junior College student Max Millan reflects on his DACA journey in Heritage Plaza on campus. Seeking a career in public health, Millan is guided by ancestors’ sacrifices, his parents’ endurance and his accepting North Bay Area community.

Lopez participated in a support group for at-risk youth through the organization Restorative Resources, where Sanchez was a mentor to him. Sanchez had plans to see Lopez the day the boy was killed.

Fall 2023

CHELSEA KURNICK

Sanchez has been involved in community organizing for several years; he was motivated to organize because of the Occupy Wall Street movement, perceived unjust immigrant DUI traffic stops by Santa Rosa Police and the death of Andy Lopez – a local 13-yearold boy who was killed by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy in 2013.

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FADING IN

By Leilany Sosa

I

noticed the first signs of my mother’s illness in 2019.

understand what was already happening or what was to come. I do now.

In one of our weekly calls, I brought up a story I had told her the previous week about how my friend and I skipped out on the opera after only 30 minutes.

She had no recollection of the story. I was adamant that I had talked about it, and my father confirmed I was right.

My mom was equally adamant that she had never heard the story, and it was obvious, even in that small moment, that she had no memory of it.

My mom, Lourdes Sosa, used to be a fierce woman who always stood up for herself and those she loved, even to a fault. She was sharp, always impressing people with the details she could recall about their lives. Before her illness, she could remember directions, even if she had only visited a place once.

Little misses here and there began happening every so often. I chalked it up to fatigue and unimportant details. We even joked about her getting older, but there was a tinge of worry in the back of my mind when those lapses grew more frequent during our weekly chats.

Ever since I watched my grandmother lose her battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, I’ve worried that one day my mother could face the same fate. Yet, I didn’t really believe she would. Not her. She was so healthy — she ate well, exercised, took every vitamin under the sun — and had one of the most photographic memories I’d ever encountered.

I remember an incident when my grandmother, who was visiting from Puerto Rico, asked me a question about our dog, only to run back into the room five minutes later asking the same question. I laughed, telling her, “You just asked me that!” I was 11 then. I didn’t 32

Over the last four years, my family and I have slowly watched those skills fade.

Her long-term memory is still with us, but her short-term memory has taken a beating. She forgets conversations we’ve just had, asking the same questions or repeating the same things moments later. This summer at her grandson’s first birthday, she asked, “Whose birthday party are we at?”

On a recent trip to Disney World in Orlando, she kept forgetting we were staying in her timeshare, not my brother’s home 230 miles away. Although she’d stayed at my brother’s house many times, she kept complimenting him about the timeshare, and we kept reminding her that it wasn’t his house.

Her memories shapeshift into each other, the old melding with the new.

She went to visit a friend a few years ago, but instead of heading to the new home, she drove to the house where her friend lived almost 20 years ago.

At sunset she becomes easily confused and uncertain, a state I learned is called

sundowning. She has to make sure doors and windows are closed, checking them multiple times and repeatedly asking if they are locked. She’s nervous now. She doesn’t trust her surroundings, especially when she’s away from my dad or in unfamiliar places.

I saw what this disease did to my grandmother more than 13 years ago, and even though I know what’s to come, I still can’t imagine my mother reaching that point. I know she will soon forget us and won’t be able to take care of herself. Eventually, her personality will disappear; she will lose the ability to speak and then to even breathe without help from her family and future caretakers.

I’ve always been a take-things-asthey-come type of person. That’s how I’ve decided to handle her battle with Alzheimer’s. It’s a day-to-day struggle, but I’m happy to know there’s still more time. Some days still feel normal, and I’m thankful when my mom seems to still be herself, but I also know it’s only a matter of time. I can stare Alzheimer’s in the face, call it by its name and see the toll it’s taking, but I can’t stop it. My grandmother lived with early-onset Alzheimer’s for 10 years. It’s been four years now since my mom’s first symptoms. So does that mean we only have six years left?

There’s no way to know, of course, and I think my mother is progressing at a slower pace, which I am grateful for. At some point with all dementia patients, Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

N AND OUT C oming to T erms with my M other ' s A lzheimer ' s the person you love is no longer there.

That's the part I'm not ready for — how could anyone be? Being slowly robbed of a parent in front of your eyes — their body exists but their mind is gone — is messy and awful.

IMAGES COURTESY LEILANY SOSA

I learned the term “ambiguous loss” from an NPR article by Alicia Vera. She described her own experience with her mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s, and it was the first time I could connect what I felt to my own situation — actively grieving someone while they are still alive. What a strange space to be in,

physically and emotionally. With Alzheimer’s you lose a person twice.

