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Fall Issue 4
December 9, 2022
THESCENEFP.COM
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‘Krampus’ movie review See page 2
Best holiday memories See page 3
St. Louis Community College at Forest Park
Child-care center nears completion
Photo by Shengnan Gao
Chess Club President Yasir “Cherry” Ali, left, demonstrates a move for Una Rodgers in the Forest Park Writing Center.
Chess anyone? Club returns to campus By Shengnan Gao The Scene staff The World Chess Hall of Fame is only two miles from Forest Park, so it makes sense for the campus to have a chess club. And now it does. A handful of students have organized the new Forest Park Chess Club. They’re inviting others to join. “I always enjoy the concept of chess,” said Yasir “Cherry” Ali, 19, a network engineering major. “Every move is important. One day, I walked into the writing center, saw a chess board and started playing by myself. That is the moment when I came up with the idea of starting a club.” Forest Park has had both official and unofficial chess clubs over the years. This one is official, according to Campus Life employee Tanya Carr. “They have turned in all their paperwork,” she said. So far, the club has four members. They play from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Seminar Room of the library. One member is general transfer studies student April Green, 19, who is also a columnist for The Scene. “Chess is fun and challenging,” she said. “I like the struggle of the game, like strategizing. You learn from losing. “I’m very excited about the club. I made a couple of friends through chess. It takes a little while to finish a game like chess. It’s a good way to know someone. I hope people can enjoy it.” The club’s adviser is B.K. Kolar, a writing tutor who first brought the chess board to the writing center. Kolar learned chess at age 4 and played on teams in high school and college. “There’s already been more interested people (at Forest Park) than I expected,”
Kolar said. “Quite a few strong players around, and most importantly, there are lots of students who want to learn. “It’s not that difficult to become decent in chess. A lot of students have come knowing nothing and just started playing regularly. Some people who just started playing at the beginning of this semester are already quite decent.” St. Louis has a long history with chess. It began in 1886, when the city hosted a segment of the first World Chess Championship, according to the St. Louis Chess Club website. That club was founded in 2008. Six years later, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating St. Louis as the National Chess Capital. “At its core, the game is about successfully navigating life,” according to the St. Louis Chess Club website. “The choices we face as individuals and as a city may not always be as black and white as the spaces on the chessboard. The decision to play, however, is an easy one.” Kolar, the Forest Park Chess Club adviser, teaches classes as a scholastic instructor with the St. Louis Chess Club. “I hope I can do some teaching here (at the college), help people who want to learn,” Kolar said. “Other than that, hopefully I can help cultivate a fun chess atmosphere and focus on our chess community, where everyone is collaborating to improve. “Whenever people are playing games, it is very easy to focus on winning or losing. That’s part of it. It’s fun to win and less fun to lose, but at the same time, losing can be a valuable experience.” Students who are interested in playing chess should just show up for a game and not worry about their inexperience, according to Kolar.
See Chess page 4
By Obersy Robles Valdez The Scene staff It’s been more than 12 years since Forest Park closed its child-care center, causing widespread controversy in the campus community. The college announced last year that it would bring back the center, and officials now expect it to open during spring semester. “Not only is it a teaching center for children, but it is also a teaching center for our own students,” said Julie Fickas, campus president. Fickas was referring to plans for center staff to include students majoring in early childhood education. That will allow them to get hands-on experience in the field. At any given time, the center will be able to accommodate 60 children, including those of students, faculty and staff. “I believe that it’s a great idea,” said biology major Clarisse Gibonio, 18, a student who has a friend with a newborn baby. Workers have been renovating the physical education building on campus for close to a year, turning 10,000 of its 19,000 square feet into the child-care center. The total cost is estimated at $10 million.
The center will consist of a lobby, classrooms, a conference room, playroom and an outdoor playground where the softball field used to be. “It will be organized with brand new signs,” Fickas said. “When people walk in, we want to give that experience of being at home and being in a comfortable environment.” The remaining 9,000 square feet of the P.E. building will provide reduced space for fitness activities, including a yoga room, updated weight room and new gym that is smaller than the original. The indoor swimming pool will remain intact. Programs and services at Forest Park’s child-care center will be modeled after the one on the Florissant Valley campus, according to Mariela Tapia-Alpaslan, St. Louis Community College manager of engineering and design. “The child-care center will have dedicated offices and a conference room for faculty and staff,” she said. STLCC plans to pay for the project with a $4 million Missouri Department of
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Provided photo
College personnel tour the construction site of the new Forest Park childcare center in the physical education building on campus.
Opinion
Get in the Christmas spirit with ‘Krampus’ Worth the Hour?
By Markell Tompkins The Scene staff Nothing gets me more in the holiday spirit than bundling up in warm clothing, taking a few sips of Sprite-cranberry and watching a family come together and fight a demon goat and his minions. “Krampus” is a horror-comedy Christmas movie from 2015 that’s based on the European legend of an anti-Santa figure with the same name. Young Max writes a letter to Santa Claus, asking him to restore Christmas spirit to his dysfunctional and obnoxious family. But then in a fit of rage, Max tears it up, inadvertently summoning Krampus and henchmen. In the end, the family comes together to protect each other from being attacked and abducted. The movie begins by showing the real-life horrors of commercial Christmas. There’s a stampede at Mucho Mart with shoppers charging into the mall in slow motion while trampling over employees. While the Bing Crosby song “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot
Like Christmas” plays in the background, chaos ensue. In a matter of minutes, with fights breaking out in stores, kids bawling their eyes out on Santa’s lap, security guards dragging and zapping people with tasers, checkout lines stretching for miles, customers hoping their credit cards won’t be declined and employees taking their sweet time to ring up items. Soon the movie transitions to the main character, 12-year-old Max (Emjay Anthony), slapping a character in a Christmas play silly in front of a nativity scene. Max’s parents, Tom (Adam Scott) and Sarah (Toni Collette), rush to the stage, trying to break up the fight. In the front row, we see Max’s sister, Beth (Stefania Owen), smiling from ear to ear while watching her brother. Back at the family’s house, we meet German grandmother Omi (Krista Stadler) preparing for a “very” memorable dinner with Max’s boorish extended family. Max is frustrated with his cousins teasing him about his belief in Santa Claus and tearfully tears up his letter to Santa. This puts an end to Max’s Christmas spirit and subjects him and his family to the antics of Krampus, who appears as a giant goat. A mystery bag is left at the front door along with a parcel delivery. The next morning, the family wakes up to a blizzard with no power in the house. Beth gets worried and asks her parents if she can go out to check on her boyfriend. While Beth is walking, we see the neighborhood looking like a ghost town with snow and ice everywhere. She notices a large goatlike creature wearing a tattered red cloak, hopping roof to roof in the distance. Scared, Beth tries to run away, but the
creature is catching up with her. In a lastditch effort to escape, she hides under a delivery truck. Krampus stands in front of the truck, knowing Beth is underneath it, but he doesn’t harm her. Instead, he leaves behind a sinister Jack-in-the-box that attacks and abducts her. Back at the house, Max and His family are getting worried about Beth being gone so long. His dad and Uncle Howie (David Koechner) arm themselves and go out to check on her and her boyfriend. The horror begins in earnest as they search the neighborhood, then Howie is attacked by something that erupts from beneath the snow. Tom saves Howie, and the two manage to return with frostbite and bloody bite marks on Howie’s legs. Omi tells the family of her experience with Krampus, illustrated by an animated flashback to her childhood. Tom and Uncle Howie decide to board up the windows for safety. Soon toys from the mystery bag and attic (a Christmas angel, Jack-in-the-box, gingerbread cookies, a robot and elves) come to life and begin attacking and ultimately abducting family members one by one. Those left in the house plan a desperate escape and run for an abandoned truck, with Omi staying behind to sacrifice herself
and delay Krampus. Max and his cousin, Cherub (Ivy George), reach the truck, but Cherub is abducted by an elf. Krampus drops Max’s torn-up Christmas letter at Max’s feet and runs back to his sleigh. Max apologizes for losing his Christmas spirit, then Krampus snatches him by the head and drops him into a bottomless pit. The movie ends with Max waking up on Christmas morning in his own room and going downstairs to find that all is well and everyone is opening gifts. A bell ornament engraved with the name “Krampus” reminds him to keep his Christmas spirit. There’s also a surprise at the end that I won’t spoil. As a horror-comedy Christmas movie, “Krampus” is entertaining. It tackles holiday stereotypes in an amusing way. The horror is more suspense with very little gore. It’s still scary, but most characters disappear by getting sucked up chimneys, pulled under snow or otherwise exiting in cartoonish ways rather than being outright killed. “Krampus” is rated PG-13 and includes obscenities. I recommend it for teenagers and young adults. It might be too scary for younger children. To me, it’s worth the hour on a chilly winter evening and a great addition to any holiday movie rotation.