My mother is only 64. She and my dad live across the country in Florida, and I live in California. The distance between us doesn’t make this situation easy, but my mom loves where she lives, and it’s the last home she really knows and remembers. She and my dad have been married for more than 40 years.

I hope to see them celebrate their 50th anniversary. She’s seen one child marry, and she's become a grandmother. It’s difficult to think about what she’ll miss.

TOP: Lourdes Sosa introduces newborn Leilany to her siblings Hector and Nana in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1989. Photo illustration by Chelsea Kurnick and Will Carruthers. ABOVE: Leilany sits on her dad Wilfredo's lap next to mom Lourdes at a party at a friend's home.

Fall 2023

And although she’ll live to experience more milestones, she might not be mentally present for the birthdays, holidays, weddings and grandchildren to come. There’s already a fog to everything she does now.

There’s a lot to learn from this experience, so I’m trying to be patient with myself and keep an open mind, even though I still falter. I’m trying to make more time for my family, and I’m learning to ask for help along the way. It took me a year to tell any of my friends that my mom was sick. I couldn’t say it out loud. I hated the idea of others having to grapple with the news — people who loved my mom and knew her for decades. I had to write it in an email and send it, because I simply couldn’t say it.

Years into my mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, I no longer mind talking about her disease. The weight grew lighter once the people I love knew, and once it was no longer my secret to carry alone.

I’m trying to enjoy the time I have left with her. I remind myself that from here on out, the memories we make are only for me. I get to keep them. I want my mom to enjoy the rest of the quality life she has left, and I want my dad to know he has done an amazing job raising us and caring for her. I want him to know that whatever happens next, we will figure it out together. For my siblings, I’m excited for all of life’s big events that we will celebrate with our mom, and after she’s gone, the ones we’ll celebrate with each other.

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'

NICHOLAS VIDES

The End Of Act One' One' North Bay Native Drops Debut Album

Matt Farren performs at the Peppermint Club in West Hollywood on Nov. 11, 2023.

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By Nicholas Vides Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

O

Farren didn’t simply write and record one song; he partnered with a producer and dropped a debut pop-rock album that tightropes sing-rapping.

Farren, an actor, writer, director and now singer/songwriter keeps himself relatively busy.

For the first 18 years of his life, he lived in Santa Rosa. “I moved to Los Angeles barely a month after [turning 18] with the hope that I might fulfill my childhood dream of working in the movies,” he said.

As soon as he arrived in the movie-making capital, however, he branched out into additional mediums and is now focusing on music making.

“I have a passion for telling stories that surprise, excite and ignite the same inspiration in others that drove me to L.A. in the first place,” Farren said, “whether it’s through screen, song or lengthy Instagram post.”

That passion led to his album, “The End Of Act One,” which focuses on the culmination of 25 years of his life, Farren said.

It’s all about Relationships None of these songs are about one specific person. “Each borrows from a lot of situations and feelings to communicate an emotional truth that I’ve felt,” he said. “I’m the one who chose to write these words, so if a song makes you sad, you have me to blame.”

Farren’s slightly raspy, inviting voice takes you on an emotional journey in just over 25 minutes.

Each of the nine tracks tell a different story. “‘The Beginning,’ ‘Middle’ and ‘End’ were one song that [my producer and I later] split into three,” Farren said. All three songs were spoken word pieces turned into separate storytelling Fall 2023

Producer Royal Dean’s favorite song on the album is “Time Will Tell.” songs, with Farren dipping in to a low soothing croon.

“While ‘How Bad Can This Night Be’ was written front to back, I liked the opening lyrics and decided to keep writing [it],” Farren said. The song takes you through a date that turns into a lust-filled one-night stand, with an early morning realization that the two are in the same bed still, together.

Farren said the track “A.A.A.” started with a catchy hook, and then he built the song around it. The song crafts a message to either a lover or a platonic relationship: “I’ll keep you safe, like Triple A.” As for the track “High in Disneyland,” he thought, “That would be a funny title. I was drunk writing it and was really just trying to have fun with the whole song,” he said. The result is a tasteful play on being high on having the hots for someone, “I am high in Disneyland, and I’m convinced that you’re a princess.”

Though he wrote all the songs on the album, Farren could not have completed it alone.

Enter a Prince of Production Born and raised in the L.A. area, music producer Royal Dean’s mother taught

COURTESY ROYAL DEAN / LOGAN CHARLES

ne year after releasing his first ever feature-length film, “The Haunting of Hype House,” Sonoma County native Matt Farren wanted to challenge himself in a different medium: music.

him piano from a young age. He learned to play Mozart and other classical music through studious practice.