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Business and web manager: Frenchette Prince Circulation: Zacchaeus Windham Editor: Theodore Geigle Reporters/photographers: Markell Tompkins, Leilani England, Obersy Robles Valdez, Michelle Compton, Shengnan Gao, Deborah Moss, April Green Layout: Gracie Ebenhoh, Evans Agyemang Faculty advisers: Teri Maddox, Fred Ortlip
The Scene is a publication written and designed by students at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110. The office is in West wing, Room 413. The telephone number is (314) 644-9140. The email address is the_ scene_fp@yahoo.com. All text, photos, graphics and other content are property of The Scene and may not be used without permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of St. Louis Community
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College, its Board of Trustees or administration. The Scene welcomes opinion pieces and letters to the editor. They should be signed and include the writer’s student or staff number. They can be mailed to the above addresses or delivered by hand. We reserve the right to edit for length and taste. The Scene will run classified ads for students free of charge. They should be submitted in the manner described above.
December 9, 2022
Campus chatter Rebekkalyn Ross, 19, biology “Opening gifts with my family on Christmas Day. Also, my family does a 5K run on Thanksgiving.”
Micah Newman, 27, radiology technician “Spending time with my family on Christmas. It’s just what we always do. Nothing too crazy.”
Gabby Turner, 18, nursing “Thanksgiving. It’s always a laid-back environment, a bunch of food. It’s just good vibes in general.”
Javan Ramos, 21, nursing “I have family all over the country, so I remember one Christmas me and my family got together in Chicago. I hadn’t seen my family for a long time, so it was really nice. My family came from California and Texas.”
Sadie Malks,18, general transfer “Hanging out with my friend on Halloween who I’ve known since I was 4. We’ve always managed to stay friends, and it’s real nice, and every Halloween we would trick-or-treat, and when we’re done, we hang out. It’s like a tradition. Even though soon we’re both probably going to different states, we’re going to hopefully uphold the tradition.”
Emily Tabakovic, 19, general transfer “We celebrate Ramadan, so around Christmastime, I see everyone have their own experience with that, but when it comes to our time, it’s so much fun. We actually fast, and during the nighttime, breaking our fast and just enjoying it all together as a family. As kids, we got our version of Christmas gifts through that, like candies and toys and stuff and having that was always a big thing for me.”
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE
HOLIDAY MEMORY? By Markell Tompkins
Alex Newcomb, 18, general transfer “My family doesn’t really do holiday things, but I think my favorite memory was when we found out that we didn’t have any garland to put on the tree, so we cut paper strips and stapled them together to make a paper ring garland.”
Alexius Cunningham, 19, film “Going to see the Christmas lights with the family. We drive around the neighborhood to look at the lights.”