What really intrigued him, however, was coming up with his own compositions. As a teen, Dean wrote piano songs and recorded original music on his Yamaha keyboard. Just before high school, Dean’s father let him use his laptop to record original music ideas.

He wrote countless tracks and even released a four-track EP mixtape while still in high school.

Equipped with classical piano skills and the technical know-how to create electronic music, Dean began scoring projects. From movie scores to original compositions, Dean enjoys writing music that lets classical and electronic sounds collide.

Dean earned his bachelor’s degree in commercial screenwriting at Cal State Northridge, where he refined his craft and expanded his portfolio. Since graduating, he has scored a wide range of projects from short and feature films to animation shorts and podcast music.

“I met Royal at church actually,” Farren said. “I approached him when I was making a short film named ‘Charlie’ and he was up for the task of composing the short.”

The duo worked on and off with each other for numerous years after, mostly on short films. “While we were working 35

on ‘The Haunting of Hype House,’ I floated the idea of working on music separate from film because I enjoyed working so much with him. Thankfully, he was more than down,” Farren said.

Dean and Farren worked hand-in-hand on various lines and harmonies on the album. Farren brought near-complete song ideas to Dean, who then helped him fill out the harmonies and provide constructive criticism.

“I approached the project feeling confident as a songwriter and [feeling that I had] a well-defined creative vision, and Royal approached it as a talented musician and producer,” Farren said.

With their intersection of talents, motivations and inspirations, Farren said creating the album didn’t feel like work.

The duo met dozens of times from January to October, whenever they had time in their busy schedules to pull the album together.

“We did a lot of notes and fine tuning and that was an intense part [of the process],” Dean said. “It was extremely rewarding to get things dialed in to where we were both happy.”

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Farren and Dean sometimes felt tempted to tinker with each song forever, but learned to go with their gut and just be done. “Matt and I talked a lot about how this album is a lightning-in-a-bottle kind of thing,” Dean said.

Their intuition paid off; the sound is polished but not too precious, benefitting from them not overthinking it.

An Album Is Born On Nov. 10, 2023, Farren dropped his album on all streaming platforms.

The next day, he performed the whole album at The Peppermint Club in West Hollywood at a gig produced by the organization Breaking Sound. The organization chooses up-and-coming artists to perform at popular small venues to help showcase new music.

“I applied to be a featured artist by showing them a few of the songs we’d released, a few live performances I’ve done on TikTok and by sharing a little bit about my experience,” Farren said.

Farren was accepted, and he jumped at the chance to perform on Nov. 11 — his 25th birthday.

NICHOLAS VIDES

Matt Farren takes a bow after performing “High in Disneyland” at the Peppermint Club in West Hollywood on Nov. 11, 2023.

“I’m thrilled that [the concert] was there,” Farren said. “It was such a beautifully intimate place to play, and a great place to perform the EP for the first time live.”

Farren and Dean were accompanied by drummer Jacob Nightingale, bassist Steven Hadrych III, electric guitarist Michael Blouin and accompanying vocalist Hendry.

“We managed to bring the fine details of the album to life, which made me very happy,” Dean said. “My favorite [song] to perform was ‘How Bad Could This Night Be.’ I loved hearing the harmonies come to life in person.”

Reflecting on the title of the album, Farren said, “It’s called ‘The End of Act One’ because that’s how I’ve seen my life the past few years, nearing the end of the beginning of my story.”

Dean and Farren are both relieved that the album release is now behind them.

“That is the beauty of art, of expression and of this album. We put raw emotion and passion into this album, and I hope as you listen you hear that same emotion and passion.” Dean said. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Oak Leaf Magazine | theoakleafnews.com

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Atlanta Underground Rap Rundown

By Jordan Atallah

Rosemary Cromwell contributed to this article.

OsamaSon

A

n artist who recently blew up from the underground scene, OsamaSon has a sound that has been compared to and criticized for how similar it is to fellow underground rapper Ken Carson’s. Earlier this year, he dropped his debut album, titled “Osama Season.”

His music videos on YouTube are quickly becoming popular, receiving more than 500,000 views in the past five months.

OsamaSon knows how to use autotune to his advantage, like artists Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD and Playboi Carti. If he continues on this track, we might have another star in the “rage” beat scene, which currently contains more mainstream rappers like Yeat and Ken Carson.

With a rumored EP on the way with fellow underground rapper Glokk40Spaz, fans will potentially have a new project to buzz about before the end of the year.

Check out his EP “Osama Season.” Top track “X & Sex” has been streamed more than 2 million times on Spotify.

Tylerfuckinjai

Molly Santana

orn in Memphis and raised in Atlanta, this 24-year-old rising star is catching steam in the underground world. She has performed in 30 concerts this year and most notably hosted a show for recently deceased rapper Lil Keed.

M

B

Tylerfuckinjai started making music during the COVID-19 pandemic and gained traction almost instantly. With her party-like sound and heavy autotuning, fans get pumped when she releases new tracks.

Her YouTube channel, which features her music videos and vlogs of her busy Atlanta life, has accrued more than 23,000 views in three years.

With fans filling up each show and anticipating her to drop new music in December, TFJ is a future star to look out for in 2024.

Her sound is comparable to Playboi Carti’s.

To get a feel for her signature autotuned vocals and a party-like beat, check out her 2023 song “OH REALLY!”

olly Santana is popular on social media, and fans want her featured on Playboi Carti’s album, rumored to be dropping soon.

With two albums and one EP released in the past two years, and with her social media presence gaining traction, Santana could be a new star in the female rap scene to rival popular artists like Sexxy Redd, Ice Spice and Doja Cat. The only thing stopping Molly Santana from becoming more popular is her lack of music.

Her own style of “rage” rap could also be considered party-like with a soft sounding tone. It makes her stand out with a different voice that isn’t comparable to anyone else in the underground scene, and it keeps fans coming back for more.

To get a feel for her sound, check out her latest album, “Mélange.” The track “North Pole” has more than 50,000 streams.

qwertyuioGphfAtlantai Fall 2023

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VIDEO GAMES OF 2023

By Eri na Corl

TOP 5 5

Resident Evil 4 Remake

COURTESY CAPCOM

The last few years have been chock full of remakes; every previous generational classic has been deemed old enough for a recreation in newer consoles. None has been able to consistently knock it out of the park like Capcom has in the “Resident Evil” series, with “Resident Evil 4” being the most recent release. Capcom was able to take the game that revolutionized the third-person shooter and reinvent it through a modern lens without losing its core philosophy — to create a tightly paced rollercoaster through a horror classic.

4 COURTESY ERINA CORL

Hi Fi Rush

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Released suddenly on the Xbox Game Pass with only a trailer that came out on the same day, the rock-and-roll rhythm action title hit the gaming world by storm. The game takes a thrilling character action game and combines it with the sort of precision needed in rhythm games. “Hi Fi Rush ‘’ has an incredibly satisfying skill ceiling to climb if you wish to master its mechanics. It also features music from iconic bands like “Nine Inch Nails,” “The Prodigy” and “The Black Keys.” Its cell-shaded art style makes every scene feel fresh out of a comic book or cartoon from the 2000s, creating a throwback not often seen in video games with backing from companies as big as Microsoft.

Oak Oak Leaf Leaf Magazine Magazine || theoakleafnews.com theoakleafnews.com

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

COURTESY NINTENDO

Nintendo’s sequel to “Breath of the Wild” builds upon the masterful open world of the first game but with triple the verticality. Giant islands pepper the skies along with a brand-new toolkit of powers, letting the player create elaborate machines to solve any problem they come across. Now any challenge can be solved by either walking through the door, reversing time or building a massive death vehicle that will burn monsters to a crisp. The engineering and physics is a sort of game-dev magic Nintendo is best at, finely polished to let you make almost anything within the simple framework presented to you. And it has a level of smoothness viewed as almost impossible compared to other physics-based video games. It’s the Legend of Zelda’s exploration with a dash of engineering.

2

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

COURTESY ERINA CORL

Speaking of engineering, “Armored Core Six” is the pinnacle of mecha combat. The intense customization combined with lightning-fast gameplay allows you to shape your mech to your own specifications, playing out the mercenary fantasy in a massive coffin of metal. You can go in guns blazing with two miniguns for arms or try to go for a real challenge and punch every enemy you see. While some builds are more viable than others, they are all equally as fun. It is From Software at its best and most interesting, foregoing its more fantasy stylings to form an industrial planet of fire and ruin where you are not the classic mecha anime hero, just a gun for hire.

1

Anyone interested in video games for the last few months probably knows there was only one game that could end up on top. Larian Studio’s “Baldur’s Gate 3” is so unfathomably big, so well crafted that players heavily debated whether games can even be made at this scale again without completely destroying most game studios. All three acts make up the length of some major triple-A video games in sheer content and storytelling, each expertly crafted to create the closest I’ve ever felt to playing a game of D&D with friends in a virtual setting. “Baldur’s Gate 3” is everything anyone can ever want when imagining the term “role playing game,” and for that it is the must-play game of the year. A crowning jewel of seven years worth of game development that shines above the stiff competition of 2023.

Fall Fall 2023 2023

COURTESY ERINA CORL

Baldur’s Gate 3

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Fall 2023

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