December 9, 2022
Aaron Shelton Academic Success and Tutoring manager “One Christmas when I was 11, I was extremely good at opening presents without anyone seeing it. I could pull back that tape real slow … So I found out what everybody was getting for Christmas, and I told my older brother, and he told my little brother to tell my mother, and she took back absolutely every one of my presents. I was 11, and that destroyed me. I couldn’t believe my mom did that. I told my brother, ‘I’ll get you one day.’ But that Christmas, my grandmother came to visit us from California, and she must have had a talk with my mother. So my grandmother actually bought me so many Star Wars toys. It was one of the best Christmases ever.”
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Parima Mohammad Ali, 34, nursing “Ramadan is something that we celebrate one month of every year for eternity. We can’t eat from 4:30 in the morning until sunset, until dark. You are fasting. You can’t eat anything or drink anything. It’s like 15 or 18 hours. Then after 30 days of Ramadan, everyone is happy about the good things that are coming. We celebrate three days of Eid.”
Marlene Reese, 59, nursing “I was born and raised Catholic, and we would always go to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and they would do breakfast, and we’d have pancakes and stuff at church. When we got home, we got to open up one gift. I had one brother and four sisters and my mom, my dad. It was nice. We’d open one gift then go to bed and open up the rest of them the next morning.”
Taylor Brown, 16, general transfer “On Halloween, when we went trunkor-treating for the first time at church. They had a whole bunch of stuff. They had pumpkin-carving. You just went around getting candy from the trunks. They had hayrides. I don’t remember much, but it was special still.”
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Center Elementary and Secondary Education grant that uses funds from the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act. The remaining $6 million will come from the college’s capital fund budget. Officials originally expected renovations to be completed by December, but supply chain issues caused delays, Tapia-Alpaslan said. She expects work to resume next month. “We are shooting for the child-care center to open sometime in the spring next year,” Tapia-Alpaslan said. The former Forest Park Children’s Center opened in 1995, giving students, faculty and staff a place to leave their children while attending classes or working. Services were cheaper than those at private facilities.
Many people were caught off guard on Nov. 19, 2009, when the STLCC board voted to follow an administrative recommendation and close child-care centers on the Forest Park and Meramec campuses, even though it wasn’t on the meeting agenda. “In reviewing the overall operations of the college, and with more and more individuals seeking our services, we must put dollars toward initiatives that improve the learning outcomes and academic achievement of all our students, as well as those that address evolving workforce needs,” Trustee Joan Ordinachev explained at the time. The college was reportedly spending $600,000 a year subsidizing the Forest Park and Meramec child-care centers, including
$53,400 to rent an off-campus building near Forest Park. They were serving the children of 209 students, faculty and staff in 2009. The Forest Park center closed on June 30, 2010. Housekeeping employees threw away bins full of games, toys, books and other items. The STLCC board decision was publicly criticized by center managers and parents whose children were enrolled. “The center is the only reason why I was
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able to change my personal situation and start school and complete my dream of becoming a lawyer,” said former student Daniella Yussupbek. “Personally, I consider this discrimination against single parents and low-income families. “Students were crying after hearing the speeches of each other’s personal stories of how their life goals and dreams will have to change as a result of closing the center.”
Photo by Markell Tompkins
Equipment sets idle due to supply chain delays for construction on the new Forest Park child-care center in the physical education building.
Chess Cookie sculpture
Photo by Michelle Compton
Culinary arts students Eddie Jackson, 29, of East St. Louis, left, and Bill Hellite, 42, of St. Louis, make a cookie sculpture for a contest as part of a baking and pastry class.
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Everyone is welcome to play chess on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Only STLCC students can join the Forest Park Chess Club and participate in special events such as pizza parties and tournaments. Special events will include special events, such as pizza parties and tournaments. For more information, contact Ali at 314556-8188 or yali6@my.stlcc.edu.
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from page 1 “My club is targeted towards beginners,” Ali said. “It would be easier for people to start at the end of the semester so that they would be interested in the second. “I would like to bring everyone together and have a good time. Nothing’s going to be super competitive. The most we are going to have is small, mini tournaments.”
December 9, 2022